My husband saw his doctor today who said he could send hubby for 30 dives of HBOT treatment but that he doesn't really believe it will be all that effective at this point. High cost, low return is how he put it.

Also Doc said HBOT treatments can be done only once and could cause vision problems. My questions...why only once? Is that because the insurance will only pay for it once or because it's dangerous to do a second round of dives? If he can only get it once is it best to wait in case he needs it at a later date? Doc is not a great communicator to put it mildly.

And what about the vision problems he mentions? I can't find any info about this in my internet searches or, on this forum. Not a lot of info on HBOT for ORN in general, anywhere, that seems very conclusive.

And BTW the ORN is from radiation for floor of mouth cancer about three years ago. He's had exposed jaw bone ever since. Debridements, antibiotics, have not fixed it....... Alternative is to wait for his jaw to break & have surgery, which is starting to feel inevitable. Thanks folks for any info you might have.
Miss Lemon

HBO can be done more than once. What the doctor told you is absolutely NOT true! I cant interpret what the doctor meant or if its an insurance issue. Of course I am not a medical professional looking at your husbands chart but I can say that HBO helped me tremendously. I am living proof that it can be done in different sets of treatments. I have had 125 of them! The first time I had them I did it to heal from a surgery. I did 65 of them in early 2008. Next I did 30 for having teeth removed in early 2009. Then in the spring of 2010 I did 30 more.

There is lots of info on hyperbaric oyxgen treatments right on this website. You need to type it out like I did above. Then do a search here on the forum and also on the main OCF pages. You will find lots of info that will help you. My vision was affected for a short period of time. I had trouble reading traffic signs for awhile, a few weeks after I finished my HBO my vision returned to normal.

The doctor who gave you this info was not informed or up to date with their facts. I know of others who have done HBO more than once as well. It will help a patient who has problems healing due to radiation damage. I have found it to be very helpful and every time I did HBO it cut my healing time in half.

http://oralcancersupport.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=82262#Post82262
Your original post was back in 2008. Hasnt this problem been taken care of yet? An exposed piece of jawbone or tooth fragment is extremely painful. I have found HBO to be a miracle cure for helping to heal my extensive wounds from surgeries. If you have further questions Im sure there are several of us on here who have done HBO and we can help you. Here is yoru original posts. Im sorry I wasnt able to help you back in 2008, it was a very bad year for me.

I second what Christine said. HBO can be done more than once. It help me tremendously. I could not eat anything before going in there, now I am eat soft foods. My HBO Dr even told me that I may need to come for me HBO if I get more non-healling ulcers. The vision, I did experience some issues, but that have now gone away. That is a temporary issue. It was well worth it, to be able to get off all the pain meds. I do not have any mroe exposed bone.

Thanks, both of you so much. I'm going to call the doctor now and ask him about this. He has taken a wait & see, lets hope this heals itself approach with occassional debridement and antibiotics. There is no pain, so maybe that has been a factor in the conservative treatment. Also no dental problems so far. HBOT is very expensive. Will cost us 15 grand before the insurance kicks in.

Our second opinion Doctor said nothing about HBOT, just that jaw surgery could be a future liklihood. I went back and read my old posts too. *Sigh*
Miss Lemon

walknlite,
I'm so glad you are doing better. Did you have surgery? I'm not good at reading these signatures. Looks like you were recently diagnosed with ORN.
I would love to hear more about how you & doctor dealt with your exposed jaw bone. How is it that you have no more exposed jaw bone but have still have ORN?
I have a lot to learn.
Thanks,
Miss Lemon

ChristineB,

"Im sorry I wasn't able to help you back in 2008, it was a very bad year for me".

I was very touched by this. Thank you. I hope you are doing well.

Our Doc is apparently "The Guy" in Portland Oregon.
He started Head & Neck Surgical Associates. They made national news recently by giving a young woman who had her face shot off a new face. So why don't I feel more confident?

Miss Lemon