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Oral cancer is not a rare disease. Approximately 37,000 people are diagnosed with oral cancer every year in the US. It kills one person every hour of every day, and over 100 new individuals will be diagnosed with it each day. The good news is that it can be caught early in its development through a quick, simple, painless screening.
Who should get screened?
Every adult. Oral cancer can often be caught early, even as a pre-cancer. With early detection, survival rates are high and the side effects from treatment are at their lowest. Like other screenings, such as cervical, skin, prostate, colon and breast examinations, oral cancer screening is an effective means of finding cancer at its early, highly curable stages. Make it one of your annual health check-ups.
What are the risk factors?
The two most common causes of oral cancer are 1. Long-term use of tobacco and alcohol; and 2. Exposure to the HPV16 virus (human papilloma virus version 16), a newly identified etiology, and the same one responsible for the vast majority of cervical cancers in women. Due to the connection to this virus, the quickest growing segment of the oral cancer population is composed of young, healthy, non-smokers.
Early Indicators
. Red and/or white discolorations of the soft tissues of the mouth
. Any sore that does not heal within 14 days
. Hoarseness that lasts for a prolonged period of time
Advanced Indicators
. A sensation that something is stuck in your throat
. Numbness in the oral region
. Difficulty in moving the jaw or tongue
. Difficulty in swallowing
. Ear pain that occurs on one side only
. A sore under a denture that does not heal even after adjustment of the denture
. A lump or thickening that develops in the mouth or on the neck
An oral cancer screening should be conducted every year, so make sure you see us today!
For more information about oral cancer, please log on to The Oral Cancer Foundation’s official website at www.oralcancer.org.
Village Dental 352-205-7667 or 352-753-7507
