How is oral cancer detected? Is oral cancer fatal? How often should I get an oral cancer screening?

Oral cancer does happen! It is rare but it does occur! When present, oral cancer has the potential to be life threatening. Some of the risk factors for oral cancer include tobacco use and heavy alcohol use. Symptoms include a sore that doesn't heal, a lump, or a white or red patch on the inside of the mouth. The survival rates and long term health are pretty good if caught at an early stage. For this reason, it is important to have regular checkups. This is something that we check for at every single appointment. We check for oral cancer in all of our new patients and during every periodic exam. We do this by checking the cheeks, tongue, throat, roof of the mouth, and gum tissues and make sure there isn’t anything suspicious present. If there is something interesting or out of the norm, we make you aware of any signs that there may be something going on and we make sure this is well documented in your chart.  The good news is that the occurrence rates of oral cancer are very low and the survival rates are very high!

If you’d like to learn more about our Free Oral Cancer Screenings event, click here! If you are concerned that something may be awry, we would love to schedule an appoint for you and check everything out. Click here to contact us today!

Find us on YouTube!