Tooth Decay

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Pat634
Pat634 Member Posts: 271
edited June 2014 in Chemotherapy - Before, During, and After

I am wondering if chemo, rads, or Femara would cause previously healthy teeth to easily decay and what can be done to reverse it.

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  • Outfield
    Outfield Member Posts: 1,109
    edited June 2013

    Pat, did you vomit a lot or have side effects in your mouth during chemo?  Vomiting can damage tooth enamel and dry mouth hastens tooth decay.  

    Personally, I had a lot of trouble maintaining good dental hygiene during chemo because everything was sore and irritated and I wasn't allowed to floss a lot of the time.  But what suffered longterm were my gums, not my teeth, so this does not sound like a similar experience.

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  • MizMarie
    MizMarie Member Posts: 332
    edited June 2013

    I had only minor mouth irritation during chemo, but I did develop a cavity seemingly overnight.  I'd had x-rays right before dx, and when I went in for my next cleaning shortly after my last tx, my dentist found new decay with his probe, that hadn't been there before.  It had been many year since I'd last had a cavity.  I'm 18 months PFC now, and things seem to be back on track.  :-)

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  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited June 2013

    I just had dental work done for the first time (other than cleaning which I have done every 6 months) since the end of chemo - I had a number of areas treated because I can only see the dentist at certain intervals due to receiving Prolia injections.  He worked on three areas in my mouth and said that each one was actually worse than it appeared on x-rays.  He felt that it was damage from chemo and I am fairly sure he has researched this because his wife had stage III ovarian cancer (she is doing fine now!) because he specifically discussed this with me.

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