question will xrays to the head and neck start to affect inside of mouth ? ive had 9 xrays in the last 2 months. 5 of them in the last week and a half. on feb 11 had mri. feb 14 had 2 ct scans 1 with die 1 without.feb 18 had teeth xrayed 1 picture. today had xrays to head and neck 4 pictures.

1 more thing have not started treatment. probably tommorrow or wed.

tracey, I wonder why you have so many x-rays within such a short time. I don't know what the definition of x-ray is. In my experience, I had x-ray to my teeth and x-ray to my lungs before treatment. As for the head and neck area, I had ultrasound scan, MRI and CT scan. Your doctors should have a detailed record of what tests you have and they are the best people to answer your question.

Karen.

I agree with Karen that seems like a lot of x-rays. Typically one would receive a full mouth x-ray to check the condition of your teeth (a panorex) maybe some additional bitewings (from the dental perspective) an MRI (which is not an x-ray) and possibly a PET (which is also not an x-ray but does involve a very minute amount of a radioisotope) for triage and/or diagnostic purposes. A CT for radiation therapy planning, and a chest xray as a benchmark. They may have had to repeat some studies because they didn't position you correctly or needed a slightly different angle or perspective. Then they will do a C-arm x-ray for determining best angles of attack with the mask and a x-ray simulation of the treatment protocol on the LINAC.

All of this being a drop in the bucket compared to the x-ray levels you will receive in therapeutic radiation (RT).

Tracey, I don't think the x-rays you have had would affect the inside of your mouth. The amount of energy used to make that kind of picture is relatively small. You should mention the number of x-ray pictures you have had each time someone wants to take more.

I forgot to mention that it's also pretty standard for them to do a series of head & neck scans with and without contrast. All mine have been that way. It is also typical to get a CT in mid-treatment to evaluate and make tweaks to the RT programming.

Typically also you will receive your "lifetime dose" of radiation during RT so many doctors recommend an annual MRI as the followup scan of choice. It is recommended by the NCCN oncology practice guidelines that H&N patients receive annual chest x-rays. Some people receive an annual PET or PET/CT as well.

As Mark said, the risk from diagnostic x-ray is very small.

Tracey I posted this elsewhere but it's a pretty good summary of what to expect:

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/cri/c...eal_cancer_diagnosed_60.asp?sitearea=cri

Congrats on being able to get IMRT. Several of us have had it and had very satisfactory results. It's no walk in the park but you can expect a pretty complete recovery. Just take it one day at a time.