Oral Cancer Screenings
- Services
- Oral Cancer Screenings
When a dentist performs an oral cancer screening, they search for the following signs:
- White or red mouth patches
- Continuous bleeding spots
- A hard spot or a lump in your mouth
- Pain or numbness when you bite your teeth
Seeking oral cancer screening during your usual checkups is the best method to prevent oral cancer. Although your dentist may be unable to detect the condition during the test, they will take your tissue sample for further testing to determine if you have the disease.
What are Oral Cancer Screenings?
An oral cancer screening is a medical examination done by a dentist or a medical professional to detect cancer symptoms or precancerous disorders in a patient’s mouth. A cancer screening aims to detect mouth cancer early since this may increase the chances of curing the disease.
Many dentists perform a mouth examination during a regular dental visit to screen for oral cancer. A dentist may opt to use additional tests to detect areas in your mouth containing unusual cells.
Medical institutions differ whether healthy individuals without risk factors for mouth cancer require the screening. There is no single oral cancer screening, or oral exam proved to minimize the risk of dying from the condition.
However, you can contact your dentist on which particular test or oral test is the most appropriate for you based on your risk factors. Luckily, you can seek oral cancer screenings in Roseville, Minnesota.
Why Should You Seek Oral Cancer Screenings?
Oral cancer tests are essential since they can be effectively treated if detected early enough. A dentist can early-detect about 84 percent of these cancer cases. There are multiple ways of detecting early signs and symptoms of oral cancer. The development of new tech methods has significantly aided breakthroughs in oral disease treatments.
When a dentist performs an oral cancer screening, they apply several tools to search for any sores or discoloration in a patient’s mouth. Then the dentists feel the tissues found in your mouth to look for any abnormalities or lumps.
If they note any abnormality form, they will take a sample to the lab for more testing. The objective of oral cancer screening is to discover precancerous lesions or mouth cancer at an early stage.
Individuals susceptible to oral cancer are highly likely to benefit from cancer screenings. However, researchers have not proved this.
The following are crucial risk factors that may help you to determine whether you are vulnerable to oral cancer:
- If your age is more than 40
- If you are a tobacco smoker
- If you heavily consume alcohol
- Oral cancer is also linked with the Human papillomavirus or HPV
- In terms of gender, men are more vulnerable
