Bye bye loose canine

yeah it went....got progressivly looser and I managed to pull it out myself.

I'll give it a week or 2 to  heal up then go see the dentist and check if the one remaining tooth is going to stay stable enough to anchor some new falsies to it.


bummer eh... but small prices to pay.


10 years this year, since the surgery...I have done rather well, it pains me though to hear of others with similar or even lesser oral cancers having life threatening situations. I got off relatively light..

More teeth gone and added??

Well, hello... been a while?

Don't panic, there's nothing major to report, just the fact that my radiotherapy and/or reduction in blood flow has finally taken its toll on my front teeth, with a total of 3 now. 3 Bottom incisors gone, 2 fell out on their own, the dentist removed the 3rd before it went, to allow her to have somehing solid to build a set of false teeth. There's still a good chance I will also lose my right bottom canine as its become a little painful since the false bridge was fitted and I wear it as much for cosmetic reasons as I do for support of that tooth.
Oh I also had my wisdom tooth above the surgical site removed while I was there (no they didn't have a 2 for 1 deal), this has made opening wide a bit easier and yawns a bit less painful.

No implants possible unfortunatly, the bone is even more deteriorated than my xray image above, (I must ask if I can have a copy of my xray), there's essentially a semi circle less jawbone there which has died off. Almost certainly due to the radiation beam. The lack of anchor bone and the rate of its decay would mean implants would have nothing to bind to. I dunno if this is something that will continue and cause more harm, I guess the dentist will let me know when its a concern during a checkup.

But the falsies are not so bad, its just a case of getting used to them. I got a standard set of low cost ones first to get my head around wearing them, They are not especially unpleasant, but the ads about biting apples with false teeth using fixadent are really over selling :D I can however eat and talk and sing (without whistles) with them so am happier than I was with the original surgical site prosthesis. I didn't bother to extend the false set to my surgical site as there's no gum tissue to sit them on and it would just be uncomfortable.

I'll get a lighter pair later on in the year, when we establish if I can keep the wobbly canine, as well, but I'm not confident.

Nothing else to report, usual tenderness, moderate pain on yawning, and recently a friend got me in a playful choke hold which set of a wonderfully unpleasent 5 minutr spasm in my throat....take note any friends....don't do that to me please..

so I lost the tooth

When I was  on holiday in Kenya my bloody tooth came out. As noted before, both my bottom incisors were compromised because of bone necrosis of the jaw caused by my radiotherapy 7 years ago, the bone has been dying away all that time and exposing the teeth, the 1st one lost its foundations about 6 months ago and has been wobbly ever since. It has been a bit of a pain, the Dentist wants me to go to the hospital, but I was
a) busy
b) not happy about going back to the hospital.

So anyway, after a lot of discomfort and wobbling, biting into some toast one morning I bit down on the tooth and it was very painful, and sure enough a few hours later I realized it was still niggling and tugged it, and out it came. No pain, and actually quite a relief, but of course I now have a gap in my teeth.

Its not obvious really, my droopy lip, also cancer treatment relate,  hides it when I smile, but the gap is there to see when I talk.

But I have to say its better out, I can eat again, biting into food, and no fear of biting down on a sore tooth. Now the other tooth will come out in due course, then I will have to go the hospital and see if anything can be done (I know that they can't, there's no bone for an implant) but we'll see how the other tooth manages on its own for now, when, not if, it gets loose I'll talk to the dentist.

new stuff

Wow its been a while, how are you all, well I trust?

Me too I'm happy to say, but a small post script has come down the line 7 years after my surgery, it appears that I am going to lose a tooth or 2, as a resut of a type of necrosis due to poor blood supply to parts of my jaw. Caused by the surgery or radiation treatment.

Bit of a bummer really, the dentist tells me that much of the bone on my lower insisors has wasted away and there is nothing left to support the teeth, one is very loose the other will be soon.
I have to go to the jaw surgeon and see if there's any case for implanting some bone from elsewhere (probably not as the blood flow isn't good) and the more likely case is to remove the 2 teeth and have another prosthetic made.

I never really liked the old prosthetic as it was resting on bone with no gum to support it, making it quite unfomfortable after a short while, and I had to remove it when I ate. I stopped wearing it after a few months.

Oh well.....can't say I am happy about it but once again we have to consider the fact that had I not had the surgery I would be dead by now so its really a small, but annoying price to pay. It's not as if losing teeth is such a big deal these days, I guess we can come up with a decent pair of falsies to let me eat apples again :(

I'll update when I have seen the surgeon.

ermm hi

sorry....ummm nothing to report...still cracking on with life, it'll soon be the 6th year anniversary of my diagnosis...but I won't be doing much to "celebrate"
Still got a bit of pain in my neck, still got the scar, still not got my beard..but life goes on...as it should


;)

oh here's something

I have noticed something.....I was given a prosthesis to wear a few years ago, but I stopped using it as it was basically useless when I wanted to eat... I just decided to do without.

But recently I have noticed the teeth on my upper jaw were moving down...without something to bite on they are slipping down. I dug out my prosthesis and tired it on an sure enough the bite pattern is quite different.

I'm not sure it will actually cause any issue, in fact I'm planning to get at least my back wisdom tooth removed soon since its very hard to clean due to the surgery and seems to be decaying. But it might be something to consider if you are having a prosthesis fitted...its mainly to stop your upper teeth above any jaw surgery from descending. My own prosthesis is unlikely to reverse this damage but I can still wear it, but the issue of not being able to eat with it remains...so I'll let nature take its course.


that's it...nots really much of a news bulletin but I'm in pretty good heath, with no cancer related tales to tell, so I'll fade back into the mist and report anything that might come up in the future.

Not a lot to report still

Hi,
its been a long time, sorry to have neglected you for so long, but there's really very little to tell.

I've had a few visits to the doc for checkups but am stopping them now, I don't see the need any more and my 5 years is pretty much up, so I am going to consider myself clear.

Had a few minor issues with pain in my jaw, which was largely resolved by the fitting and occasional wearing of a dental split to fix my jaw in 1 place when I sleep. That's not nice or especially sexy to wear at night but it does seem to work well, so I use it from time to time.

Longer term things...hmm letsee...well I still have discomfort to the touch on my neck below the back of my jaw and just above the incision site, its never been fully explained but so long as I don't rub too hard its bearable.
I never fully recovered the sense of touch in my cheek/jaw, I can detect touch but its a bit odd and a little intense, and often manifests itself as a tingle in my ear...still freaks me out when shaving.

Nor did I fully recover the movement control of my bottom lip on the right side, so speech and smiles are notably droopy when I talk, but I don't spit at people as much now, and only drool when singing ;)

My beard never grew back on the side the radiotherapy zapped, so that's unlikely to change, I can never grow a full beard again...half...but never full, so its shave every day or so now.

I do from time to time, have problems with my right shoulder and brachial neuralgia, this can be quite intense but there's not a lot that can be done. Doc gave me some stupidly expensive pills to try to ease it but they did little/nothing and over the course of a few months it faded away. I only really just noticed this week that I wasn't in pain any more from this latest bout.

Also from time to time, and usually at the onset of a cold of flu, I get what can best be described as spasms in my throat, when it constricts incredibly tight and painfully, for short periods, its random and not at all pleasant but wasn't something I ever had before the surgery. I must say this is the most unpleasant of the legacies I have, but its not common thankfully.

And that's about it, in April it will be 5 years since the diagnosis, its been a pretty reasonable 5 years since, (not counting the actual 6 months or so of treatment) I have some scars and a noticable chunk of neck tissue missing, a crooked mouth when talking or smiling but otherwise I continue on...

I'll get back to neglecting you for now.