Hi Jill,

First of all congratulations on your success of 1 year and 8 months. Most of the information that I have regarding dentistry after radiation has come from being a member of this forum. Basic dentistry is another situation and one that I am very familiar with.

First some basics. The amount of gum tissue that you have has no bearing on whether an implant can be placed. Even though you may have had some gum tissue removed with the extraction of your teeth, you do have gum tissue. What you need for successful implants is sufficient bone to place the implant into. This is best determined by x-rays. In the upper arch (you don't mention if you had extractions in the upper or lower) implants may be a little more difficult as the sinuses can make placement difficult as there may be insufficient bone available.

Radiation complicates the siruation due to osteoradionecrosis (ORN) which is best described below:

Osteoradionecrosis...bone that has received doses of radiation may lack the ability to repair itself after trauma. Radiation destroys the blood vessels in the area causing a reduction of circulation to the area of oxygen and other nutrients. This then will prevent normal healing in that area if the bone is injured.

Hyperbaric oxygen to the area will stimulate new blood vessel growth and therefore stimulate bone healing.

Without hyperbaric oxygen, placement of an implant can result in bone that won't heal.

This is a good article: http://www.virginiamason.org/dbHyperbaricOxygen/sec181033.htm

You can search this site and the internet using the words "osteoradionecrosis" and "hyperbaric oxygen" and get more information than you can imagine.

Hope this has been helpful. Please don't hesitate to ask questions here or through a private message and I will try to help. If I don't know the answer, someone else here will.

Jerry