I saw a dentist who specializes in cancer related dentistry. He checked me out, made trays, made a spacer, etc. He also told me to make sure there were no food particles in my mouth before radiation. I think he said it causes more burn.

So I did some checking after I rinse, brush, and floss. There are still particles in there that show up if I rinse again. And again.

Has anyone found a good way to get all particles out. Maybe a waterpik, or something else?

Waterpiks work great - I wore mine out.

That's interesting. I was never told that re food particles and you're the first poster that has mentioned that since I've been on this site. I have always been fastidious about my oral hygiene practices but I remember not even feeling like brushing my teeth towards the end of Tx and after week 3 I wasn't "eating" anything so flossing was not considered important to me either.

My point is, I don't think I would go crazy trying to get every last particle out.

Andrew

You may want to ask your dentist about keeping the flouride trays in during radiation. My ENT and the CCC team insisted I see a specialist dentist prior to treatment who has had lots of experience treating radiation damage and Post treatment issues. While he gave me the all clear, his suggestion was to ALWAYS wear the trays during radiation since I had so many fillings and the "scatter" effect would otherwise end up with additional damage to my gums and mouth. Made sense to me since the CAT scan that first caught the tumor had radiologist notes that ".. extent of this lesion is difficult to discern secondary to streak artifact from the patient's dental fillings..." Made the mask a tad more smug, but strangely provided a psychological boost like putting in the mouthgard before sparring practice. Like David, food particles were not an issue for me at all but that's because I soon was living just on Ensure Plus which left no debris.

Charm2017,

Interesting comment about the trays during treatment. I'll ask the dentist about this.

So how did you do this? During treatment, did they have fluoride in them? Were you also told to use them at home, with fluoride?

BTW, the dentist made me a device that I'm supposed to wear during treatment. It keeps my upper and lower teeth separated, and it has a hole I'm supposed to keep my tongue in so it's out of the way. Did you use one of these?

Andrew

I started using the trays w/ fluoride a month pre Tx but I was never told to wear or not to wear them during the rad. I was told to use them once a day, at night before sleeping. BTW I still use them and I probably will for the rest of my life per my dentist.

Andrew

No special devices for treatment, just the plain EMPTY fluoride trays that I put in right before going into radiation room. Sounds like you have a more specialized appliance so you may not need to wear the trays too. I did and still do and the dentist says I will for life: put fluoride into the trays at night before I go to bed. Heads up: during the middle of the radiation treatment my mouth was so sore that I could not bear to put in the trays and the fluoride burned also so I just quit for a while doing the nightime routine and did it a little longer in the day whenever my mouth felt better for a bit.
GOOD LUCK and of course PLEASE check with your Dentist and follow his/her advice.

I used cotton rolls that were provided by the RO nursing station They also have mouth guards for that purpose - they seemed to help a little.

My dentist made me a contraption that was custom fitted/designed to keep the tongue immobile so that it got the desired rad dosage. I do not think that my RO used this before, and it was a first for my dentist who fortunately made this overnight (to be used for the PET scan/rad planing and subsequent treatment). Now they are doing this routinely.
I also used cotton rolls but these were used to get my lips AWAY from the radiation field. That of course has to be ok with the RO.

Re scattering x-rays.
I seriously doubt that a plastic tray (or cotton rolls) will be able to "absorb" x-rays in the MV range!
The xray energy used for CT is in the "whimpy" kV range where you will get artifacts from dental fillings... if you did use a MV CT there are no artifacts. IMRT uses x-rays in the MV range.

Markus

Just a follow up. The onco dentist told me not to use a waterpik during treatment. I didn't ask why.