Bacteremia after supragingival scaling and dental extraction: Culture and molecular analyses

Objective To study the incidence and magnitude of bacteremia after dental extraction and supragingival scaling. Subjects and methods Blood samples were taken before and 5 and 30 min after dental extraction and supragingival scaling from individuals at high (n = 44) or negligible risk (n = 51) for infective endocarditis. The former received prophylactic antibiotic therapy. Samples were subjected to aerobic and anaerobic culture and quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction to determine the incidence of bacteremia and total bacterial levels. Results Patients who did not receive prophylactic antibiotic therapy had a higher incidence of positive blood cultures (30% 5 min after extraction) than patients who received prophylactic antibiotic therapy (0% 5 min after extraction; p