When treating patients with hypertension in the oral health care setting, the goals are to develop and implement timely preventive and therapeutic strategies compatible with the patient’s physical and emotional ability to undergo and respond to dental care, the patient’s social and psychological needs and desires; and limitations imposed on the clinical process by disease-specific, procedure specific, and functional capacity-related risk factors.
In view of the available data suggesting that blood pressure-related risks associated with dental procedures appears to be low or very low, once the need for dental intervention has been established, the assessment of patient-specific factors and the patient’s functional capacity provide the best information for cardiovascular risk stratification. Finally, OHCP are in a unique position to play a pivotal role in a hypertension-related wellness program.
