Source: www.dentaleconomics.com
Author: Louis Malcmacher

Oral cancer. These are two words that every dentist hopes he or she will never have to say to a patient. Oral cancer kills one American every hour of every single day. There have even been a number of famous people that have become victims of oral cancer. They include Babe Ruth, Sigmund Freud, Bill Blass, and Jack Klugman. As dental professionals, we know that when a lesion is found in the mouth that may be squamous cell carcinoma, there is a 50% to 70% chance that the patient may not live past the next five years.

When you look at other cancer awareness programs, some organizations have done an outstanding job at creating a very high awareness for certain types of cancer. Every woman knows how to do a breast cancer self-exam and have routine mammograms, and everyone over the age of 50 knows it’s time for a colonoscopy. These types of self-exams and screenings have helped save many lives.

An established self-exam for oral cancer would be a huge help in finding abnormalities or incipient oral cancer lesions early. This kind of self-exam, much like a breast or skin exam, is easy to do, does not require any special equipment, and will help familiarize people with their own mouths. The primary benefit is early detection of any unusual lesions in the patients’ mouths, and the secondary benefit is consumers becoming more familiar with their mouths, which encourages them to receive treatment for oral health issues they would usually ignore.

A brand new Web site has been developed that shows people how to do an oral cancer self-exam. Because so many American consumers still do not have a regular dentist, the Web site also has a find-a-dentist section. Dentists who are committed to oral cancer exams and early detection of oral cancer can sign up to be listed on this Web site at www.oralcancerselfexam.com.

By the way, the number one finding of a recent dental patient survey conducted by the Crown Council was patients saying, “Tell us more about oral cancer.” CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently did a story on oral cancer. Consumers are ready to get more involved with learning more about their mouths, and they certainly want to be involved with oral cancer prevention.

I strongly urge all those who attend my courses to use some type of oral cancer screening device, whether ViziLite Plus or VELscope. After this adjunctive device exam, either a brush biopsy or a traditional biopsy should be used on the lesion for either histological examination or total removal.

Getting patients on board to fight this dreaded disease is crucial and long overdue, and dentists should institute early detection screening as soon as possible. Patients are looking for dentists who take oral cancer seriously. Let’s all work together because if we as the dental profession don’t take this lead, no one will. It is completely up to us.