Hi all, I'm waiting for one last appointment then hopefully I'll get my sleeve date! Wondering if anyone has heard this. If you have the sleeve and have an abscess tooth it can go into your sleeve and cause complications? Anyone hear this?

You should not go into surgery until your teeth are free of infection. I spent over $1000 on my dental health early this summer so that I would qualify for weight loss surgery. I would take care of your teeth ASAP because they will push your date back until you take care of it. My date could not be set until my dentist faxed my bariatrician a letter indicating that I was 100% free of infection.

@WLWARRIOR, good info to know. Just wondering how did your bariatric surgeon know about your dental problems?

It would sure be easier to resolve a dental issue with antibiotics than an issue post-op with a sleeve. Both times that I had a knee replacement, I was told to not have any dental work or invasive procedure without taking an antibiotic first - for two full years. My sleeve surgeon did not say anything, but my dentist knows the drill.

Having an abscessed tooth is bad for you in general, which I learned the hard way a few years ago. My tooth totally blew up my face and in less than a few hours I had a lip the size of a softball. Realistically, you don't want to enter into any surgery with any form of infection, however a cavity and an abscess are very different things. You don't need to be in perfect dental health, you just don't want to have anything that will make it even harder for your immune system to recover from the surgery. Outside of that, teeth that are in poor health can cause everything from cardiac problems to a brain abscess...when I found all of that out I was beyond thankful for the magic of modern antibiotics!

So unfortunately I've got some experience in this area.... I got a tooth root abscess 1 week after VSG. Totally out of the blue as I hadn't had any dental problems prior to surgery, or since. I did not want to risk the infection traveling from my tooth to my sleeve staple line and setting up an abscess. Surgeon and dentist agreed so I took clindamycin for 10 days. Tooth infection cleared up and all seemed well. About 3 weeks later I broke with diarrhea. PCP immediately suspected C. Diff infection because of the recent antibiotics. He was right.

Long story short, 9 weeks of diarrhea, 2 rounds of metronidazole ( that made me very sick), 2 rounds of vancomycin ( which is insanely expensive), 3 rounds of IV fluids due to dehydration and finally a fecal transplant before I was cured. Still, all that was better than a sleeve abscess, but if there is any way to avoid taking antibiotics for ANYTHING postop I'd take precautions.

Thank you everyone for your time and info! I had 2 teeth removed yesterday they were beyond repair! I was also put on antibiotics for the next 10 days but my surgery won't. E for at least a month or 2 but I do want to take care of everything now and I hate the dentist!!!

Thank you everyone for your time and info! I had 2 teeth removed yesterday they were beyond repair! I was also put on antibiotics for the next 10 days but my surgery won't. E for at least a month or 2 but I do want to take care of everything now and I hate the dentist!!!

I'm glad you got your teeth removed before they caused you more trouble. The paperwork that I had to fill out at the beginning of this process had a section to complete on dental health. I was honest and wrote in that my teeth didn't cause me any discomfort or pain, but I did know that a few teeth were broken off in the back.

During my first appointment with the bariatrician, he went over my paperwork and noticed what I wrote in the dental section. He inspected my teeth and agreed that I had broken teeth way in the back. Honestly, I was quite upset when he said that I would have to get them fixed and furthermore, would not clear me for surgery until I got a letter from my dentist claiming that my teeth were in good condition.

The dentist found quite a few things wrong with my teeth. This was surprising since my teeth felt fine. I had some small cavities between my teeth and the teeth in the back had to be surgically removed. Supposedly, even a small cavity is an infection and one should not undergo surgery with any source of infection.

My dental work took about seven trips to the dentist and I was lucky enough to get it all done in less than two months. I was so relieved when it was all done. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have bothered going on my own accord because I wasn't in any discomfort at all.

Thank you for sharing your story, WARRIOR.

Thank you for sharing your story, WARRIOR.

Glad to read you are getting it taken care of.