I applaud Dr. Oz for increasing the public’s awareness of this common, easy to detect type of cancer. Dentists who have included this as a staple of their routine exam have long maintained the importance of this quick and simple examination. We are all trained in school to perform oral cancer exams. It takes an extremely short amount of time. Early detection can make treatment very successful. Failure to diagnose these diseases can be deadly.
How fortunate are we that oral cancer is so easy to detect? It is embarrassing that this is not performed routinely on every patient. Oral cancer has always been a formidable danger. The death rate from oral cancer is higher than that of cervical, testicular, laryngeal and thyroid cancers. It surpasses Hodgkin’s lymphoma and malignant melanoma as well. With the rise in Human Papilloma Virus caused oral cancer spread through oral sex, the tragedy of non-detection looms larger. Insist on an oral cancer check at your next examination with the dentist.