I am a survivor of Tongue Ca for 12 years and am having problems with all the crowns that I have had put in since the surgery. They are all coming loose. Is there anyone out there that has had implants? All on 4 implants? Radiation treatments have really hampered my gums healing times. I have had 2 extractions to date leaving large caves. What should I do??

Most oral cancer patients should see a dental specialist called a prosthodontist. They are more skilled in treating complex oral issues. When having extractions done an oral cancer patient should have whats called the marx protocal. That is 20 hyperbaric oxygen treatments before and 10 after the extraction. This is to help prevent ORN. HBO also will help cure ORN. Im not someone who was lucky enough to get implants, I lost my teeth due to radiation damage. We do have a dentist as an oral cancer survivor and OCF member. Also Brian Hill has a dental background. Im sure you will get more responses that would be more helpful to you. Best of luck.

Christine,
Did you do that protocol after each extraction? The MD stated that their is no proven data that more than 30 help?? I recently went for a 3d cat scan of my head and ORN is present. Did they take all your teeth out at once? I feel like its chinese water torture, one at a time. I am reading your history and 2 years later it came back> WOW. Are you happy with the reconstruction? Where did you have it?

Maria,

Where in NJ are you from? We have several members in my area and several in NJ. In fact every September there is an oral cancer walk in NJ that I go to. Im in Allentown and get treated at Lehigh Valley Hospital.


I had my teeth all removed at once in the hospital by an oral surgeon. I did have to have a few removed before I did the radiation so the marx protocal wasnt necessary. My history is getting oral cancer in 2007, 2008 and 2009 so 3 times in 3 years. Reconstruction is a work in progress. It doesnt matter if Im happy with it, I cant change it. Sometimes in life you are dealt a bad hand and you must pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep going. I am here so I am really happy about that!!!

Ive had 125 HBO. Ive done this on 3 seperate occassions. From what Ive read about HBO, you only need 20 before and 10 after to prevent or fix ORN. If you have ORN as an after effect of radiation then you could need more than 30.

Hope someone with dental experience responds to your post. Sorry, but I am in no way an expert on dental things. I just know what Ive been thru and what Ive learned from being on OCF for 3 1/2 yrs.

Good luck with your implants! Hope you arent in pain from it.

[quote=ChristineB]Most oral cancer patients should see a dental specialist called a prosthodontist. They are more skilled in treating complex oral issues. When having extractions done an oral cancer patient should have whats called the marx protocal. That is 20 hyperbaric oxygen treatments before and 10 after the extraction. This is to help prevent ORN. HBO also will help cure ORN. Im not someone who was lucky enough to get implants, I lost my teeth due to radiation damage. We do have a dentist as an oral cancer survivor and OCF member. Also Brian Hill has a dental background. Im sure you will get more responses that would be more helpful to you. Best of luck. [/quote]
I am agree with you Good Dentists can help us.

Well I did go for the consult and No I was not a candidate. So I will be getting two or three more crowns pulled. So I will ask about the marx protocal.This website is so helpful-125 HBo treatments boy you must be a pro! Christine where is the oral Ca walk??? I would love to get involved. It has been 12 years and I really don't think about it until an issue arises. So now it's my teeth......Does anyone have workable removable bridges??? This is what the MD at consult states would be best for me.

You are very fortunate to be a 12 year survivor!!!! Here is a link to all the walks being planned for the year. There will be more postings closer to springtime. Best wishes for getting your dental problem taken care of.


http://oralcancersupport.org/forums...at&Number=121765&an=8#Post121765

Maria, there are many reasons that a crown could come loose and it very well could not be related to your treatment. From what you wrote, it seems to me that the crowns were done over the last 12 years. How long ago were they done? Crowns that are poorly done can come off in a few months. Even well done crowns can come off periodically.

What has your dentist told you about why he/she thinks they are getting loose?

Yes I have had all my work roughly 4 years ago because they all needed root canals due to caries at the gum line. Last year I had 2 of the 8 pulled. Now several more are loose. My oral surgeon wants to hold on to them as long as we can. I am having difficulty eating ,uncomfortable and getting frequent absesses.
So what am I to do. I am not a candidate for implants due to ORN so....Do I go for more HBO?? before more extractions?

That is a tough one. I also had ORN and had 30 rounds of HBO before reconstruction and did not have any after as everything was going to be replaced at reconstruction. Did you notice a difference after the HBO treatments? If you did you might do some more. I can't see where it would hurt. Loosing teeth is no fun. I have no teeth up top and it is up in the air if I will be able to get some later. In order to get implants there has to be bone and if you had teeth taken out after radiation they had to take the bone too which would make implants hard to do. But, you might go see a maxillofacial prosthedontist and see if you could get something. Here is a link that you can check out to find one.

http://www.maxillofacialprosth.org/AAMP_dynamic/searchrosterPublic.asp?country=US&state=NJ

I will put you in my prayers and hope that you are able to figure out something that will work for you