Neck dissection and Oral surgery: They break Front teeth

mehrdad357
mehrdad357 Member Posts: 66
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

Hi all especially phrannie51,

My cancer has recurred and I am going to have a salvage surgery on Tuesday September 25 at Stanford. I cannot trust any oncologist. I saw my SO on Friday 9/21, by chance, and he told me my front teeth look weak and 1 or more may break during the surgery. He did not mention it on 8/20/18 when in consultation he spent 1.5 hours examioning me. My original cancer was treated with radation anfd chemo and radiation did a bad job to my teeth.  I want to send him an e-mail (health message) so that he'll see it either over the weekend or Monday morning, and if he tells me even 1 or 2, I will ask him to postpone the operation so that I can ask my dentist to work on my teeth from now till 10/30.

Here is where the problems come: He originally suggested October 30th, and I insisted on an ealier date even though in early september he was telling me it is OK to wait till 10/30. But I don't trust knowledge of oncologists. They seem to be shooting in the dark. the recurrence startd with cells that survived 35 rads, and are therefore very aggressive and I think they will spread faster than normal cells.  My original cancer was right BOT stage 4b. The recurrence is right BOT, right Tonsil and Pharyngeal wall, however thre tumor is smaller than the original at this time. He said he would call it a large T2. The other question is there something the surgeons may have that would "cover" or otherwise "protect" the front teeth during surgery? Finally there are 2 surgeons the H & N surgeon who removes the tumor and reconstructive surgeon. They tell me the total length of surgery to remove tumors inside the mouth and Selective Neck dissection will take a total of 10 hours (about 5 hours for each sugeon). Does this sound reasonable? Finally am I right that I don't want to give the cancer cells 35 more days to reproduce? This is the difference between 9/25/18 and 10/30/18 surgery dates.

I appreciate all feedbbacks, cause I am desparate and don't trust oncos.

Mehrdad

 

Comments

  • johnsonbl
    johnsonbl Member Posts: 266 Member
    #2
    Tough decision

    Get the cancer out or have dental work done which may or may not protect your teeth (because they may very well break during the procedure anyway).

    I do think they protect them in some respect with rubber material so that metal isn't directly coming into contact with your teeth but there all of us who've had procedures back there have run the risk of having teeth break.  Obviously they won't try and break them but they are wanting to get all of your tumor out.

    If it were me I'd have the surgery sooner to get it out and then I'd have dental work after to repair a broken tooth.  The 10 hour surgery time doesn't sound out of line.  I think my TORS surgery was up in that range...  

    Good luck.

    Brandon

  • wbcgaruss
    wbcgaruss Member Posts: 2,466 Member
    #3
    I would agree with johnsonbl

    Get the surgery and then take care of the dental work. As far as teeth breaking that is always a possibility if they are weak or in not so good shape. I had a rotator cuff repaired in my shoulder a month ago and when I woke up they informed me during the operation my one front tooth that has a crown or cap broke off apparently as they were intubating me for breathing. I told them don't worry about it, not your fault as I knew it was not in good shape.

  • donfoo
    donfoo Member Posts: 1,773 Member
    #4
    treat cancer sooner than later

    The thing with radiated mouths is damage done to the bones holding the teeth. As more rads hit the bone during treatment, ORN becomes any increasing potential. Mostly, the bone starts failing rather than teeth. Generally, the recommendation is to remove weak teeth before rads.

  • momall25ofu
    momall25ofu Member Posts: 81 Member
    #5
    Mehrdad, my husband just had

    Mehrdad, my husband just had a left neck TORS to the BOT, a muscle, and the pharyngeal wall, plus left neck dissection.  He was in surgery for 10 1/2 hours.  He gets better every day.  The loss of a few teeth does not compare to the knowledge that your cancer would be OUT of your body.  It has given us both such peace to know that they removed it.  If it comes back again, we'll deal with it then, but it my husband says daily how glad he is that the cancer is not in his body.  

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