I thought this might interest the clinicians and some of the patients
here.

For those who followed the subject of antibiotic prophylaxis to
prevent endocarditis after dental procedures in the UK, the guidelines
from the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy issued last
year severely limited the cases where antibiotic prophylaxis for
dental procedures should be used. A cadre of cardiologists presented
some serious objections to the new guidelines and asked the National
Institute for Clinical Excellence to examine the subject and issue
guidance.
It took approximately a year for NICE to complete their report, during
which British dentists were left in a professionally and legally
uneasy situation - do you follow the guidelines of the BSAC or the
cardiology society?
The recommendations by NICE not only upheld BSAC's guidelines, but
went a step further and eliminated the need for AB prophylaxis
entirely. The evidence they used to reach their conclusion was:
There is no consistent association between dental procedures and
infective endocarditis
Toothbrushing causes repetitive bacteraemia that would be more
dangerous than an isolated dental procedure.
Antibiotic prophylaxis has no proven effectiveness against
endocarditis.
Fatal anaphylaxis from antibiotics occurs more frequently than
endocarditis.

I think this will be good for patients, especially the "high risk"
category which under the old guidelines found dental treatment
extremely hard (they had to be treated in hospitals or specialist
centres even for simple procedures).

Regards,
George