How Oral Cancer Screening Oregon Works In Medicine

By Karina Frost


Oral cancer is also known as mouth cancer. It can arise as a simple lesion in the tissues of your mouth. It can also spread by metastasis from a different part of the body. If you are worried that this may affect you or someone close to you, you may want to research oral cancer screening oregon.

This disease affects people globally. As of 2010, more than 124,000 people have died of oral cancer. This is up from 82,000 who died from it in 1990. Nearly 37,000 Americans are estimated to be diagnosed with the disease in the coming year. Of these 37,000 new cases, about half will survive for five years or more. More than two-thirds will be diagnosed at stage three and four, which are late stages of the disease. The actual death rate for mouth cancer tends to be higher than cancers of the cervix, skin, and Hodgkin's lymphoma.

This disease also commonly involves the tongue. But it can also develop in the cheek lining, the gums, the roof of your mouth, or the floor of the mouth. When viewed under a microscope, the different versions of the disease can look very similar. That is why medical tests are necessary to distinguish between them early on for a proper diagnosis.

A premalignant lesion is normally benign. It is altered tissue that has the potential of becoming malignant over time. There are various types of these premalignant lesions that can occur in your mouth. Many of these lesions begin as red or white patches in the mouth. Some common lesions that may be premalignant are lichen planus of the mouth, actinic cheilitis and submucous fibrosis.

It is a good idea to have this screening test done at least once a year. If there is anything suspicious, the doctor will order special tests, such as an x-ray, a CT scan or an MRI. The doctor may also take a tissue biopsy for further testing. This testing will normally be done in a lab.

There are many screening devices that doctors and dentists may use to detect oral cancer. Some of these devices include the Velscope, the identafi 3000 or the Vizilite Plus. Doctors need to be careful that these devices do not harm the patient through over use, or produce false positives that may lead to unnecessary biopsies.

A brush biopsy is non-invasive and can be used to rule out any dysplasia in areas of the mouth with unexplained discoloration or lesions. However, the only sure method of determining if a lesion is cancerous or not is through a biopsy and a microscopic evaluation of the cells in the tissue sample.

You should understand that nearly seventy-five percent of these cancers are associated with certain behaviors that can be modified over time, such as smoking tobacco and too much alcohol consumption. Other factors such as poor oral hygiene and irritation to the gums caused by badly fitted dentures are also contributors. Having poor nutrition and chronic infections from bacteria or viruses are also red flags. However, if oral cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, medical treatment will generally be effective with the disease.




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