"I'm worried I'm going to get endocarditis [an infection of the heart valves] from going to the dentist."
"You won't. You don't have any risk factors, like heart valve disease."
"But I know someone that got endocarditis from going to the dentist and he didn't have heart valve disease."
"Was he shooting up drugs at the time?"
"Well, yeah, but he was sure he got endocarditis from going to the dentist..."
I'm Dr. Joshua Schwimmer, a nephrologist and internal medicine physician in New York City. • Kidney Notes was the first active nephrology blog. (Trivia: Kidney Notes is so old that the National Library of Medicine still uses it as an example of how to formally cite blogs.) • Professionally, you can find me at Kidney.nyc. • Kidney Notes is for educational purposes only, not medical advice. Consult qualified health care professionals. See disclaimer.