I begin chemo/radiation next week(10-17). My doc said I would get sores in my mouth next to the gold crowns on my teeth because the radiation reflects off the gold and causes local high doses in soft tissue next to the crown. I found a reference on the internet saying "the latter problem can be reduced by fitting bulky "teeth guards," custom-made by dentists, for the simulation and treatments. I can't find any such teeth guards and my dentist and doc can't either. Does anyone know where I can find these or what they are made of?? Thanks.
My dentist took impressions and had them made for me. As you say they are just mouth guard with extra material around the gold work. I would think any Dentist that makes denture and such could do it.
I wedged cotton rolls between my inner cheeks and the crowns and also my tongue and the crowns and I think it helped the side scatter a little bit. The nurses station would provide them for me. It was an additional pain in the butt to position those things and keep them in place for the entire treatment but I did. You might try wearing your dental trays if you have them. Check with the RO first. They also have generic mouth guards and I tried them as well.
My dentist replaced all my gold fillings with porcelain prior to tx beginning. I didn't have that many gold ones left but that may be a solution.
That would only work for filings and not crowns. Even porcelain crowns have a precious metal substructure under the porcelain....afterall they are just glass.
Every day I learn something new. Never heard about radiation reflecting off gold crowns.
Just for informational purposes, 95% of the crowns I have made in the last year and a half are all porcelain, with no metal understructure. These crowns are made in the office, in one visit using CAD-CAM technology. No impressions and no temporary crowns. These crowns are called CEREC crowns. I started using this technology right after returning back to work after my surgery.
Jerry
I have one of those. My dentist got the system last year. It's pretty slick. I got to watch the machine manufacture the filling. They fit so tight that sometimes they have trouble getting it out when they are fitting it prior to bonding. They scan the tooth surface with a laser.