Early Detection
3/31/2007 web-based article Barry F. Polansky, DMD Dental Economics (de.pennnet.com) In one of my favorite audio programs “The Strangest Secret” by Earl Nightingale, the speaker recounts the following incident: “Some years ago, a reporter asked the late Nobel prize-winning doctor, Albert Schweitzer, ‘Doctor, what’s wrong with men today?’ The great doctor was silent a moment, and then he said, ‘Men simply don’t think!’” Motivational speaker Jim Rohn suggests that all success begins with the development of a personal philosophy. Creating a philosophy requires lots of self-reflection and thinking. Henry Ford said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is.” Thinking is hard work because most efforts produce nothing at all, but if you spend time in thought, eventually an idea will come that could change a person’s life forever. On the exhibit floor of the Jacob K. Javits Center at the Greater New York Dental Meeting, I was discussing a new technology, the VELscope from LED Medical Diagnostics. A mini-crowd was gathered around the booth, giving rapt attention to a salesman describing a technology that has been around for awhile, but primarily in the hands of dermatologists. The salesman was doing a nice job of describing the mechanics of how the VELscope - an imaging device - could help dentists detect intraoral tissue changes at an early stage, thereby preventing oral premalignant lesions (OPL) from progressing to dysplasia and eventually to invasive forms of carcinoma, such as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The salesman went on to point out that the incidence [...]