Heart Failure and Abscessed tooth?

Please help... I have a family member (with MVP) that may have had an abscessed tooth for a year, who suddenly passed away. Death Certificate reads: Cardio pulmonary. Can having an abs. tooth cause your heart to stop?

Oh yes it can! There are many documented cases of patients who have had mild to moderate untreated dental infections that lead to serious, and even fatal heart complications. Our mouths are very dirty places and also very vascular and provide great access for bacteria into the blood stream. However, cause of death listed as Cardiopulmonary, does not mean that there was heart damage, it just means that the heart and lungs failed, causing death. The abcessed tooth may be unrelated.

no i dont think so
there is more it than that

no, maybe if it was longer than a year but just a year, no

Not generally, but it can cause a secondary infection in the heart called endocarditis. This simply means an imflammation of the internal heart muscles. Now this, in combnation with Mitral Valve Prolapse can be serious enough to create a fatal response by an already weakened and cmpromised heart. I'm only an EMT mind you, but precedence has been set by similar cases before.

I am not sure, but...if the tooth were to develope an infection it might eventually make its way to the heart. This is just an uneducated guess. But you may want to look into it.

a doctor will tell you your mouth is the nastys part of a human body bc of all the bacteria thats growing in it.The most common cause of an abscessed tooth is a dead tooth. Foreign bacteria attack the dead tissues in the tooth and the living tissues around the tooth. A battle between the body and invading bacterial develops and special white blood cells attack the area. The brain is only a few inches away from the teeth. The dental infection can spread to the inside of the brain and quickly infect the tissues in the skull. It can cause uncontrolled rapid swelling that can quickly block off a patient's airway with immediate suffocation.

A chronic abscessed tooth can feed the body with invading bacteria and cause abnormal blood clotting within arteries and veins. A clot created from these bacteria can cause a heart attack, stroke, or even a premature baby. It is nothing to fool around with. We all desire a happy, healthy and long life. Denying the importance of a festering infection can destroy these hopes.

tooth infection can cause endocarditis.but endocarditis has multiple symptoms and for some one to die suddenly from endocarditis is very rare.mostly sudden death is due to heart attack or irregular heart beat called VT or VFIB.Again common cause for VT ad VF is heart attack.so probably he might have had heart attack.
But again MVP itself can cause arrhythmia's(irregular heart beat)which can lead to sudden cardiac death.so also MVP can cause stroke and endocarditis.but these are all very rare and statistically most probable cause is heart attack.take care.