Just went to the dentist for my six month check-up and he noticed that I had developed several cavities at the gum line. The tooth enamel was wearing thin. He asked if anything in my diet or medical history has changed. Only the IVIG treatments. Wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience? A small price to pay for our continued good health, just curious.

I had the opposite effect. My dentist said that she saw significant improvement in my gum erosion. She too asked me what I had been doing different, and Ivigg was the only answer I could come up with.

I have had issues with my food not staying down since I have had IVIG treatments. I have been concerned some about the potential effects from that which I understand can be erosion on teeth among others. Are you having that issue which could, maybe affect your teeth? (I have been on omeprazole for acid reflux) My current issue doesn't seem to be acid related as it is occurring almost immediately after eating.

I have not had any problems with acid reflux or having food staying down. Thanks for the replies.

It would be a good idea to look into the long term side effects of IVIG. One thing are the headaches every four weeks and another the possibility of more serious problems after years of treatment.

I did a quick review of the medical and scientific literature on IVIG, which is vast because IVIG has been used as a therapy for a variety of illnesses for over six (6) decades, such that literally thousands of articles have been written about IVIG and its uses. Immunoglobulin preparations were first used during the 1950s as a replacement therapy for primary immunodeficiency disorders. Initially, these were administered by intramuscular injection, but in the early 1980s, highly purified suspensions of immunoglobulin for intravenous use became available, as manufactured by different companies all over the world. IVIG is a biological, natural product distilled from human blood donations, and potentially important product-manufacturing and single-batch differences have been known to exist -- as is the case with all blood products. It is perhaps for this reason that adverse effects appear to vary considerably among different IVIG preparations available in the market, and also among the patients who receive it, because everyone reacts to IVIG in different ways -- because we are different one from the next. The good thing is that symptoms of adverse reactions tend to occur within 1 to 6 hours from the start of an infusion, and they are affected by fast infusion rates, and thus managed largely by reducing the rate of infusion. Other adverse reactions can be prevented or managed by medications such as antihistamines and corticosteroids. My conclusion from what I read is: *There are no known adverse, long-term side effects of an IVIG therapy.* And considering that IVIG has been used as a medication for over sixty years on all kinds of critically ill patients, if there were any such long-term side effects, we would know them by now. Feel free to get yourself acquainted with the literature by going to the best website, _http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/_

Thanks for that Arturo. I think the biggest issue with all blood product is contamination with viruses or other infectious agent. Thankfully screening methods now employed are very sophisticated which almost eliminated this possibility; but you never know. The way I see it is that the benefits arte so immense that any possible downsides are almost irrelevant. Nothing is without risk. Even getting out of bed or crossing the road carries a risk.

Arturo. Once again thank you for your insight and for being so proactive on our behalf. Without your stewardship all of us who have SCLS would be so fortunate.

Thanks, Arturo. Ditto to kroger's and muara's comments. Have a pleasant and cozy holiday season.