Rapa and Dental Work

I’m about to start my Rapa journey. Feeling very nervous :grimacing: . Due to have a crown. Would you wait before starting? I had one a few months ago with no problem or infection or anything. Or stop later before having it.

Natski17, I would stop a month before having a crown, maybe longer.

Stop before and after. Why risk healing when there’s essentially no harm to stopping Rapa for a month or so.

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Maybe I need to be educated, but I never thought of a crown as needing any healing at all. It is a simple mechanical issue. They grind off your tooth down to a stub that they then glue a replacement tooth to, to form the articular surface. I’m not sure exactly would be healing thereafter as the bond is primarily a glue, I don’t think there is any biological healing that takes place.

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Any time a tooth is cut, even with the best technique, there is the potential for pulpal inflammation and post op pain. Usually it is minimal and transient. BTW, other than a build up due to caries removal, the reduction in tooth structure is usually only 1.5-1.8mm. “Stub” is kind of a scary description. :flushed:

I don’t know, it is how my dentist has referred to it, and graphically, if you look at a tooth after it is ground down, pending a temporary then a crown … I’d say this image is generous compared to what I had left with my last one.
https://images.app.goo.gl/cWGhSuM1meAGQ9gm9

The issue is, there really isn’t anything particularly healing generally. It’s a little different than a surgical procedure with an incision that needs to have active cellular repair and regeneration.
I personally wouldn’t have this procedure stop me from keeping on with routine doses, just because I wouldn’t see it as an at risk condition for infection/need for healing. In general, I’d tend to time it between doses such that I make sure when the procedure is done, I’m not under much mTOR inhibition, and in the unlikely event I develop infection/inflammation after the grinding down and placement of temporary, then I’d naturally skip my next dose.
I’d just not see this particular procedure as being worthy of much more consideration of need to change what I’m doing with my meds/supplements.

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I have taken rapa for last 7 yrs during which time, I had multiple procedures including 7 implants without incident. My gums have barely receded and I am 78.

For those of you arguing in favor of continuing the Rapamycin, what is the downside of missing a couple doses?

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No clear downside, but that isn’t my issue with this. It is the thought that there is something to heal, when there isn’t. There would be more logic to stopping for an ankle sprain than for this. At least in the latter there is something to heal.
So if people want to stop each time they get a simple abrasion on their skin or bruise - go for it - BUT these 2 examples have more substance logically than ceasing for a crown in my estimation.
I would have a different opinion, for example if we were talking about dental abscess, or screwing dental implants into bone.

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What are thoughts on a major surgery like a knee replacement? Stopping one month before and a couple of months after?

I’ve heard that dentists have patients with artificial heart valves take antibiotics prophylactically to avoid infection from dental cleanings. I would have guessed that a crown would be more invasive than a cleaning but I’ve never had a crown (only a few cavities from childhood braces).

Heck, I think twice about a rapa dose if I bit my lip the day before. The loss of a week of rapa means nothing to me.

Rapa is my Hail Mary…I only throw it on the last play of the game.

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@DrFraser Appreciate that opinion. So then, is there a correct number of Rapa doses? I’d say we all mostly agree than nobody should take Rapa for longevity more often than once a week. But between zero doses a year and 52 doses, is there a correct number? If we miss doses here and there when we might be at increased risk of infection, does it matter?

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I suspect there is a right answer, between it being useless and being incredibly important. We’ll probably know this 100 years from now. The state of certainty on any of this is unclear. I agree that daily use is not a sensible plan.

My point isn’t in regard to needing never miss a dose, I’m simply pointing out that if someone is taking this medication and asks advice on whether a certain event would logically be a trigger to stop a given medication - I think there should be a logical reason to give an answer in the affirmative in order to tell someone to change their usual course of actions.

In this case I don’t see any such logic.

I have no problems with anyone skipping doses, or not taking Rapa at all - but the question is, what is a sufficient event to warn my patient to hold their dosing. A crown wouldn’t make sense to me. Most any surgery or infection probably would have me recommend this - actually I’ve had multiple patients with exactly this situation, and generally none for whatever their dosing interval is before the surgery, and none until they are sensibly healed and out of high risk time for infection - e.g. none 10 days before and then restart 14 days after has been pretty common - but this is for major stuff like back, joint, abdominal surgeries.

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I call rapa my “Blue Fairy”

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Are you taking Papa in pill form or brushing your teeth with a rapa infused toothpaste? I would like to try brushing with Rapamycin. Does anybody know how this is done? Thanks.

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I have a mouth pretty full of crowns. I would ask the dentist performing the procedure.
However, I was never cautioned about infection risk.