Hello,

I am a Health Library volunteer for a local hospital. A patron was asking me to find certain information and I told her I'll try to get back to her by the end of this week (she looked worried).

Here is the situation as I far as I can understand it. Her husband has some kind of cancer and he went through radiation treatment. It sounded like the radiation treatment destroyed some of the muscle in the jaw? Anyway, her husband cannot open his mouth very wide as a result of it. What is worrysome is that he seemed to lose the ability to open his jaw more and more. He can only open his jaw a little now.

Anyway, what she really want to find out is:

* How effective is this Therabite device?

* Is there a way for her to talk to someone who has used the Therabite device?

* She wants to know the pros and cons of this therabite device. Thinks she should watch out for, etc.

* Are there other devices like Therabite on the market and how effective are they?

* Any other kind of therapy that can help open her husband's jaw. She is trying to consider all options.

* Are there local support groups with people who has this condition (can't open jaw after radiation treatment). She is in the San Francisco-Palo Alto-San Jose area in California.

Any kind of information or pointer would be appreciated. I hope I can at least give her something that is useful.

Thanks.

-Dan

First I will have to qualify my answers by telling you that I used this device, and it worked well for me, so I am only giving you my personal opinion here, which is a positive one. It was easy to use, and given my ability to almost fully open my mouth today (probably more than my wife would like) the results were excellent. Second, on the foundation's resources page, there is a direct link to Therabite, and I suggest that you go directly to their website where you will find a wealth of information about not only the product, but about trismus, which is the physical condition you are describing. With this and all conditions related to treatments, I offer this caveat. She/he should always defer to the opinions recommendations of their healthcare provider. I am just a patient/survivor. I would be surprized if the doctors or support staff are not familiar with this device, but if not, there is nothing wrong with the patient bringing something, whether a product or a treatment, to the doctors attention that he/she may not be aware of.

Briefly, the muscle tissues become damaged as a result of the treatments. Scar tissue forms within the tissues, and they not only lose their elasticity, but their range of motion becomes limited as well. Patients are usually warned of this process, and during treatment they are encouraged to continue stretching the muscles to reduce the problem. This may be accomplished by stacking progressively greater numbers of wooden tongue blades between the teeth, or more efficiently with Therabite's device. I can tell you that sometimes patient compliance related to staying on top of this can be difficult. When I was in the worst part of my radiation treatments, I couldn't have cared less about opening my mouth, and if my wife hadn't been encouraging me to stay on top of things, I might have a less favorable outcome today.

As to the support groups, if anyone would know about this, the Therabite folks surely will, and I again defer to their expertise and knowledge. E-mail them or give them a call, I'm confident that you will find the help and answers you need there.

If she or her husband would like to communicate with a past user, they may contact me if they like.

Brian,
My mom is having trouble eating after radiation. Part of this is that her mouth is going through change after change. But I always see her opening her mouth like her jaw hurts. Are there ways I can inquire to her about what is going on? I am wondering if her jaw is experiencing what you described above? I am a physical therapist so I am aware of the affects of not using your range of motion. Any good questions I could ask her to get at the potential problem would help. I want to stay away from asking her about her tongue and inside of her mouth, as I already know this is a problem. Thanks.

Certainly given what your mom has been through, she is going to have difficulty with her mouth, it is sore, and she likely has some trismus from the radiation treatments which make it difficult (not painful), to open her mouth fully. You and/or her doctors should ask her exactly what it is that she is experiencing. If it is the mucositis and sores from radiation, this is only normal after the procedure and will go away given time. Remember that she also has thick saliva if any at all, and other issues related to eating and swallowing. All this is normal if she is just coming out of treatment. If it is difficulty in opening her mouth, she needs to work daily on stretching the muscles. The device mentioned in the previous posts is one way to accomplish this. But before you decide that something must be done, you need to ask her exactly what she is experiencing.