Elisabeth

You are so right that you have to at least try. I know I feel better having appealed my insurance denial up thru two levels at OPM. It turned out just like Gary posted. Still it sucks and is patently unfair to us oral cancer patients.
Charm

Question: Is the water fluoridated in the US? No one has said a word about fluoride trays to Alex and I here and I figured it would be a battle I could have with Alex in the future as he will not countenence any more "treatment" right now. It occurs to me that the reason no one has suggested it is because our water has fluoride added and maybe the US water doesn't???
Karen

Per Wikipedia.....A 1992 census found that, for U.S. public water supply systems reporting the type of compound used, 63% of the population received water fluoridated with fluorosilicic acid, 28% with sodium fluorosilicate, and 9% with sodium fluoride.

I know the above figures are not correct since it does not account for houses that use wells. The house I used to live in had well water as did everyone else within a 10 mile radius. When I attempt to find out how many households depend on wells I get several different figures, up to 10% of the population.

We haver lurked in our water here in Canada and I was still told to get flouride trays - I would ask - it's important - your don't want to have to have a tooth pulled post radiation if you can avoid it.

The fluoridated water isn't enough to really protect your teeth. My surgeon and prosthodontist said the fluoride trays were a must, and for the rest of my life (it's not that big a deal to do daily). This all to prevent tooth decay and, as Cheryl says, to prevent your ever needing to have a tooth pulled post radiation.

Karen

We definitely have lots of flouride in our Washington DC area water (along with an array of other chemicals) but my prosthodontist said the same thing: it's not enough flouride and not concentrated on the teeth and that flouride trays are the way to go.
If you do go that way, I recommend being sure to get a "gel" with a narrow nozzle and not a toothpaste type flouride - there was an interesting discussion here a while ago about using a syringe to make the toothpaste cream type work, but I find it easier to just buy the type that works right out of the little tube it come in.
Last but not least, while my insurance refused to pay for the flouride trays, they continue to pay for two full tubes of the prescription flouride each and every month with no quibble.
Charm

Sometimes the problem with getting these things covered has to do with the coding. Make sure the coding done in the dentist office is correct for cancer and not cosmetic. Don't know if it helps. We just had dental deny, turfing it to medical. I'm going to confirm coding with our dentist and then I'm going to medical next. On one hand, I can't complain as our insurance has covered almost everything. On the other hand - I pay dearly for 2 insurance policies and it is a necessity for head and neck radiation.
Donna - RN, BSN, COS-C