Stop the nonsense not the anticoagulants: a matter of life and death.

Many dental patients have medical problems that require the administration of oral anticoagulants to prevent catastrophic or life-threatening thromboembolic events. Examples include patients with medical conditions such as atrial fibrillation, mechanical heart valves, recent pulmonary embolism, stroke, deep vein thrombosis, anticardiolipin syndrome and coronary artery disease. The oral anticoagulant used most commonly in these instances is Coumadin.