Your Preventive Dentist in Midwest City Raises Awareness for Oral Cancer

You take great pride in ensuring your dental health. You brush, floss, and maintain your appointments with your preventive dentist in Midwest City. However, your dental and oral health face a much larger threat than just gum disease and tooth decay. If you are not regularly screened for oral cancer, you are placing your health and well-being at risk. As a preventive dentist, Dr. Kendrick offers simple screenings to detect cancerous and precancerous cells early at each preventive appointment.

Protect Your Health with an Oral Cancer Screening

Oral cancers are classified as those that affect the mouth, throat, head, and neck. However, brain cancer falls into a separate category. While oral cancers are not widely discussed, more than 49,000 Americans are diagnosed with a form of cancer each year. Unfortunately, the long-term outlook for those with the cancers is bleak. In fact, oral cancers cause over 9,700 deaths each year. This is roughly one person per hour every single day.

The high death rate from the cancer is due to late diagnosis. There are no guidelines in place for regular oral cancer screenings. As a result, it falls onto the patient or the dentist to perform the screening. Since many are not aware of the risk, the cancers are often not diagnosed until they have reached the later stages or metastasized to other areas of the body. In addition, the signs of early cancer can be difficult to detect, if any symptoms are produced at all, making it difficult to recognize there is a problem brewing.

These facts alone cause the 5-year survival rate for those with oral cancer to be about 57%. Although this number seems low, it is actually an improvement from the past decades, which was only about 50%. The growth of the survival rate is largely due to the availability of oral cancer screenings.

Benefit from an Oral Cancer Screening

An oral cancer screening is a simple and noninvasive procedure Dr. Kendrick provides at each routine dental appointment. Dr. Kendrick is specially trained to look for suspicious areas that may indicate potential cancer. In addition, there are simple screening procedures that are used to highlight areas of concern.

Dr. Kendrick will provide your screening at your preventive dental appointment. However, if you notice any questionable problems, such as difficulty swallowing, ulcers, red or white patches, or unexplained coughing, you should schedule a screening sooner. In addition, those who have enlarged lymph nodes or pain in the ear, mouth, or face, should schedule a screening with their dentist in Midwest City.

Protect Your Health with a Regular Screening

Dr. Kendrick and his caring staff strive to ensure dental and overall health. In addition to preventive cleanings and checkups, you will benefit from a comprehensive oral cancer screening at your next appointment. Dr. Kendrick will also discuss the signs and symptoms of oral cancer to raise awareness.

Together, we can help lower the death rate from oral cancer through early detection. If you need an oral cancer screening, contact our office today to schedule your consultation.