Received unprotected insertive oral sex from woman with recent tooth extraction

[veryscared12]

Hello,

I am a man who received unprotected oral sex from a woman late last night. Afterwards she said her mouth was sore because she had had a wisdom tooth out earlier in the day. I didn't see any blood or have any cuts on my penis. What are the risks for HIV? Thanks

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Oral sex is very low risk for HIV.  Transmission from the oral to the penile partner is especially rare; even if the oral partner has HIV, CDC estimates the risk at around one transmission for every 20,000 events.  To put that in perspective, this is equivalent to receiving oral sex by HIV infected partners once a day for 55 years, and perhaps still not catching HIV.  Your risk is even lower than that, because the odds your partner had HIV were extremely low.

Might the risk be higher because your partner had recent tooth extraction?  Conceivably, yes -- but for practial purposes it probably makes no difference.  The 1 in 20,000 risk includes the fact that many people have oral lesions -- everything from inflamed gums to tooth wounds of the cheek to oral herpes, and others.  Saliva inactivates HIV, so that even if a bleeding lesion is present, most likely there is little infectious virus to transmit.

So there was zero risk for all practical purposes.  Don't worry about it.  You don't need HIV testing.

Best wishes---- HHH, MD

[veryscared12]

Thank you so much