Our patients have a mouth cancer screening included as part of every dental examination they attend at Knighton Dental.
Prevention is the keyword when it comes to mouth cancer. When spotted early, many oral cancer cases can be treated without the need for lengthy and intensive courses of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
We can’t stress how important routine check-ups every six months with your dentist are, especially for catching problems like oral cancer early.
Mouth cancer – the symptoms
Your dentist will look for the following symptoms during your check-up. However, if you notice any of these symptoms in the window of time between each check-up, please make an appointment as soon as you can.
It’s highly likely to be non-cancerous, but it’s always worth investigating anything that doesn’t look or feel quite right:
- Red and white patches on the soft tissues and palate in your mouth.
- Changes to your voice (a hoarse or deeper voice).
- Lumps in your mouth or throat.
- Changes to the way your teeth bite together.
- Unusual bleeding and numbness in your mouth.
- Loose or uncomfortable dentures.
- Mouth ulcers that are not healing.
Helping you to reduce your risk factors
We can also support you by identifying and addressing your risk factors for mouth cancer.
Once we have a full picture of these, your dentist can make suggestions for you to incorporate at home, so you can improve not just your oral health but your general health too.
The most prominent risk factors include:
- Smoking.
- Alcohol consumption.
- Sun exposure/exposure to tanning beds.
- A weakened immune system.
- Previously having suffered mouth cancer.
- HPV virus.
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