What causes more deaths in the UK each year than testicular and cervical cancer combined?
The answer is mouth cancer. It also kills more people, than road traffic accidents do.
November is mouth cancer awareness mouth and every year we try at the practice to raise awareness of this disease. Sadly, incidence of mouth cancer in the UK rises every year. Last year in the UK there were 8,720 cases. The survival rate after 5 years from this disease is on average only 50%. Despite advances in medical the survival rate is not improving.
The pandemic has caused many patients to not come in and get their mouths checked. I watched an on line talk last night on mouth cancer and the professor giving the talk is seeing bigger more extensive tumours than he had before I his 30 year plus career.
So, what can we do? Well prevention is always better than cure and for mouth cancer like many other cancers you can lower your risk by not smoking, drinking less and having a good diet.
25% of mouth cancers though have no associated risks factors.
So screening is key. Early detection greatly improves your charge of surviving mouth cancer and the treatment needed will be less radical. So, if you spot an ulcer that is not healing, a red patch, a white patch or anything different in your mouth get it checked out.
A Dental Health Check with us always involves an oral cancer screen. Plus, we are always happy to check out anything in your mouth you are not sure about.
During November we are offering a free Oral Cancer Check to anyone who would like one, just give us a call. It could save your life.
