State of the art regarding anticoagulant and thrombolytic therapy in dental procedures

Patients with anticoagulant therapy have a high thromboembolic risk. Due to the rich oro-maxillofacial vasculature and the fact that some dental procedures may cause a bleeding, the physician should be able to correlate this risk with the hemorrhagic risk. Dental procedures are a trigger for psychic stress. One of the most important changes in acute stress is in cardiovascular system. In healthy patients, these changes are reversible and have no significant consequences, but in patients with cardiovascular diseases, the response to the catecholamine stress can cause organic lesions resulting in an acute myocardial infarction or stroke. This review explores in a concise manner the biochemical changes concerning anticoagulation and thrombolytic treatment in dental procedures.