“Happiness is your dentist telling you it won’t hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill.” – Johnny Carson
Most of us on are on biophosphates to strengthen the bones after the onslaught of Myeloma. Before you got on this infusion, done every several weeks or few months, you needed to get a clearance from your dentist. There are all sorts of complications if you need significant dental work if you have been on these biophosphate infusions.
With that in mind, it is strongly advised that you increase your cleanings, from every 6 months to every 3 or 4 months. Which means, yet another out of pocket expense! ARGH! But do talk to your dentist about it and see what can be worked out. No exam needed, should cut the cost, paying cash might help. Appeal to them to offer you a cheaper price knowing you have to pay for it and why you are doing it.
In addition to that, step up your dental hygiene if you need to. And something a lot of people don’t realize, but when healthy you are supposed to change or boil your toothbrushes every 3 months. I don’t know if there is any data out there about doing it more often, since our MMer’s are compromised, but at least do the 3 month switch out.
Perhaps look at spending some extra money on the automatic toothbrushes that help to dislodge food particles and plague better.
I really like the relatively new mouth rinse Peroxyl, by Colgate. It has some peroxide in it and my dentist uses it. You can find it in your local grocery store or pharmacy.
Anyway, just a reminder to take some extra care to make sure you don’t get any infections or need any dental work that could cause problems because of these infusions.
Here is a link from About.com approved by their medical review board on the topic. They address the basic change because the toothbrushes wear out, but I think perhaps more often because of bacteria, which they mention if you have gum disease.
According to my hygienist, only Listerine will combat bacteria. Then there is some sort of clorox/water solution that can be used to combat viruses in the mouth, but don’t try it without discussing fully with your dentists and your MM specialist.
If you follow extra hygiene protections with common sense, you will hopefully be just fine.