What a turn up for the books! I’ve been bemoaning the fact that my bottom implant-anchored plate is not quite finished yet. It’s still covered in resin. It’s over two years now since the implants were inserted to hold the plate but I’m not bovvered right now and have had an exciting new development in the long journey to supply me with teeth.
Yep, I’m a recurrent head and neck cancer survivor and even this week my surgeon was a bit worried about inflammation where he removed dysplasia from my inner cheek in January. My exciting new development though is that the specialist dentistry service, overburdened as it is, is offering me upper implants. These are needed because the teeth supporting my upper partial denture were removed over Christmas and I’ve been hiding my gummy mouth with a mask since then.
Both services assure me that they can work round my little cancers and precancers that occur from time to time. While I’m on that subject I’d like to reassure readers that I am in a select group of HNCers who have experienced such a bad field change in the cells lining the mouth that I’m prone to recurrences. They are usually small, superficial, caught early and a blimmin’ pain. No one knows how to prevent this although some research has been done into Vitamin A.
So the new development is one that was mentioned many months ago – to remove all the top teeth and install implants. When two of the teeth bit the dust over Christmas the system seemed to be jolted into action. An appointment with a maxillofacial surgeon was reassuring that I didn’t have osteoradionecrosis but there wasn’t enough bone to insert implants so why not try an ordinary denture? I didn’t want bone augmentation.
I also factored in my age, the prosthodontist’s time, my tendency to get cancers and the long time it takes for implants to integrate into the bone – 6 months.
The wheels turned. I was suddenly given an appointment with the specialist dentist and prosthodontist at Greenlane. It was an uplifting appointment because they were enthusiastic about removing my two little remaining toothpegs and inserting TWO implants to anchor a plate. If augmentation was needed they didn’t need to get the bone from my body, they have a bone bank, similar to a blood bank. Two implants will be much easier than four where the one at the back was so hard to unscrew for maintenance work because of my trismus.
This time I was given almost a surfeit of information. They showed me a mandible scan from various angles on the screen. From the side I could see that the bone wasn’t too bad and learnt that sometimes some soft tissue is used to make the implants fit snugly into place. (The even have a membrane bank.)
They had thought about the process. They know I don’t like GAs because I have to be intubated through the nose while awake, but the procedure can be done with local anaesthetic. If everything worked like a dream they could insert the implants at the same time as they took the teeth out.
I know it might not work out. The dentistry department doesn’t have the last word – that comes from the maxfax department but it sounds as if there’s a working chance.
My long experience with head and neck cancer and the Auckland service that has treated me makes me feel a variety of emotions from joy, to disappointment, to frustration to gratitude.
Overall the service has looked out for me and although the wheels turn slowly in the dental space, I think I’m back on the train and I’m going to hang on tight. If I fall off, I’ll be cushioned by the deep sense of fatalism I’ve developed over the years.