Cancer Survivors Network

I had radiation to my face. Per the Oncologist and radiation team I was told that radiation will thin bone. In my case, so much so that when my neck fell apart there was no way to put it back together. Everything was too brittle to drill and the damage was over too large an area. It kinda makes for a painful life. I have to wonder if there is a way to do a bone density scan on your head so you can have your answer to this question. Best of luck Slickwilly

I also had a bone marrow transplant which included total body radiation and high dose chemotherapy. That was in 1998 and all my teeth have gone bad since. My dentist wanted to do implants but said I would have to be off the Fosamax for six months before he would do the implants. I talked to my primary care doctor about stopping the Fosamax and he said I could go off the Fosamax but absolutely should not get dental implants. He said it's very risky for me because of the damage done to my bones. He told me to just get dentures. I feel like I'm too young for dentures but it's looking like my only alternative if I want to have teeth. I told my dentist what my PCP said and then he told me he had seen another bone marrow transplant patient who got four implants and two years later, all four of them failed. And you know these implants are very expensive and this person ended up being worse off after the implants. I can't imagine what you would have to go through with four failed implants. Not to mention the cost involved. So I have resigned myself to the dentures, as unhappy as I am about it. I am also interested in hearing from others who have had the radiation treatments and dental implants. Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Within the last 3 years I have had 2 back teeth removed, one just fell apart. That has never happened to me in my life and seemed strange. I too had total body radiation just a few short years after you had your transplant, I had mine - mine was for non hodgkins lymphoma.