Early Detection
Saves Lives
In our Dental Practice we offer free oral cancer screenings every hygiene visit every month of the year. We feel early detection is that important! Oral cancer is not a rare disease. Approximately 40,000
people will be 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 often be found early in its
development, through a simple, painless, and quick 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 are from treatment are at their lowest. Like other screenings you
engage in such as cervical, skin, prostate, colon and breast examinations, oral
cancer screenings are an effective means of finding cancer at its early, highly
curable stages. Make them part of your annual health check-ups.
What
are the risk factors?
There are two distinct pathways by which most
people come to oral cancer. One is through the use of tobacco and alcohol, a
long term historic problem and cause, and the other is through exposure to the HPV16
virus (human papilloma virus version 16), which is now the leading cause of
oral cancers in the US, and the same one, which is responsible for the vast
majority of cervical cancers in women. The quickest growing segment of the oral
cancer population are young, healthy, non-smokers due to the connection to this
virus.
Early Indicators:
Red and/or white discolorations of the soft tissues
of the mouth.
Any sore which does not heal within 14 days.
Hoarseness which lasts for a prolonged period of
time.
Advanced Indicators:
A sensation that something is stuck in you throat.
Numbness in the oral region.
Difficulty in moving the jaw or tongue.
Difficulty in swallowing.
Ear pain which occurs on one side only.
A sore under a denture, which even after adjustment
of the denture, still does not heal.
A lump or thickening which develops in the mouth or
on the neck.
An oral cancer screening should be conducted every year, so
take advantage of this free service get screened today.
To receive this life saving screening call us to schedule your Dental Hygiene Appointment today!
(541) 451-1440 or
text us at 541.6DC.DDS2
Scan the QR Code to call our office now.
For more information about oral cancer, please log
onto The Oral Cancer Foundation’s official website at www.oralcancer.org.
