Recently a fit 50-year-old son of a friend was admitted to hospital with heart failure. He couldn’t breathe or walk.
He had infective endocarditis (IE), where bacteria were growing on one of his main heart valves, virtually crippling his heart. Luckily, the alert doctors at Guy’s Hospital in London saved his life.
But how does an otherwise healthy man get potentially fatal IE? The answer is from his teeth. Bad teeth.