A valve controls the flow of liquids though a pipe. The human heart has four rooms in it and blood flows from room to room in the heart. Heart valves control the flow of blood from one room to another room in the human heart and the mitral valve is one of these important heart valves.

          The mitral valve is located between the upper left and lower left rooms of the heart. The blood that leaves the mitral valve goes out into the lower left room of the heart. The lower left room of the heart is called the left ventricle. The blood going through the mitral valve comes from the upper left room of the heart. The upper left room of the heart is called the left auricle. The blood in the lower left room goes out into the body through the aorta. The aorta is the largest artery in the body.

          Blood should flow smoothly through the heart. A heart murmur is a noise that the heart makes when blood does not flow smoothly through the heart. A doctor can hear this noise when he listens to your heart. The mitral valve is like a door that closes after blood has been pushed out of it. The door should not open to allow any blood to come back into the left auricle. If the door gets weak, the blood that was pushed into the left ventricle will leak back into the left auricle.This is the wrong way. Blood should only go from the left auricle to the left ventricle and not the other way. When the mitral valve is weak, the blood pushed out of the left auricle can open the valve. This is not supposed to happen. It's called prolapse when a valve almost gets pushed open.

          Mitral valve prolapse is when the mitral valve in the heart almost gets pushed open. When the blood pushes back on the mitral valve it makes a noise. Mitral valve prolapse will cause a heart murmur. There are lots of different heart murmurs. When you throw up it's called vomiting or regurgitation. Regurgitation is when something goes the wrong way or flows backwards. If some of the blood that comes out of the mitral valve gets back into the heart after just leaving the heart, it's called regurgitation. This patient would have mitral valve prolapse with regurgitation.

          The word cardiac means heart. The word ending -itis means inflamation. Carditis means an inflamation of the heart. Endo- means inside. Endocarditis means an inflammation of the inside of the heart. Bacterial means having to do with bacteria. Bacterial endocarditis means an inflamation of the inside of the heart that was caused by a bacterial infection.

          Many different microbes live in a human mouth. The microbes in a patient's mouth do not usually get into the body. When a patient has a dental procedure, some of these microbes already living in the patient's mouth can get into the patient's blood. Normally our body kills these microbes immediately. The most common dental procedure is a cleaning.

          Bacteria are microbes. The word ending -emia means having to do with the blood or in the blood. A bacteremia is when bacteria get into the blood. Something sterile has no living microbes in it and healthy human blood is sterile.

          When a patient has mitral valve prolapse, blood does not flow smoothly through the inside of the heart. When blood does not flow correctly and smoothly though a patient's heart, microbes can stick to the inside wall of the heart. If the microbes grow they can causes an inflammation of the lining of the heart. This is bacterial endocarditis. As the infection grows the heart weakens and the patient can have a heart attack and die. Bacterial endocarditis is prevented by having the patient take antibiotics before each dental visit. The antibiotics in the blood kill the microbes before they have a chance to infect the patient.

                                                                 headaches                            panic attacks                    palpitations
                                                                 chest pain                             fatigue                             anxiety attacks
                                                                 lightheadedness                    dizziness                          shortness of breath
                                                                 low exercise tolerance           mood swings                   vertigo
                                                                 increased startle reflex           migraines

          Magnesium deficiency can worsen mitral valve prolapse symptoms.

          If you have mitral valve prolapse, are interested in dental care and would like to find out what our dentists can do for you, please consider scheduling a consultation by calling  404-874-7428.