Roof of mouth still severely irritated 4 weeks post radiation

You might want to have it checked for fungal/yeast type infection.

Hi @runner61627 welcome to the Head and Neck cancer group. This is where life has taken a side trip to the twilight zone.
The radiation in addition to destroying the cancer has also baked your mouth including the roof as well as the sinuses, salivary glands, tear ducts, and so forth. You most likely will have pain for several months which for many, Tylenol seems to work best.
Keep your mouth clean. Carry a toothbrush and some mouthwash or rinse with you in the car. You will still likely develop some mouth sores for a while despite the care you take.
Recovery from radiation is like recovery from a severe burn and perhaps worse. The healing time is much slower. If you measure improvement week over week rather than day to day, you will get a better idea of the recovery. It’s a lot to deal with especially if you were generally healthy in the past. You have to handle the pain and discomfort for a while but in time things will level out. Maybe not 100% recovery, perhaps 90% will be your new normal. Courage.

My husband is just over one year out from his last radiation for pharyngeal cancer. His last petscan showed the cancer gone. But the above writer is right, the radiation caused multiple difficulties that my husband is still dealing with. He is likely depressed also. He has trouble swallowing food and must drink a lot while eating. His feeding tube that was put in before treatment saved his life but he still has it, He uses Kate Farm nutritional drink once or twice a day as well as drinking Kate Farm coffee and chocolate flavored drinks. We are taking an eight week trip to visit our daughter and are having these supplements sent to her house. We truly do not know when he will be able to do without the tube. You may be looking at a long recovery. ❤️‍🩹 but keep trying everything you can to make it through.

@runner61627, my experience was similar although my radiation was aimed more toward ear than mouth. The associated burns healed slowly. When I had a worsening of pain and irritation, it was diagnosed as a fungal infection and treated topically. I had been using Magic Mouthwash from the doctor but I needed a stronger antifungal. Four weeks is right about when I started to notice an improvement, and like Wm said measuring it week to week is better than day to day. I used and oral lidocaine gel applied with a Qtip on the sorest spots just before eating. This is a miserable time, but you will get through it and food will eventually taste good again. Be strong.

Thanks for the thorough information. I’m almost at week 5 post treatment and the roof of my mouth is still extremely painful. I’m curious about the possibility of a fungal infection. How did you find out you had a fungal infection? Did your oncologist diagnose it? What test did they do to determine a fungal infection?
I’m going to call my oncologist and your answers will help. Thank you

Thank you - very useful information. I’ll be at 5 weeks post treatment and the roof of my mouth is still very painful. Doesn’t seem normal that it is this painful 5 weeks afterwords

Thank you very much for responding. Your reply is very informative and helpful. I didn’t have a feeding tube which is why I’m puzzled about the severe pain on the roof of my mouth now almost 5 weeks post treatment

I had ulcerations along the side of my tongue and inner cheek. So most of my pain was there. When my whole tongue became sore and red that was a change.
Then I started to feel like my tongue was hairy. About that time I was back for a recheck and all the nurse did was look at my mouth and said it was a fungal infection.
It cleared right up with treatment.