FraidyCat
senior
- Joined
- May 31, 2013
- Messages
- 265
- Age
- 74
- Gender
- Female
- Country
United States
Hi folks; I am back, after an approximately two-year hiatus that began when I cancelled my scheduled hip replacement in the spring of 2014. The main reason I chickened out was the emphatic mandate the surgeon and my dentist were both giving, that being that antibiotics would be required for my lifetime before any invasive dental procedure, including tooth-cleanings, which I'm told I need to have three times a year. With a not-that-distant history of C. difficile colitis, caused by clindamycin, one of the top antibiotics used by dentists (though I was given the drug following tear-duct surgery), I felt I was being forced to choose between hip surgery and a recurrence of C. diff.
Fast-forward to now. Since December, my hip pain has worsened. In addition, I've had an increase in low-back pain, which the surgeon thinks is probably related to the condition of the hip. Also, I no longer perceive my gait as normal (and others also comment on my "limp"). So I've been re-motivating myself to have hip replacement within the next few months. I'd thought that this time around I'd be spared some of the exhortations that antibiotics "must" be taken prior to routine dental cleanings, as the American Dental Association has recently issued new guidelines saying they no longer consider this necessary, especially in light of the rise of "superbugs" due to overuse of antibiotics. However, at two high-volume joint-replacement facilities in the Boston area (I'm planning to choose between them for the surgery), it's as though time has stood still, as the ortho departments at each still emphasize the "need" for prophylactic antibiotics for "lifetime" to avoid the "rare but catastrophic" potential for infection. I'm starting to feel the same stress as I did before I cancelled the hip op two years ago. And to wonder if I will need to choose between ending up, at a relatively young age, dependent on a walker or in a wheelchair due to no longer being able to walk due to hip pain, and subjecting myself to the risk of a potentially fatal (and definitely debilitating) dysenteric infection due to the "antibiotics" mandate.
My understanding is that in U.K. and Canada (to name the couple of countries I've read about) the "antibiotics" mandate is no longer favored by ortho doctors, whereas in the U.S. they are still clinging to it -- perhaps to cover themselves from the remote possibility of being sued should someone happen to get an infection after dental work, either causually or coincidentally -- and in the process, scaring the daylights out of anyone who doesn't go along with it.
Hoping to hear from others, whether in the U.S., U.K., or elsewhere, with regard to what you've been told about this issue and how you're handling it, if it's a concern that you share.
Fast-forward to now. Since December, my hip pain has worsened. In addition, I've had an increase in low-back pain, which the surgeon thinks is probably related to the condition of the hip. Also, I no longer perceive my gait as normal (and others also comment on my "limp"). So I've been re-motivating myself to have hip replacement within the next few months. I'd thought that this time around I'd be spared some of the exhortations that antibiotics "must" be taken prior to routine dental cleanings, as the American Dental Association has recently issued new guidelines saying they no longer consider this necessary, especially in light of the rise of "superbugs" due to overuse of antibiotics. However, at two high-volume joint-replacement facilities in the Boston area (I'm planning to choose between them for the surgery), it's as though time has stood still, as the ortho departments at each still emphasize the "need" for prophylactic antibiotics for "lifetime" to avoid the "rare but catastrophic" potential for infection. I'm starting to feel the same stress as I did before I cancelled the hip op two years ago. And to wonder if I will need to choose between ending up, at a relatively young age, dependent on a walker or in a wheelchair due to no longer being able to walk due to hip pain, and subjecting myself to the risk of a potentially fatal (and definitely debilitating) dysenteric infection due to the "antibiotics" mandate.
My understanding is that in U.K. and Canada (to name the couple of countries I've read about) the "antibiotics" mandate is no longer favored by ortho doctors, whereas in the U.S. they are still clinging to it -- perhaps to cover themselves from the remote possibility of being sued should someone happen to get an infection after dental work, either causually or coincidentally -- and in the process, scaring the daylights out of anyone who doesn't go along with it.
Hoping to hear from others, whether in the U.S., U.K., or elsewhere, with regard to what you've been told about this issue and how you're handling it, if it's a concern that you share.
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