Clinical · Conditions

Extracting in irradiated bone

Radiation does not heal like other tissue. The rule that keeps most of these cases out of trouble is simple to say and easy to skip under pressure: antibiotics, atraumatic technique, primary closure. The harder judgment is knowing which case should not be done in the first place.

In short

My rule for extracting in irradiated bone is antibiotics, atraumatic technique and primary closure — not a routine referral for prophylactic hyperbaric oxygen, which the stronger recent evidence does not support as a blanket practice. The case I would rather not do at all is a lower-jaw extraction in a smoker or a person with diabetes, with more than one tooth involved; if it has to happen, one tooth first, watched through healing, before touching the rest. These cases are not common — most extraction decisions are made well before radiation starts, at the dental-clearance visit — which is where the highest-yield judgment actually is.

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