BLEEDING AND CLOTTING DISORDERS

Dental health care workers are increasingly called upon to pro-vide quality dental care to individuals whose bleeding and clotting mechanisms have been altered by inherited or acquired diseases. This provides an opportunity for the den-tist who is trained in the recognition of oral and systemic signs of altered hemostasis to assist in the diagnosis of the underly-ing condition. A number of dental procedures result in the risk of bleeding that can have serious consequences, such as severe hemorrhage or possibly death, for the patient with a bleeding disorder. Safe dental care may require consultation with the patient’s physician, systemic management, and dental treat-ment modifications. Of the inherited coagulopathies, von Willebrand’s disease (vWD) is the most common. It results from deficiency of von Willebrand’s factor (vWF) and affects about 0.8 to 1 % of th