Dentures plus implants after radiation

@gregfrost Actually....my dentist told me that many of,his patients complain that their dentures cause them to salivate more. That's what happens to me. Mine is just a partial but it does cause me to salivate.

Even people that had radiation causing them to lose saliva?

@gregfrost I have more saliva when I'm wearing my partial. Its one of the things that reminds me to put it in before breakfast. My dentist offered to make me a trial partial for free to see if I could tolerate it due to my tongue reconstruction. Maybe ask your dentist for that.

@sandy8043 do you know how much radiation you received how many gy?

I’m 62 and completed 33 rounds of radiation on my right tonsil after finding tonsil cancer after having it removed. I completed radiation on May 30, 2024. My dentist pulled a molar on this side in June of 2025. My oncologist was frustrated that he was not involved in the decision. I currently have another molar on bottom right that has a failed root canal which needs removed and a molar on the upper left with the same situation. My dentist referred me to an oral surgeon. Between the two they want me to pull an additional 3 more teeth. I’ve gotten second opinions from my periodontist and endodontist and will meet again with the oral surgeon next week. The oral surgeon and my oncologist are strongly recommending hyperbaric oxygen treatments HBOT to help stimulate red blood cells and promote healing, and to aid in not developing ORN. Ironically the endodontist wasn’t as enthusiastic about this as a necessity, the tooth I had pulled last year healed fine. My oral surgeon seems to think implants on the radiated side will be fine. I find it interesting that doctors, dentists, oncologist and the like don’t seem to have the same theories about dental work on those of us who have been through radiation of the head and neck. I have root canals in my front two teeth (hit with a softball when I was 18 and still have the teeth) I’m concerned if one breaks off that I will need to do HBOT again if I want to do implants on those teeth, the oncologist says the front 8 teeth should be fine without it if the need arises for implants in those teeth.
I’m on the same page as the other person who posted about not knowing about the dental ramifications after radiation, I feel like my oncologist barely brought this up prior to treatment and my dentist had no suggestions, I see through some of these feeds that some were encouraged to do fluoride trays after radiation.
Hope this might help someone going through anything similar.

I'm having same thing need two lower molars pulled had 5240 gy in that area one oral surgeon suggest hbo treatments while another oral surgeon claims I don't need it with all new antibiotics,and use your own blood that spins in something that is injected during procedure NOW I'm really confused? Anybody ever went threw this new technology they are talking about and passed on hbo thanks

@gregfrost I’m completing my last 10 dives right now. I did 20 before extractions and now the 10 after. There are currently 2 other woman in my group doing this same protocol, one is doing it for her second time 13 years post radiation for tonsil cancer as well and also needing more teeth extracted. My oral surgeon used GEM21 in the extraction site to promote healing and PENTO protocol which uses Pentoxifylline and vitamin E as a precaution after extractions. I’m curious to know more about the new blood procedure and will ask my oral surgeon about it on a follow-up visit. Doing the HBO dives is very time consuming. I’ll keep you posted as I continue on this journey.

@gregfrost I’m completing my last 10 dives right now. I did 20 before extractions and now the 10 after. There are currently 2 other woman in my group doing this same protocol, one is doing it for her second time 13 years post radiation for tonsil cancer as well and also needing more teeth extracted. My oral surgeon used GEM21 in the extraction site to promote healing and PENTO protocol which uses Pentoxifylline and vitamin E as a precaution after extractions. I’m curious to know more about the new blood procedure and will ask my oral surgeon about it on a follow-up visit. Doing the HBO dives is very time consuming. I’ll keep you posted as I continue on this journey.