Holy cow! What the hell is that? I heard that word for the second time in my life on friday even though I have absolutely no recall of the first time. That first time was a little more than 2 years ago when Roo and I were busy learning a whole lot of new words. We knew there was some danger to my teeth because of the radiation treatments but only now do I understand it better. My first thought when I asked for and received a good explanation was, why didn't they tell me this before? But I quickly realized that I probably just didn't listen too well the first time. I was too busy absorbing the big "C" word.
Anyway, it is because of this osteoradionecrosis stuff that they get a bit obsessed about taking care of your teeth. When they radiate any bone it loses a lot of it's natural ability to repair itself. Because radiation works to destroy cancerous cells through the deprivation of oxygen and vital nutrients, it inevitably destroys normal cells as well, damaging small arteries and reducing circulation to the area of the mandible. If this radiated bone then undergoes any other trauma including something as minor as a tooth extraction it could result in this condition. It has the potential to be extremelty serious and could even include a return of the original malignancy.
The good news is that my teeth show no sign of deterioration despite the fact that I have carelesly stopped doing my daily fluoride treatment. Even though I don't live in daily fear of this problem or of any other reccurrence I think maybe I'll get back to the fluoride anyway.
And that's your biology lesson for the day. If there were any errors or ommissions I expect that her holiness will correect me.
....I'm working on doing more of the first and less of the latter...
“The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue."---Dorothy Parker
...and this one I liked...
“The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty-stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man."---George Bernard Shaw
love
peter
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment