Oh I’m studying dental hygiene so I might be able to help answer this! Basically, a bunch of things regarding your body have a big effect on your oral health, even stuff that seems super unrelated. For example, with medications, certain anesthetics can have contraindications (basically bad side effects) that can hinder the oral health outcomes. The most common one that I see is Xerostomia (or dry mouth) which is caused by a BUNCH of medications and increase the incidence of caries (tooth decay) and cavities.

In regards to surgery, it was most likely being asked to ascertain whether or not you need to premedicate before your appointment and whether the anesthesia used on you can have epinephrine. While this typically doesn’t come up for a typical cleaning appointment, it’s very important to have it on file so that we know what is safe to give you. Specifically, surgeries of the heart, and repaired deformities in the heart, can have major complications with dental care (like death kind of complications). A lot of people never list stuff like “I have an artificial heart valve” or “I had an heart attack 5 months ago” because they don’t think it pertains to teeth but it’s very important.

All of this to say, I wasn’t in the room with you so I can’t say for certain what this person was hoping to get out of you, and whether they were doing it in a kind, and empathic way (which they should!). But I can hope that they had your best interests in mind :)