At about 5 months post treatment, one of my husbands biggest complaints is this spot on his inner gum where the bone is actually exposed, creating a sharp place and associated pain. Last ENT visit, the doctor actually shaved away some of the bone so that it wouldn't be so sharp, but it is still really bothersome. The radiation oncologist suggested it was from the radiation. I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem? If so, any ideas on getting it to heal faster?

Thanks,
Anita

Anita, I have an area that the bone is somewhat exposed as well. I have problems with bone chips trying to work their way to the surface and lodging into the gum. Major pain from that.....
What I then have to do is have the dentist go in and remove the bone chip and smooth out the bone again. This has been going on for 6 years. Mine never healed over but it did get better as the years passed. They tried hyperbarrics and that did not work to heal it over. I hope this helps somewhat.
David

Hi Anita, I had a similar thing. What started as
a "canker sore" turned into hard, sharp things.
This started 3 months post radiation.
A couple of doctors said to leave them alone
because they didn't want to risk bone infection
and the gums not healing. An Oral Surgeon who
sees alot of cancer folks saw the damage they
were doing to my tongue, and removed them.
New ones would grow back, and a couple got kinda
big. He kept removing them, and the gums healed
just fine. He said they would go away, and they
did. He said they were "bone spiculas", kinda
like a bone spur. O-O

Thanks, Powerlifter. I was trying to remember what the ENT called it - yes, it was bone spicula. Makes me feel better that it is fairly common. And, yes, the pain mainly comes with the cutting it does on his tongue.

Anita

I had them for about 6 months. they were sharp and after about two weeks they could be removed by scraping them off. Curiously no one thought they had anything to do with radiation....

The good news is they stopped occuring after 6 or 8 months.

I started to feel like I had a bad canker sore and then felt the sharpness. My tongue wouldn't leave it alone and my tongue became very raw. My ENT scraped it off and put me on clindamycin for 3wks incase there was a possible bone infection. It went away for about 2-3 weeks and is now back. I hope and am reassured that it's happened to others and may possibly go away. by the was it's seems it's common about 6mo post radiation. Kathy