INR in pediatric patients with acute dental infections: a pilot study.

Patients with congenital or acquired coagulopathies are common in the general population. Dentists should have access to the patients’ appropriate and current laboratory values to prevent bleeding complications during and after invasive dental procedures. A laboratory test called an INR(International Normalized Ratio) measures the time it takes for blood to clot and compares it to an average. Many drugs can change the INR such as aspirin, ibuprofen and Antibiotics the most common drugs used for treating acute dental infections.

To determine whether there is any change in bleeding tendencies of pediatric patients with acute dental infections also to evaluate the utility of testing INR in patients who have to receive invasive dental treatments especially those with acute dental infections.

10 patients, 7 boys and 3 girls, with acute dental infections were randomly selected from the patients arriving at Department of Pedodontics. Blood sample was collected through venepuncture and was immediately sent for prothrombin time tests. Using these values INR was calculated.

The mean INR value for the study was 1.194. The Mean INR among boys was 1.164 and Mean INR among girls was 1.29. The Mean Prothrombin Time was 14.39 sec. The Mean Prothrombin time among the boys was found to be 13.98 secs. The Mean Prothrombin time among the girls was found to be 15.33 sec.

There was no significant change in INR in patients with acute dental infections.