Antibiotics prior to dental cleaning?

I was talking to the vet the other day and he said that it's now debatable as to whether cats should be on antibiotics prior to having dental work done. Last year he recommended antibiotics prior to dental work, now he's leaving it up to the owners. If the animal has severe tartar and dental diseases as well as kidney or heart problems, he recommends the antibiotics.

Can anyone tell me what their vet's protocol on this is?

I think I'm going to use the antibiotics prior, but I don't know if I should use Clindamycin or Amoxicillin. It's sort of up to me. I have several cats that need a dental cleaning and possible tooth extractions, but they've never had blood work done before, so we don't know the status of their kidneys. Blood work would be done the morning of the dental work. Although, that doesn't tell us whether they should have the antibiotics prior to the dental work.

I'm not really sure what to do. But I'm pretty sure they should have the antibiotics prior, as well as after. Their teeth look really funky and their mouth smells like a sewer. I think it's really, really bad in there.

My vet normally recommends antibiotics prior to a dental cleaning. He's said that he generally requires it for mouths that are going to need a lot of work. As far as the medicine, we've always been given liquid clindamycin for the kitties.