Palpitations after having dental work

PVC's

by Good Dog - 2020-02-19 15:43:14

For what it is worth, I do not have A-fib. I have had PVC's, Palpitations, flutter at various times in my life (since getting my PM over 30 years ago). They were very uncomfortable and sometimes a little scary. However, while they occurred multiple times a day occasionally, they always went away. They would sometimes occur periodically for a couple days, but as I recall, only when I drank too much coffee and/or was really stressed. At the time, many years ago, the Tech said my interrogation didn't showed them when I asked. So I wore a holter monitor for a few days, but nothing showed-up. I don't think I had any during the time I was wearing it. The doc said that as long as the episodes were brief and they passed in short time, not to worry. I cut-back on coffee and I think that helped a lot. I have had them briefly on a few occasions since then, but I don't worry about them anymore.

PVS's - Annoying

by MartyP - 2020-02-19 17:28:41

PVC’s - Premature Ventricular Contractions - wow, no one told me about these. For me they felt like my heart was pounding and if I check my pulse it feels like a skipped beat, but it’s actually a PVC. I remember “Tom” saying that he had them for ten years and his doctor said “they won’t kill you”, but for a newbie they are uncomfortable and scary. For me, before I knew what they were, I thought something was very wrong and at 1:00 AM my wife took me to the emergency room - 5 hours later, nothing found. ------ So the lesson learned … Either before or after your PM, talk to your doctor and ask lots of questions about what you could / should expect and what you may feel … your heart won’t stop, but it will be different”.  What I think I found a little later on, at least for me, when I’m not doing much and my heart rate gets into the high 50’s or low 60’s; again my lower rate is set to 55) I tend to get more PVC’s sometime 2 a minutes - they are scary until you know what they are. I do take Magnesium with Taurate (I get it from Amazon) and I think it keeps the PVC’s in check for me.  Usually none, once in a while perhaps 1 or 2 a minute for a few minutes at most.

PVCs scary

by AgentX86 - 2020-02-19 23:31:36

Indeed they are.  Uncomfortable as all get out, as well.  I had bigeminal (every other beat) PVCs, on and off, a few months after my PM implant.  The PM couldn't record them because there wasn't a string of them.  PVCs are so common that there isn't any point in recording individual PVC.  They're not dangerous unless the PVCs get to something like 30% of the heartbeats.

The lidocaine may have had an effect

by crustyg - 2020-02-20 04:22:34

Although it's a major drug for reducing PVCs/VT, low dose lidocaine can affect AV conduction, resulting in a lowered HR.  If your heart muscle is being driven by adrenaline (from the stress of dental work) and your dentist keeps injecting lidocaine into your gums - and some of the lidocaine will reach the circulation - then this *may* have resulted in more PVCs than usual.  So there may well be a cause-and-effect from dental work to more PVCs now.

Your PM probably *is* set to count PVCs, but as AgentX86 says, it's not something that will generate a call from your EP team unless you're experiencing thousands.