Hello. My husband has stage IV tongue cancer. To remove the tumor he needed to have a mandiblectomy, so he has titanium plate and screws holding his jaw together. After surgery, he went through radiation. Now he has a sore on his chin right around where they split the mandible bone, and a screw just fell out yesterday out of the opening in the jaw. We are in the process of seeing the doctor to figure out what the problem is... the worse case scenario, it seems is osteoradionecrosis, or bone death... has anyone else experienced these types of issues after surgery/radiation and if so, what did the diagnosis end up being.
Thank you very much for your time.

Hello Katya,
I had osteoradionecrosis or bone death following treatment. I had the bone removed and replaced with new bone and blood supply 2 years ago. It actually took about 4 years before they felt that it had to be replaced. In fact the only reason they decided to replace it was that I had broken it after blowing my nose. Good thing I did not have that much feeling in the area. The replacement was very successful.
When I had my recurrence in April and had to have the another part of my tongue removed, my Surgeon was very surprised at how well the bone mended together. He said it was hard for him to cut into it again...........but of coarse he did. It heeled very quickly and is almost perfect after this last surgery. If you want to know anything more just let me know.
David