All patients who have radiation for oral cancer (OC) should be using fluoride trays daily during and after their rads. Those who do not get the fluoride trays may have far bigger problems down the road as radiation causes major damage to teeth. During rads, your husbands physicians and dentist should have discussed how important dental care is during rads and afterwards too. Along with brushing at least 2x a day, using a waterpik on its lowest setting with a mixture of warm water and some non-alcohol mouthwash will help to keep your husbands mouth in good shape. OC patients who already went thru rads must make their dental hygiene a top priority (if they havent already done this right from the beginning of rads) for the rest of their lives with brushing and flossing after every meal. Radiation can cause osteoradionecrosis (ORN) which is basically when the jaw bone dies and causes the teeth to become very loose and/or to fall out plus it is very painful and can be difficult to treat. If a patient after rads develops areas where their jawbone becomes exposed that may be ORN. Heres more info in the links below including OCF's main site which has hours of important reading material about anything and everything to do with OC. If the dentist and oncologists missed discussing the importance of extra dental care and fluoride trays, you need to ask them about it! Since your husband already started rads I doubt he would be able to have the molds taken to get fluoride trays. I dont know if generic ones are available, check with his doc and/or dentist.
Theres a million and one things doctors, dentists and nurses should go over with their patients prior to beginning any treatments. While its very easy to miss a topic or 2, having all the medical and dental specialists all together on the same team (called team based approach) ensures every single thing of importance is discussed and understood. The doc may think the dentist would discuss the fluoride trays and dental care for OC patients but often dentists do not have OC patients as their patients but they try to treat them anyway. Im not making excuses for the lack of info provided! In my opinion, your husbands situation should NEVER happen but I can understand how easily something can be overlooked when patients have their doctors and dentists from different practices, locations and they arent affiliated at all. That can cause an even bigger lack of communication when some of the professionals the patients are counting on to help them but those professionals are not up to date with the differences between treating a regular healthy adult vs treating OC patients. Many OC patients will see dental oncologists or dental professionals who have had extra years of specialized training such as an Prosthodontist. Your husbands situation is another reason why patients should try their best to get into a Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC). Finding out after the fact they should have been using fluoride trays to protect their teeth all along should never happen! Unfortunately it does and its almost always the patients who are being treated at smaller local facilities that find their team isnt communicating as they should or familiar enough with all the important details OC patients must know.
Your husbands lack of fluoride trays is an example of what motivated OCF's founder Brian Hill to start this nonprofit organization. Back when he was diagnosed with OC there was hardly anything available online to read about OC, treatments, recovery, dental impact, dietary info, etc without Google or other search engines available to lead patients right to it. The internet most of us first started using was so very different than what it is today. I remember using dial up and the screechy sound of the computer trying to connect to get online and how long everything took. Back then if you didnt know the web address you didnt get to that site. Boy how times have changed and we now have tons of info from countless sources right at our fingertips. We still must weed thru it to find the most reputable sources. Below are a few links about ORN I found by doing a quick search. Im sure it will help you to better understand about fluoride trays and overall dental care for OC patients.
OCF main site--- OsteoradionecrosisCanadian Cancer Society---- OsteoradionecrosisNational Center for Biotechnology Info---- OsteoradionecrosisBelow are other helpful links to learn why attention to dental care is so important for OC patients....
RDH magazine... Hygienists caring for OC patientsNature.com--- Dental care for OC patients
