Thanks for that post, Brian. That was a lot of helpful information. It sounds like loosing two teeth right in the front of my mouth was kind of the worst possible place since they are the ones that sort of hold in place all the other teeth. Not that I had much choice--those teeth were definitely going anyway.

In fairness to my dentist, I was referred to him sort of at the last minute (when my second opinion made it clear I would need raidation) by my ENT and he got me in within a week, although technically he was booked through June (it was early March) and not accepting any new patients. He basically double-booked me to check my teeth and do the extractions as soon as possible so there wouldn't be further delay in the radiation. He's probably the most experienced and best educated dentist in town about oral cancer and the after- effects of radiation (and surgery) that can affect dental issues(according to both my ENT and the oral surgeon in town who is THE oral surgeon to go to if you've had radiaiton). And the dental world may use the term "flipper" but my dentist apparently prefers the term "flap" (although he once also referred to it as "your party teeth" which I thought was amusing).

However, I guess he thought I could wear that flipper through radiation and I do wonder about that as I can't be the only person who had mucositis way too bad to wear soemthing like that and I am a little annoyed he didn't tell me how important it was or I would have called him when it became too painful. But just out of curiousity, would there be soemthing else he could have done then, in the middle of radiation and chemo, or right before,to keep my teeth from moving around?

Anyway, as far as the future goes, I agree with you, Brian, I don't want something semipermanent in there if it could cause periodontal disease. I've already struggled with periodontal disease around that area and I don't want to do anything that could aggravate that.

I know the missing teeth aren't all that visible--even when I smile, although not having teeth there can mean that occassionaly I drool (not that I have enough saliva for that to happen often but sometimes this happens after I use one of the biotene moisturizers) and this is something I would REALLY prefer I didn't do in the front of a college classroom. But it seems I will probably have to wait at least a couple of months to get a new flipper (its good motivation to keep using that therabite several times a day).

I think I will call him and try to talk about the issue of putting in something temporary to keep the other teeth from moving around more--as long as its something I can brush around--I can feel my bite is off in the back of my mouth. My back teeth feel like they are rubbing against each other the wrong way. I'd probably be noticing it more were I up to eating solid foods--and I certainly don't want to make that even worse.

Amy, yeah if I can get to eating soft foods, going out to eat at something like a conference would be manageable. Unfortunately, a lot of the social eating things I attend are college funtions with food provided by our (not very good) college meal service company and there's not such a wide choice of stuff. Often its veggies with dip and sandwich fixings with big chewy dry rolls. I think I just need to learn to not eat at these things and bring stuff for before or later.

Nelie