Teeth issues

I had to have a tooth extracted about 6 months after chemo.   It was a tooth that had previously had a root canal.   I have a couple of friends who have had breast cancer who have had significant dental issues.  They are, however, also on an aromotase inhibitor that can cause osteoporosis, so not sure which is to blame.   I do chalk mine up to chemo because I had not been on an aromatase inhibitor long enough for it to be the culprit.  Those foks with the white jackets did not feel there is a connection, but I do.  So there!

Suzanne

I've had major problems with my teeth all my life.  I had a tooth that cracked in two different directions years before I was even diagnosed with cancer.  It didn't show up in my x-rays and it took a long time for my dentist to diagnose it.  He eventually decided I was grinding my teeth in my sleep, undoubtedly as a side effect of my stressful job in a hospital.  He made me a bite plate to put over my upper teeth to protect  all my teeth from the grinding.   I had to wear it to bed.  I eventually had so many other dental problems that with various crowns and root canals, the bite plate couldn't be adjusted to fit any more.  I wonder if your cracked tooth might have come from stressing out over your cancer in your sleep.  Just a thought.

Celiac disease is something else that can affect the teeth, especially the enamel.  Celiac disease can develop any time in a person's lifetime.  People who have had celiac disease since childhood often have dark lines running across their teeth showing disturbances in their enamel. Scientists aren't quite sure why some people get it later in life. They suspect it might start sometimes after a person has had a viral infection.  There are blood tests that can be done to diagnose it if the person has been continually eating gluten.  If not, a biopsy of the small intestine can be done to look for disturbances to the villi (finger-like projections) caused by damage by gluten.  My mother was diagnosed with it at 84.

I did learn that one side effect of my chemo was less immunity to skin cancer.  I had a suspicious mole taken off that had appeared right after chemo, and it was an actinic keratosis that could have turned into a malignant melanoma in time.  My dermatologist warned me to be on the look-out for more odd spots.  This one didn't fit the bill of normal skin cancer since it was smaller than the eraser on a pencil and not irregularly shaped.  However, it appeared a bit darker than my other moles (of which I have many), so I pointed it out to the dermatologist.  He decided it should come off, and he was right.  My husband and I have shared many diagnoses over the years, and he had melanoma two years before I got my cancer.  I'm glad I caught my spot before it could become one.