First, thank you for all the fantastic help and advice...now my question. 9 months post diagnosis and (mainly) tapering well from 15mg to 9mg.In a day or so, I need to have a tooth removed. 63 and with "my generation" teeth.
The dentist has advised to double dose on the day of the procedure. That seems sensible to me, but does this community have further/different advice?
TIA
Seems fair enough - no harm in doing so, Personally I have never taken extra pred to have a tooth out - have had a wisdom tooth that was growing squint removed and a molar with a fractured root out which was marginally more excavation but neither was a problem. And I have had a root canal done with no extra.
I had an extraction when newly diagnosed and on 15mg pred. The (hospital) dentist said they would usually say to double the dose on the day, but in my case he said to take just 5mg more. Hope all goes well for you.
gosh. I never thought of it. I have an extraction in the next few weeks, but didn’t think about increasing pred. They think the roots will crumble & may need digging out, but the wait at hospital is 11 months. New dentist says she’s happy to remove it (after studying x-rats, & doesn’t see any problems. I’m at 2mg.
I had to have an upper, back tooth extraction but was complicated by an infection further up the bone structure, so my surgeon dentist had us move to the operating room once the tooth was actually out and he had to work on the bone infection
anyway he had me take 2 x 20mg cortisone before hand, for that plus 2 x anti biotic dose and served me parcetamol before I left....funnily enough I had been working with a healer and had NO PAIN whatsoever after all of that...
but the extra cortisone was related to the work rather than my daily pred dose
I had wondered if this bone infection had brought on PMR, and I only discovered it after having a cone beam scan.. as it was too high for the usual dental X-rays, and too low for a London hospital scan on my ear! I had had a recurrent blocked ear in that area too for some years, probably all related, but PMR did not magically disappear after that! I just went back to the normal dose the next day
Interestingly enough the pred has caused my cheeks to fatten a lot and be more rigid and the dentist found it quite difficult to work with that, since then I have made sure I put some cream on the face daily (rarely did before) and do 'cheek blowing' exercises to keep them more flexible...
I've had root canal and extractions whilst on prednisolone. Have not increased my dose for either. My dentist said not necessary and my Rheumatologist agreed. Hope it all goes well for you.
Bear in mind that you will be tired by the operation - so give yourself plenty of rest time...
Good advice! I had a longish root canal procedure and was surprised at how tired I was the next day. Took it very easy!
The double dose is exactly what my dentist advised when I had an extraction; and by chance I had a conversation with a pharmacist around the same time who agreed. All went well
Thank you to all who responded. The extraction went very well, almost painless. I did double dose for one day and although I felt "knocked about" for about 24 hours there was no sign of a flare. Now back to eating normally. Thanks again.
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Concern about possible tooth extraction 
