Hi folks

I have a very dry mouth (salivary glands radiated) but through regular dentist visits, daily fluoride treatments etc have been able to keep my teeth healthy.

They do discolour easily though and I wondered if other members have a magic cure for that. I clean with Biotene and treat with gel-kam after my coffee in the morning and they feel and look clean and white but after a couple of hours they become discoloured even though I drink water constantly.

Season's greetings and love from Helen

As you know I had no radiation but hope someone here will come up with that magic cure. Having said that I do not think my teeth are looking as bright (would not call it white) as they should and will take it up with my dentist next visit
Love
Gabriele

Unfortunately, I can't help with the dry mouth, because I suffer from that myself and besides the biotene spray nothing else seems to work very well for me.

I use Gel-Kam regularly on all of my top remaining teeth. After continual use of Gel-kam a side effect of it is that it discolors teeth and the stains can only be removed by a clean from the dentist. I get my teeth professionally cleaned now every 2 months, and that removes any discoloration or stains from that treatment.

Karen

That is interesting, Karen. I didn't know about the gel-kam side effect. I have been using is daily for nearly 7 years. At present I go to the hygenist 2 or 3 times a year. Maybe I should be going more often.

Best wishes for your recovery, Helen

Same problem with discoloration here and I use gel-kam too. Mine look worse than they did when I was a 3 pack a day smoker. I hate it. I think it is the stannus fluoride vs the other kind whose name I forget at the moment. The stannus fluoride is suuposed to work better than the other one according to my fancy prosthodonitst. I get my teeth scaled and cleaned every two months by the hygenist and they stay somewhat white.

Take care,
Eileen

My dentist mentioned to me about the staining but there is a message on the Gel-kam box that reads:


"Provides protection against dental decay. Helps reduce plaque and gingivitis after regular brushing and flossing. This is a preventative flouride treatment gel, not a toothpaste.

IMPORTANT: This product may produce temporary surface staining of teeth. Regular toothbrushing may prevent these stains, which are not harmful or permanent, and may be removed by your dental professional."

I have only been using Gel-kam for about 18 months.

Karen

Whoops, it's the same old story!! READ the instructions!
Very helpful, thanx Karen.
love from Helen

Hi all,

My brother who lives in Turkey got tongue cancer(SCC) almost 6 month ago. thats why I did register here. I thought I could find some answers I have been looking for.

He had a surgery, neck dissection. and then he had chemo and underwent radiation therapy for six weeks. chemo was one day per week. He has been having a problem with eating and speaking.
but the most problem for him is SALIVARY GLANDS. saliva production has been droped within 1-2 weeks after starting radiation therapy. I can not tell how much dose of radiation he was irradiated. His doctor's says his salivary glands may not recover again.

My question is that there is any thing else to protect or recover Salivary flow. mey be there is some medicene or something else, I do not know.



Iwill be really glad if you guys help me.

thank you in advance

BIRKAN

Birkan,

There are many other factors that may figure into his side effects such as type of radiation (RT vs IMRT) and the path of radiation but GENERALLY a common side effect to his radiation is "dry mouth" and diminished taste especially right after radiation is completed. Again depending on those factors, most of us do recover a great deal of the saliva production and taste but it can take all of 2 years post Tx to recover as much as it will. For me it took a good 15 months before I was satisfied with my recovery. It's not 100% but if I had to guess I would say perhaps 90% back to normal.

Tell him to just be patient and see what happens. To my knowledge there is nothing that has proven to aid in the return of saliva or taste, otherwise we would all have used it.

My RO prescribed a drug Pilocarpine 3X per day. My saliva is returning pretty well. Don't know if the drug has helped or if it is just time.