Hi again everyone,

Do any of you have any experience with patients complaining, or indicating
that salt water swishing can actually aggravate a mouth sore and impede the
healing process, rather than help in the healing process.  I believe it can,
but have never been able to ascertain this.

I wrote you about my torus surgery on 5/26/07 in the "suture thread".  Went
to dentist last Thursday and the stitches were indeed gone like I said (ie I
swallowed them).  He said the surgery looked okay and I told him it was real
sore and hurt when I swallowed, etc etc.  I go back next Thursday to discuss
the details of my supposed upcoming implant, and I told him I am not having
the implant until the torus heals.

Anyway I originally used "Amosans" wound cleanser to swish in my mouth (it
is the best thing you can use IMO - marketed by Oral B), but you can't buy
it (or order it) anymore in any pharmacy, so you have to order it somewhere
on the Internet.  I ran out of it, and switched to my old standby
"saltwater".  I could not tell if the saltwater was helping or hurting, so I
quit using it, and just swish with warm water now.  I had a pizza burn over
30 years ago, and it wouldn't heal, and I asked an oral surgeon if I should
quit using the saltwater, and he agreed that it could be possible it was
making the situation worse.  After a round of antibiotics, and picking a
bone chip out of the roof of my mouth, it finally got better.

Just wondered if anyone has ever heard of this phenomena (ie can saltwater
swishing aggravate a wound and actually make it worse).  You know what
happens when you poor salt into an open wound - ouch :-) .

I also have a side question.  I am having an EGD (endoscopic investigation
of esophagus, stomach and duodenum) on Tuesday, and I know the torus surgery
will still be sore (a lot of the white pseudo membrane is still there, and
red around it - BTW how long will it take for the white to go away by the
granulation process).  There is no way I will ask my gastro about this and
risk him canceling the procedure.  Do you think the endoscope could rub up
against my healing torus (position #17) and cause any problems.  I doubt it
because they give you a mouthpiece before you go under (he uses Versed, but
it knocks you out completely even though he calls it conscious sedation -
lol), and he passes the scope through the center of the mouthpiece and
therefore it should steer clear of the sides of my jaws I would think.  I am
going through with the EGD without mentioning it to him, but I am just
wondering if you could offer a comment on this also - so maybe I can have a
better piece of mind :-) .

Thanks...Pete