Hello, Had tonsil cancer in 2008. Radiation, chemo & neck dissection. in 2010 had to have 7 teeth extracted. did 20 & 10 hbot treatments. all went well and never had problems. teeth started rotting about 2017, 2019 and all bottom teeth are broken off and need 22 teeth extracted for dentures. will i need hbot treatments again? my jaw bone is strong, feeling all back in my face, and no problems with healing of cut or anything . anyone in here that could hurt it would be appreciated. thank you
Im very sorry to hear your teeth need to be removed!!! It happened to me as well, and it really stinks!!! Did you have fluoride trays made to use when going thru rads? I used the fluoride trays with prescription fluoride gel but my teeth still couldnt withstand the damage rads caused.
Im very familiar with HBO, doing over 200 HBO dives. I greatly dislike doing HBO dives due to the great amount of time it requires. It took about 4 hours from the time I left home to the time I returned after doing HBO. The whole time Im in the glass cylinder, Im thinking of the millIon other things that need my attention. While Im not the biggest fan of going thru HBO dives, I love the fantastic results I get from HBO. I definitely recommend HBO for OC patients who have a hard time healing (usually after rads), as long as they are cancer-free. In the past Ive had significant healing issues from surgeries and my OC treatments. After trying many different things, the wound care specialists added HBO along with a picc line for IV antibiotics on top of their special wound care remedies. Thats what it took for my stubborn wounds to finally heal.
According to several different facilities and doctors, HBO is good for varying lengths of time. Each doc had a different opinion on how long dives were working before another set of dives was required. I have heard HBO dives expire anywhere from 1 year to 4 years after finishing the 20/10. Many of our members have had varying amounts of dives and each reported different lengths of time their HBO covered. Unfortunately since your HBO dives were back in 2010, you will need to redo the 20/10 (Marx Protocol) before extractions. A word of caution, if your doc or dental professional doesnt automatically discuss HBO being needed, thats a big red flag! OC is not one of the more well known cancers where its not unusual to find dentists, oral surgeons, ENTs, doctors and other medical professionals who arent familiar with all the details on OC, side effects, treatments, recovery and all the other complications OC patients/survivors go thru.. Some have never had a n OC patient/survivor as a patient. Not all doctors and/or dental professionals know the importance of HBO for OC patients/survivors. HBO is done to help prevent a far worse problem from happening down the road, ostheoradionecrosis. Thats something none of us would want to go thru!!! If your doc isnt fully aware of the benefits and risks OC patients face with getting dental extractions, I'd strongly suggest getting a second opinion before anything is done.
A couple of other things to be aware of if HBO is in your future. Ive found every set of HBO dives has affected me differently. The last set of dives was the hardest to get thru. I've had my vision become progressively worse the further along I went with the last set of HBO dives. The other thing that may have changed since you last did HBO is many doctors/facilities now require all patients to have tubes put in their ears before they are able to do HBO. This is a safety issue to ensure patients dont end up with a ruptured eardrum from not adapting to the pressure. Make sure you tell the HBO tech immediately of any side effects you notice prior to doing another dive. Delaying in telling about any changes could make something thats minor and easily fixed into a serious health concern. Also if you are experiencing any pain when "going down", immediately tell the tech and they will can stop the dive to allow your body time to adjust to the pressure. Even after many successful HBO dives and having tubes put in my ears, I occasionally had issues with the dives. This was especially prevalent during if I had sinus or allergies causing congestion.
Hope this helps! Good luck with your HBO!!!
Howdy - Sorry to hear about your needed teeth extractions. I had a loose tooth extracted a few months ago. The oral surgeon, drew blood and spun it into a clot. I'm not sure of the mechanics but, the clot was inserted into the socket after the tooth was removed. I followed up with the oral surgeon and my dentist, both were very pleased with the healing. I'm not sure if it will come up in my signature but:
20 year survivor
two rounds of radiation
one round of chemo
ORN resulting in jaw removal
Best wishes for a good outcome with your tooth extractions
Hi I wonder if all oral surgeon know about this I will have to run this by my surgeon, I went to see him and he said oh eventually it will just fall out of my mouth, but the gum looks terrible, afraid of getting ORN.
https://oralcancerfoundation.org/complications/osteoradionecrosis/i had to look up what ORN was despite my dental background and because of my curiousity due to my dental background!