 Administrator, Director of Patient Support Services Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Jun 2007 Posts: 10,507 Likes: 7 | No extractions probably due to the risk of osteoradionecrosis (ORN). Thats where the jaw bone dies and needs to be removed. This can be very painful!!! It can be a small area or if not taken care of the area grows making it more difficult to treat. With what you are currently going thru Im thinking the doc wouldnt let you do hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBO). Normally OC patients who have ORN do 20 HBO prior to and 10 after having a tooth or ORN removed.
The main OCF site is being updated so the info on ORN unfortunately is not currently available. If you use our search function by entering key words osetoradionecrosis or hyperbaric oxygen then you will find many threads for both. This has been discussed many times here so there are tons of posts to read and so much info from many members weighing in on these subjects.
Good luck!!!
ChristineSCC 6/15/07 L chk & by L molar both Stag I, age44 2x cispltn-35 IMRT end 9/27/07 -65 lbs in 2 mo, no caregvr Clear PET 1/08 4/4/08 recur L chk Stag I surg 4/16/08 clr marg 215 HBO dives 3/09 teeth out, trismus 7/2/09 recur, Stg IV 8/24/09 trach, ND, mandiblctmy 3wks medicly inducd coma 2 mo xtended hospital stay, ICU & burn unit PICC line IV antibx 8 mo 10/4/10, 2/14/11 reconst surg OC 3x in 3 years very happy to be alive  | 
