Hi Dana,

The endodontist was misleading your mom 100%. He can retreat the tooth 1000 times and would still not remove all of the infected nerve. Along with that, each retreatment causes more internal tooth damage, more trauma to the bone (and the patient!!), more inflammation, more likelihood of fracturing that tooth and what about the systemic affect from all of this infection? Those are the issues he should have told your mom and you and then allowed her to make the decision as to whether or not she wanted it retreated. I doubt he told her any of those things.... right?

The fact that this tooth is part of a bridge becomes one of the primary reasons why they push the root canal therapy in that they don't want to deal with the consequences of not being able to replace that tooth.... especially due to her age. They also are either totally ignorant to the literature in their monthly journals or at best (silently) concerned about the connection between her Bisphosphonate use and removal of that tooth. Those drugs prohibit the formation of new bone growth so it is risky to remove that tooth because that surgical sight may not heal. With that said, the chronic infection exacerbates the likelihood of the bone not healing. So they misinform the patient by telling them the root canal(s) are going to make everything just fine.... and now she's been through hell and probably feels badly that she trusted their word.

The primary concern here is her systemic and mental health...and retaining this infected tooth can be a huge source of problems for her. I often recommend people to search for a dentist who belongs to an organization called the IAOMT. Their website... www.iaomt.org

This is a worldwide organization of physicians, dentists and other practitioners who were traditionally taught their profession but have chosen to continue their education outside of the conventional arena. They combine traditional with wholistic methods by using safer, less toxic dental materials, follow safe/sterile protocols when doing procedures and basically follow an Integrative approach so as to consider the patient as a whole person and not just the one issue at the moment.

With regard to the Bisphosphonate use and jawbone infection....every dentist who is not blind is seeing it, they are either ignorantly or deliberately not connecting the two together. If that wasn't bad enough, they rarely will acknowledge that they never even took her medication into consideration. I can tell you from my perspective... dentists are talking amongst themselves about these drugs and are relying on the medical profession to tell them what to do. Stupid huh??

Ugh.... you must be mentally anguished over this. Please look into the IAOMT and see if you can come up with someone within a reasonable distance. That is where I would look if this were about my own mother.

Please keep me informed on how things are going...
Bryanna



QUOTE=DC02;808721]Bryanna, thanks for the quick reply. I posted too quickly yesterday and should have clarified that the same tooth has had 1 root canal, followed by 2 retreatments. So 1 tooth (part of a bridge) is involved. In retreating the tooth, the endo said he was "cleaning the canals" and "getting medication where it needed to go." (I know.... makes you furious...)

We've talked to other dentists and doctors, most of whom said they knew of no one taking a bisphosphonate drug who developed a jawbone infection. But most knew about thigh fractures.

I'll keep looking for an oral surgeon who knows about the effects of bisphosphonates.

Thanks again!

P.S.: Without getting too specific, medical background initially was ignored. My mother filled out forms listing her ONE medication. Dentist saw that medication listed after infection appeared....[/QUOTE]