diff --git a/go/vt/discovery/healthcheck.go b/go/vt/discovery/healthcheck.go
index 5f4c78f6afa..cb1bbc1b4dd 100644
--- a/go/vt/discovery/healthcheck.go
+++ b/go/vt/discovery/healthcheck.go
@@ -323,7 +323,7 @@ func NewHealthCheck(ctx context.Context, retryDelay, healthCheckTimeout time.Dur
 		healthy:            make(map[KeyspaceShardTabletType][]*TabletHealth),
 		subscribers:        make(map[chan *TabletHealth]struct{}),
 		cellAliases:        make(map[string]string),
-		loadTabletsTrigger: make(chan struct{}),
+		loadTabletsTrigger: make(chan struct{}, 1),
 	}
 	var topoWatchers []*TopologyWatcher
 	var filter TabletFilter
@@ -516,7 +516,13 @@ func (hc *HealthCheckImpl) updateHealth(th *TabletHealth, prevTarget *query.Targ
 		if prevTarget.TabletType == topodata.TabletType_PRIMARY {
 			if primaries := hc.healthData[oldTargetKey]; len(primaries) == 0 {
 				log.Infof("We will have no health data for the next new primary tablet after demoting the tablet: %v, so start loading tablets now", topotools.TabletIdent(th.Tablet))
-				hc.loadTabletsTrigger <- struct{}{}
+				// We want to trigger a loadTablets call, but if the channel is not empty
+				// then a trigger is already scheduled, we don't need to trigger another one.
+				// This also prevents the code from deadlocking as described in https://github.com/vitessio/vitess/issues/16994.
+				select {
+				case hc.loadTabletsTrigger <- struct{}{}:
+				default:
+				}
 			}
 		}
 	}
diff --git a/go/vt/discovery/topology_watcher_test.go b/go/vt/discovery/topology_watcher_test.go
index 3ac567acef8..9e614333dc8 100644
--- a/go/vt/discovery/topology_watcher_test.go
+++ b/go/vt/discovery/topology_watcher_test.go
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import (
 	"google.golang.org/protobuf/proto"
 
 	"vitess.io/vitess/go/test/utils"
+	querypb "vitess.io/vitess/go/vt/proto/query"
 
 	"vitess.io/vitess/go/vt/logutil"
 	topodatapb "vitess.io/vitess/go/vt/proto/topodata"
@@ -630,3 +631,67 @@ func TestFilterByKeypsaceSkipsIgnoredTablets(t *testing.T) {
 
 	tw.Stop()
 }
+
+// TestDeadlockBetweenTopologyWatcherAndHealthCheck tests the possibility of a deadlock
+// between the topology watcher and the health check.
+// The issue https://github.com/vitessio/vitess/issues/16994 has more details on the deadlock.
+func TestDeadlockBetweenTopologyWatcherAndHealthCheck(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := utils.LeakCheckContext(t)
+
+	// create a new memory topo server and an health check instance.
+	ts, _ := memorytopo.NewServerAndFactory(ctx, "zone-1")
+	hc := NewHealthCheck(ctx, time.Hour, time.Hour, ts, "zone-1", "")
+	defer hc.Close()
+	defer hc.topoWatchers[0].Stop()
+
+	// Add a tablet to the topology.
+	tablet1 := &topodatapb.Tablet{
+		Alias: &topodatapb.TabletAlias{
+			Cell: "zone-1",
+			Uid:  100,
+		},
+		Type:     topodatapb.TabletType_REPLICA,
+		Hostname: "host1",
+		PortMap: map[string]int32{
+			"grpc": 123,
+		},
+		Keyspace: "keyspace",
+		Shard:    "shard",
+	}
+	err := ts.CreateTablet(ctx, tablet1)
+	// Run the first loadTablets call to ensure the tablet is present in the topology watcher.
+	hc.topoWatchers[0].loadTablets()
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// We want to run updateHealth with arguments that always
+	// make it trigger load Tablets.
+	th := &TabletHealth{
+		Tablet: tablet1,
+		Target: &querypb.Target{
+			Keyspace:   "keyspace",
+			Shard:      "shard",
+			TabletType: topodatapb.TabletType_REPLICA,
+		},
+	}
+	prevTarget := &querypb.Target{
+		Keyspace:   "keyspace",
+		Shard:      "shard",
+		TabletType: topodatapb.TabletType_PRIMARY,
+	}
+
+	// If we run the updateHealth function often enough, then we
+	// will see the deadlock where the topology watcher is trying to replace
+	// the tablet in the health check, but health check has the mutex acquired
+	// already because it is calling updateHealth.
+	// updateHealth itself will be stuck trying to send on the shared channel.
+	for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
+		// Update the port of the tablet so that when update Health asks topo watcher to
+		// refresh the tablets, it finds an update and tries to replace it.
+		_, err = ts.UpdateTabletFields(ctx, tablet1.Alias, func(t *topodatapb.Tablet) error {
+			t.PortMap["testing_port"] = int32(i + 1)
+			return nil
+		})
+		require.NoError(t, err)
+		hc.updateHealth(th, prevTarget, false, false)
+	}
+}