Hi everyone, I haven't been on here for awhile, but wanted to check back in and see if anyone was familiar with an issue that my husband, an 11 year Stage 4A oral cancer survivor, is having. He developed osteoradionecrosis 4 years ago. His dentist, another oral surgeon, and yet another surgeon at a clinic at the University of Miami (Marx's clinic) all suggested different versions of very invasive jaw reconstruction surgery with proposed outcomes that weren't very comforting to hear about. He almost went with the Miami clinic and then his Tampa Moffitt CC doctor talked him into waiting it out and suggested he may never need surgery. What led up to the osteoradionecrosis diagnosis 4 years ago was that, after a dental hygiene cleaning, he developed an infection which cleared with a course of antibiotics. This led to 2x a year jaw infections and then last year almost monthly infections. Last July, he developed a small abscess on his lower middle jaw (outside to skin) where pus was draining. We went back to the Tampa Moffitt CC doctor who now suggested jaw reconstruction surgery that had an even worst proposed outcome for him. I happened to learn about cold laser therapy at this same time, and we set out to try it before doing anything more radical. He had 9 of 12 symptoms of osteoradionecrosis when we started the cold laser therapy. He now has 3 of 12 symptoms. He still has the abscess , but for the past 3 months, he has none of the old symptoms of infection (i.e. fever, jaw swelling, jaw joint locking) when it starts having drainage. He had an infectious disease doctor check it out, and we just learned that he did not have an infection when tested. They also ran a CAT scan which just pointed to osteoradionecrosis again as the cause of the abscess. So, again, we find no doctor seems to know what to do, and we are next heading over to U.F. - Gainesville, FL, to an oral clinic related to Shands that deals with long term oral cancer issues, but it will probably take weeks to get in. I was wondering if anyone has had an experience like this, with an abscess or fistula that is draining some blood/fluid to the outside of the (lower) jaw, but with no sign of infection.

Thanks much!