Well, Today I had my second dental appointment at the Oregon health science University dental school. My rationale for going to the dental school was this. I need a dental implant. I can’t afford to do that at one of the local dentists and I could save a lot of money by going to the dental school. At my last oncology appointment I decided to forgo my Zometa infusion. My oncologist had informed me that the only way I could get a dental implant was to be off of the medication four months prior to the implant and an additional four months after the work has been completed. To me, my plan was a good one. Today my plan basically blew up in my face. The instructor at the dental school informed me that there was no way I would ever receive an implant. In his words, the intravenous biophosophate Zometa, stays in your bones for up to 10 years. The risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw is too great.What is osteonecrosis? Well, in layman’s‘ terms it means bone death. Honestly, there is only a 3% risk of developing ostia necrosis but the dentist feels that 3% is too great of a risk. That my friends is the bad news. I may soon be gumming my good. Actually that’s not quite true. I have many good teeth I just have one that broke off at the Gum level and it makes me feel incredibly bad about myself.
After reading and article about osteonecrosis of the jaw I decided my dentist was right. I don’t want to take the risk. I guess I will soon go back on Zometa.
OK everyone so that is the bad news. There was also some good news. I have very little gum recession. Other than the broken tooth I had very little dental work that needs to be done. There is also some other really good news. The broken tooth doesn’t have any decay. The root canal underneath it does not have any appearance of leakage. They also have a plan to fix it. For a few weeks, I will have a bridge across the two teeth that are next to the broken one. They will put an anchor in the tooth and use a elastic band to gently pull the tooth out of it’s socket. By doing this slowly the bone will grow around the root. When the tooth is above the gum far enough they will do a post and build and then put a crown on it. Hurray... the dentist is going to grow me a new tooth.
Well that is all for this update. Summer is coming. Yolo
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