I take it that you did have a dental evaluation prior to starting treatment. You can't just have the teeth pulled. You have a very strong risk of ORN if you do that and that could result in losing your jaw bone. You will need HBO therapy first - at least 20 or more "dives".

They should be able to manage the pain. See your MO for that.

I kept all of my teeth and had no problems before, during or after (and I had the total amount of radiation w/boost).

You should get an immediate consult with your ENT or head & neck surgeon to determine what exactly is the source of the pain.

The reason they recommend pulling teeth has less to do with pain as much as it does with the stresses put on the teeth from dry mouth and decay and possible future extractions which could have serious complications.

Gail - thanks for the update on the ORN statistics - now I really feel good about my decision to keep my teeth (practically A.M.A. I might add). The key to it, I understand, is to limit the radiation through the teeth to 62.5 Gy or less. I believe that the targeted radiation, IMRT, 3D conformal and Tomo , sparing the salivary glands to a large degree, is the primary reason for the uptick in the numbers.