I had both upper and lower teeth pulled and dentures put in. Has anyone else had this done and when will I get back to eating normal foods? Feels like a ball was stuffed into my head!

My oncologist recommended that I have them pulled. I guess by reaction she could tell I was upset hearing that, so she told me to see my dentist. He repaired some crowns before the start of radiation and that seemed to take care of it. I've been told that any kind of dental work is very risky after radiation starts.

Johnny:

I had 3 teeth pulled before my treatments started. Now, I need the rest pulled and dentures. You are fortunate your dental work was done prior to starting treatments. I will now do hyperbaric treatments before any dental work is done. Basically its sitting in an clear oxygen tank for up to 2 hrs. It speeds healing. Eating difficulties is a side effect from treatments. Best of luck to you, its a long road, but it will get better.

They told me they wanted to pull my teeth and I told them to go to hell. 5 years later I still have all of them. They were well maintained however and I had no gum disease. Radiation is hard on the gums and I am a lot "longer in the tooth" then I was before Tx. I have cleaning and flouride done 3 x a year and do flouride at home as well. I really had to work at it while I was going through treatment and almost 2 years afterwards until my salivary function returned.

Oh, and did I mention that I told this to the head of the dental oncology school, considered to be one the the best in the nation...

Gary, you crack me up. Brought a smile to my face. I would have said the same thing, but I have had a long problem with gum disease. Matter of fact, the Oral surgeon said, my bones were really messed up. So as I sit here with my swollen jaw and ice bag as my blankie, I guess it was the right thing to do.

But I really want to put a bat up side his head. See how he likes the feeling. LOL

Eight years ago I had 1/4 tongue removed and 33 rad treatments. Did not lose a tooth, still have all of mine, go to the dentist a lot. However, now ca is back and on both sides of tongue and front floor of mouth. Oncologist says front teeth bottom have to be removed before surgery. I am upset but what the heck. I guess I can have a partcial or somthing. I am 68 and have never lost a tooth. Everyone toldme that after the rad I would probably lose teeth but did not. Only thing now is that I remember that they told be after rad that pulling teeth coulds be difficult. I have to look into that. Probably because of the site of your tumor.
God Bless

I sure as hell had to have my teeth pulled. RO said if zi didn't , the rads and chemo I had to have for tongue implants would make my tetth decay and then rot and cause infection. No choice, but I sure as hell miss eating. I did get good news from my Ins. They finally paid the 2,000 to the Oral Surgeon for pulling them. Now if I can get them to buy me new ones.

Everyones teeth rot and decay after chemo and RT - it takes a lot of work to maintain dental hygiene/health while going through treatment but if your teeth haven't been well maintained (or you have gum disease) there is about a 10% chance of osteoradionecrosis - ORN (literally bone-radiation-death) a real bummer. Extractions post Tx are particularly bad news and it is a lifetime risk. HBO can mitigate these issues sometimes. It used to be SOP to pull the teeth but that attitude is "old school" now. Some RO's wouldn't even begin Tx without teeth removal first. IMHO I believe it to be a barbaric practice that needs careful consideration and multiple opinions due to the QOL issues and uncovered costs of the implants. Extractions will often be covered if done under a general in a hospital.

Implants are another issue - I have heard of them running 20K or more and rarely covered by insurance.

I had Rad implants . This was done coming up thru my chin into my tongue. That is the reason for the teeth removal. I don't know if they would have made it thru this or not, but I sure hurt at times.

I have been told that the idea of having all teeth pulled prior to treatment is somewhat outdated and went the way of wringer washing machines. It seems that with IMRT radiation there is less dental damage than in years past. Of course, in my case nothing was said to me regarding dental issues with radiation but that is another long story. I feel that my treatment center dropped the ball in my case as I had to have a wisdom tooth extracted over a year post TX. I did the 20 pre and 10 post extraction HBO treatments as directed but ended up with ORN after all for which I had surgery for in January. I am now in the middle of doing 10 more HBO's per the recommendation of my Oral Surgeon. I am now suffering with and doing therapy for Trismus which resulted from the January surgery. Seems as those shoes just continue to drop one after another.

Bill D.