Hubby announced this morning that he thought he had another tooth that was abcessing. This makes the 2nd one in 4 months. The first one was one of the teeth that shattered after a year on high dosages of prednisone. This one is no where near the other tooth. He has always had exceptional teeth and has taken good care of them. Has anyone else had problems with their teeth since they have been on medications for PMR?
He is down to 12 mg's of pred as of this morning. He is to be at 10 mg by the middle of December. He will have 3 days of being sleepy, crabby, and depressed if he remains true to form before he adjusts to the drop.
I thought I had an abcess starting and an xray confirmed a slight infectionHubby had an itchy head, achy jaws, very tender scalp. He thought he had shingles but that was when they discovered that he had temporal arteritis. He came close to losing his eye sight. We had a doctor that recognized the itchy, tender scalp for what it was because his father had had the same thing. He did not know how to treat it (his father died) and Hubby almost did also before we insisted that we be referred to Mayo Clinic. We almost got smart to late. Sometimes we feel that we know more than most of the medical community which I am sure most of you do also. We are very leary of any meds that the big pharmas are pushing. Particularly those that you have to have your liver and kidneys checked for damage.
No teeth issues. But, had a sensitive scalp on the top and front of bang line. Nothing on the side of the heads or vision issues. Increased dose of Medrol took care of the sensitivity. Also, had Voltarin added to help with inflammation. Because of increased BP we could not raise the Medrol.
Now in the taper phase of 2 mg every two weeks. Now, starting 20mg.
I have an appointment to see a neurologist next week. The leg pain, pain in arms (sunburn) feeling is not going away with the Medrol. The legs feel heavy after walking and stairs are a nightmare. Fatigue is awful, although better with increased dose of Medrol. Sed Rate is still high.
Because of the Voltarin, and prior history of acute renal failure from dehydration, I'm committed to seeing the doctor every two weeks to monitor my blood work to see if the medication is affecting the kidneys or liver.
Just had to do a 24-hour urine and need to see the kidney specialist once a month untill we are sure the medication is not messing anything up.
Sometimes we blame the PMRA for things, and it could be another issue developing that we feel is related to the PMRA.
Donna, NY
Kants.....I didn't take the Enbrel that was suggested, mainly because the price was out of this world. I was on Methotrexate and couldn't take it because it raised my liver count.
It is good thing you got to the Mayo and got treatment for your husband. My primary physician suspected that was what I had on the first visit and referred me to a rheumatologist. I was lucky. I also thought that it was because I lived in an area of mainly descendants of northern Europeans and supposedly according to many, we are the most susceptible to PMR. I thought that maybe if I lived down in the Southern states, maybe my doctor would not be so quick to know what was going on. I read one article that said 20% of some county in Minnesota had PMR at one time or another. There are many Scandinavian descendants living there. I live in South Dakota and my grandparents came from Northern Germany right near the Denmark border in Schslweg Holstein.
I've often wondered what people did in the olden times before there was medicine to treat PMR and all the other diseases that are so painful. Mary
Hi Kants, I have had more teeth problems since being on Pred than I have ever! Have had fillings fall out with some tooth attached, broken tooth and also needed an extration, too much tooth had shattered. Could have had capped and crowned ect. but we decided not worth it because of the ongoing long term use of Pred. My dentist said the most likely cause is the Pred. Started March 06 on 10mg now down to 5mg. I have dropped by 10 -7.5 -10 for 2 weeks then 7.5 for about 6 months then 7.5-5-7.5-5 ect for another 2 weeks. I will be on 5 until April 08. I have not had flares doing it this way. Best wishes.Yesterday Hubby had his second root canal done in the last 2 months. This made me wonder why he was having this sudden problem with his teeth so I started "googling". One thing led to another and I found information on Amalgam Fillings which are anywhere from 30 to 70% composed of mercury. The information also said that the mercury leaks from the fillings when one chews, drinks hot drinks, grinds ones teeth, etc. This is real scary!
The diseases caused by mercury lists joint pain, morning stiffness, rheumatoid arthritis, skin rashes, skin bumps, MS, ringing in the ears, depression, and the list goes on and on. Does this list sound familiar to anyone else?
One of the articles also went on to list the things to consider if you think you might have mercury toxicity. He had several of the symptoms listed when he was first diagnosed with PMR and temporal arteritis. At present time he has a red rash under his arms that does not go away. He also has run a temp since the removal of the Amalgam filling. They did put protective glasses on him and had the tooth isolated with a rubber sheet so none of the stuff was inhaled. They filled the tooth with something else. It is more the color of the tooth.
We are seriously considering having the rest of those silver fillings removed and replaced with something else.
Hi Kants,
Thanks for the info!
I just had an old filling and part of a tooth fall out. I didn't think it was related but the dentist wants to put on a crown and says there are many more old fillings now in urgent need of crowns also. I just went to the dentist for a full check up 7 months ago (xrays and all) and everything was fine. I've been on Pred for two months. Maybe it is the Pred?
Kathy
Hi Kathy, I find I am grinding my teeth more since this PMR. Don't know why. I think the pred depletes the calcuim in our system, and that effects our teeth. I was worried about the dentist working on my teeth while taking the pred? Any one know anything about that? GeriNana,
I think you're right about the speed effect PGR. I have been grinding way more than usual since taking pred.
Kathy