Speaking from my own experience of someone who has had ORN and am still going through treatments 16 months after being diagnosed with it, I would do anything and everything where possible to prevent it from happening.

During my extensive surgery in April 2007 to remove a tumour from my tongue (ulcer underneath my tongue) the surgeon accessed my mouth to remove the tumour by cutting my jaw (mandible) down the centre -opened my jaw up like a door, closed it and then they put it back together with some metal clips. It is my belief that the reason that I then got ORN is because of the area around the jaw split and the teeth on either side of the jaw split which probably had not healed properly before radiation was started.

Finding out that I had ORN after having to deal with surgery, radiotherapy and chemo was just unbelievable, I thought I had been through it all and it was time to start the recovery process, WOW was I wrong.

Karen