Dental healing after tongue cancer but no radiation or chemo

slk2015
slk2015 Member Posts: 54
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

I had tongue cancer last March and had 1/4 of my tongue and lymph nodes on the right side of my neck removed.  In May, I had two front teeth on the left pulled.  Then, in October of 2015, I had the remaining 8 teeth pulled on top.  My gums swelled up like crazy on the right side, but not the left, and took nearly two months to go down.  This month, I had two bottom teeth on the right pulled.  I ended up with a dry socket, massive swelling of gums, sick for over a week.  My dentist said it was not a normal reaction.  He has no idea what to do about it.  My theory is the removal of lymph nodes made drainage difficult and that's why the right side swells after extractions.  In both cases, antibiotics helped and I needed quite a bit of pain medication.  In the past, I had no problems with extractions and took Advil for pain.  

Has anyone else had experience with this?  My dentist wants to pull the remaining bottom teeth, but I am trying to figure out how to avoid going through the swelling and sick period again.  I'm down for a week or more when this happens, it messes with my blood sugars and so forth.  (My teeth were bad before the cancer was discovered, so this is not a new development.  The lack of saliva was a problem before, too.  I have a very dry mouth.  All of this was anticipated, but not quite so soon after the glossectomy.  I was thinking a year or two down the line, but the teeth did not cooperate.)

Comments

  • wmc
    wmc Member Posts: 1,804
    #2
    Sorry you are going through this.

    What you are describing sound just like radiation side effects, and never had radiation. I think that just having cancer can have some side effects but it is only my opinion.  Your red and white blood cells and be way off due to cancer and that might have something to do with it. Somethings just have no answers. My wife whan she was around 30 had tooth problems. She had what was called pearl white teeth and never had a cavity, not even oneand took very good care of them. Then something happened, and no one knows why. She lost them all in one year.

    Remember when you take antibiotics you need to take probiotics to replace the good that they kill.

    Bill

  • slk2015
    slk2015 Member Posts: 54
    #3
    wmc said:

    Sorry you are going through this.

    What you are describing sound just like radiation side effects, and never had radiation. I think that just having cancer can have some side effects but it is only my opinion.  Your red and white blood cells and be way off due to cancer and that might have something to do with it. Somethings just have no answers. My wife whan she was around 30 had tooth problems. She had what was called pearl white teeth and never had a cavity, not even oneand took very good care of them. Then something happened, and no one knows why. She lost them all in one year.

    Remember when you take antibiotics you need to take probiotics to replace the good that they kill.

    Bill

    Thank you for the reply.  I

    Thank you for the reply.  I too think this sounds like what people describe having happened after radiation, though I had none.  

    It would be kind of sad to lose all one's teeth in a year when you had no problems before.  My husband has great teeth.  He's in his sixties and has had very little dental work.  He may end up with a pulled tooth this year.  So far, so good.  Me, I lived at the dentist.  I actually wish I had gone the denture route sooner because I struggled with abcesses, crowns etc, but people said to keep your natural teeth as long as possible.  

    I've been taking probiotics much of the time since my surgery.  In addition to the urinary tract infection I got while still in the hospital after surgery, then an abcess on my neck (related to the neck dissection) that required IV antibiotics, and two times with dental work getting infected, I often wonder that there are any good or bad bacteria left in my system.  Frown

    Currently, we're considering starting with antibiotics before the extraction, making sure I plenty of pain relief so I can eat and function afterward, maybe pulling a tooth on the right and then the left to see if I'm right about the problem being on the right side, etc.  I hadn't anticipated problems since I had no radiation, but, as you note, everyone is different in their response.  If I had a $20 bill for everytime a doctor said "I've never seen that before", I'd be set for retirement!

  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #4
    slk2015 said:

    Thank you for the reply.  I

    Thank you for the reply.  I too think this sounds like what people describe having happened after radiation, though I had none.  

    It would be kind of sad to lose all one's teeth in a year when you had no problems before.  My husband has great teeth.  He's in his sixties and has had very little dental work.  He may end up with a pulled tooth this year.  So far, so good.  Me, I lived at the dentist.  I actually wish I had gone the denture route sooner because I struggled with abcesses, crowns etc, but people said to keep your natural teeth as long as possible.  

    I've been taking probiotics much of the time since my surgery.  In addition to the urinary tract infection I got while still in the hospital after surgery, then an abcess on my neck (related to the neck dissection) that required IV antibiotics, and two times with dental work getting infected, I often wonder that there are any good or bad bacteria left in my system.  Frown

    Currently, we're considering starting with antibiotics before the extraction, making sure I plenty of pain relief so I can eat and function afterward, maybe pulling a tooth on the right and then the left to see if I'm right about the problem being on the right side, etc.  I hadn't anticipated problems since I had no radiation, but, as you note, everyone is different in their response.  If I had a $20 bill for everytime a doctor said "I've never seen that before", I'd be set for retirement!

    Teeth

    Take care of what teeth you can but if they are giving any problem I would get them out so they are not a bigger problem down the road. So far I had only had to pull one tooth and that got me 10 dives in a Hyperbaric Chamber doing treatment so it would heal.

     

    Tim

  • Barbaraek
    Barbaraek Member Posts: 626
    #5
    Sorry to hear your

    teeth and mouth are such trouble spots for you. It seems like once you get past the initial cancer hurdle, there are still a bunch of other obstacles to overcome. I hope you develop a good plan for your dental problems and heal soon.

    Barbara

  • slk2015
    slk2015 Member Posts: 54
    #6
    Barbaraek said:

    Sorry to hear your

    teeth and mouth are such trouble spots for you. It seems like once you get past the initial cancer hurdle, there are still a bunch of other obstacles to overcome. I hope you develop a good plan for your dental problems and heal soon.

    Barbara

    My teeth

    Barbaraek:  Yes, my teeth and mouth have always been trouble spots.  I've spent hours and hours in a dental chair and still my teeth seem to turn on me!  Since it's part of a lifetime of fighting the teeth, it's probably not as stressful to me as it would be had my teeth just gone bad suddenly.  I also have oral lichen planus to add to the mess.  I often say my mouth hates me and all evidence says it does!         Laughing

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