Infection

I am back! About a week ago one of my husbands mollars fell out. This morning he woke up and his face was swollen where the tooth fell out. He said it's pretty bad and would not give me any details. He is going to see a PA today (not happy about that), his doctor is not in today. Anyways, I hope they get the infection under control. ASAP! The last time he had some kind of infetion, it went to his heart. I understand sometimes it's hard for the gums to heal after radiation. Anyone have any experience with infections in the mouth after radiation?

 

Comments

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    Experienced Dentist or Oral Surgeon..

    He might want to see a Dentist experienced with radiation treatement to the H&N, or Oral Surgeon that is familiar with radiation treatment, and the long term effects..

    The main thing like you are aware, is to get the infection under control before it goes to bone, or anything worse.

    Best ~ John

     

  • fisrpotpe
    fisrpotpe Member Posts: 1,349 Member
    Skiffin16 said:

    Experienced Dentist or Oral Surgeon..

    He might want to see a Dentist experienced with radiation treatement to the H&N, or Oral Surgeon that is familiar with radiation treatment, and the long term effects..

    The main thing like you are aware, is to get the infection under control before it goes to bone, or anything worse.

    Best ~ John

     

    agree

    i so agree with John 

     

    call your ent and find out who they use for dentist and oral surgeon with radiation treatment experience. 

     

    my experienced opinion is you will end up with oral surgeon and have it removed. you do not want the infection to get into the jaw bone either. 

     

    good luck! 

     

    john 

     

  • Tim6003
    Tim6003 Member Posts: 1,514 Member
    fisrpotpe said:

    agree

    i so agree with John 

     

    call your ent and find out who they use for dentist and oral surgeon with radiation treatment experience. 

     

    my experienced opinion is you will end up with oral surgeon and have it removed. you do not want the infection to get into the jaw bone either. 

     

    good luck! 

     

    john 

     

    Sorry I have no experience on this one ...

    but I did whisper a prayer all goes well.....sorry you have to deal with this (but boy I tell you from all your posts I have seen he is one blessed man to have you as his caretaker) .

     

    Best,

     

    Tim

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    Molar Fell Out...

    I forgot to mention, that in itself is of concern...

    He might already have something going on that needs addressed quickly. If he just had a molar fall out, there might be some kind of degenerative issues going on.

    John

  • Pam M
    Pam M Member Posts: 2,196
    Man!

    If it's not one thing . . .  

    I'm with the others - seeing a doc with experience with head and neck cancer/radiation survivors sounds like a great idea.  Seems like he's much too young to have a tooth just fall out. 

    Sorry you've got something to sweat over again.  Hope it's not that way for long.

  • Greend
    Greend Member Posts: 678
    Molar

    I had one molar that kept getting infected and would just make life miserable.  It was in a tooth I'd had a root canal so I knew there were no nerves but the infection would make me sick.  One afternoon I felt it wobbling around in my head so I just reached in and pulled it out.  My six year old grandson now thinks I'm Superman.  The problems started after this episode because it never would heal up properly and I ended up getting a bridge that included covering that part of my gums.

     

    Superman Jr.

  • arndog64
    arndog64 Member Posts: 537
    Greend said:

    Molar

    I had one molar that kept getting infected and would just make life miserable.  It was in a tooth I'd had a root canal so I knew there were no nerves but the infection would make me sick.  One afternoon I felt it wobbling around in my head so I just reached in and pulled it out.  My six year old grandson now thinks I'm Superman.  The problems started after this episode because it never would heal up properly and I ended up getting a bridge that included covering that part of my gums.

     

    Superman Jr.

    yeah we need to get it checked out

    i noticed the area where his tooth fell out looked black the other day which leads me to belive he may have tissue damage. 

    The infection has gone down. I will check the coloring tomorrow and see if its back to pink.

    Correction - no black was seen by periodontist, he has referred us to an oral surgeon. We will be seeing him tomorrow.

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    arndog64 said:

    yeah we need to get it checked out

    i noticed the area where his tooth fell out looked black the other day which leads me to belive he may have tissue damage. 

    The infection has gone down. I will check the coloring tomorrow and see if its back to pink.

    Correction - no black was seen by periodontist, he has referred us to an oral surgeon. We will be seeing him tomorrow.

    Out of the Black...

    Glad you clarified that, LOL...

    Black is definitely not a good color for tissue.

    Prayers for a simple Dx...

    John

  • Billie67
    Billie67 Member Posts: 898
    Skiffin16 said:

    Out of the Black...

    Glad you clarified that, LOL...

    Black is definitely not a good color for tissue.

    Prayers for a simple Dx...

    John

    Dental oncologist
    The oral surgeon is a must and he may even refer him to a dental oncologist. He may end up needing to do some HBT to get some O2 back into those tissues. Our bones and tissues need good blood supply to remain healthy and radiation depletes us from that. I have 16years experience in the dental field and we would always see our rad patients on 3 month recalls. I assume that his molar fell out due to severe bone loss, infection or a combination of both. HBT would probabaly help to prevent more of this from happening.
    Good for you for addressing this quickly.
    Keep us posted.
    Billie