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Screening for Oral Cancer This Easter

4843159_blogThis Easter, you may be busily Easter egg hunts or days out, but spare a moment for your health. Oral cancer screening takes just a few minutes, but it could save your life. Don’t delay, call and book your appointment today.

About oral cancer

Oral cancer is an increasingly common form of cancer found in the soft tissue in the mouth and throat. Last year, more than 6,000 people were affected by oral cancer in the UK and the numbers are rising year on year. The main risk factors for oral cancer include drinking alcohol, smoking and HPV infection (human papilloma virus). If you smoke and drink heavily or frequently, you are more than 30 times more likely to develop oral cancer than a non-smoker who drinks infrequently.

Sometimes, oral cancer doesn’t cause obvious symptoms, but potential warning signs to look out for include red or white patches in the mouth, lumps or swelling and ulcers or sores that take a long time to heal (more than 2 weeks).

Why is screening important?

Screening is incredibly important because it can help to ensure that treatment is provided at an early stage, when the chances of survival are much higher. If cancerous cells spread and cancer becomes more aggressive, the chances of survival decrease. Sadly, at the moment most cases are diagnosed at a late stage and consequently, survival rates for this type of cancer have stalled. With screening, we can spot signs before they become visible to the human eye and this facilitates diagnosis and treatment at a very early stage.

Screening is nothing to panic or worry about. There’s no discomfort at all and we simply use a state of the art camera to look into the mouth and detect abnormal changes in the soft tissue. The test doesn’t take long and it may give you peace of mind.

                                                                                                          

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