Oral Cancer Screening Checklist: How Is Oral Cancer Detected?

What is Oral Cancer Screening?

Oral cancer screening is a dental exam performed by our general dentist or a doctor to look for signs of cancer in your mouth. The process of oral cancer screening near you aims to identify if you have mouth cancer early when there is a greater chance of curing it.

Most dentists examine your mouth during a routine dental visit to detect oral cancer. Some dentists may use additional tests to help them identify areas that have abnormal cells in your mouth.

Some medical organizations disagree on whether healthy people with no risk factors for mouth cancer need oral cancer screening. However, there is no oral cancer screening or oral exam proven to reduce the risk of dying of oral cancer. Still, our dentist can help you decide whether an oral exam is right for you based on your risk factors.

Let’s have a look at how oral cancer screening is done, why it is detected, and where to have an oral cancer screening.

Why is Oral Cancer Screening Done?

An oral cancer screening aims to detect mouth cancer or precancerous lesions that may cause mouth cancer at an early stage. That is when lesions or cancer are easiest to be removed and can be cured easily.

But studies have not yet proved that cancer screening saves lives, so some organizations do not agree on the benefits of having an oral exam to screen for oral cancer. Some recommend having an oral cancer screening, while others say there is not enough evidence to have a recommendation.

People with a high risk of getting oral cancer have a higher chance of benefiting from an oral cancer screening, though it has not been proven yet. Factors that increase the risk of oral cancer are:

• Heavy alcohol use
• Tobacco use of any kind, such as cigars, cigarettes, chewing snuff and tobacco, pipes, and others
• A history of too much sun exposure increases the risk of you having lip cancer.
• A previous oral cancer diagnosis

If you worry about your cancer risk, talk to our general dentist in Houston about ways you can reduce the risk and which type of screening is the best for you.

How is Oral Cancer Screening Done?

There are two main aspects that are involved when detecting oral cancer in your mouth. They includes:

Visual Exam

Before the screening, our dentist will ask you to remove your dentures or any other removable dental appliances. This ensures that our dentist checks the entire of your mouth. Our dentist will check for swellings, bumps, ulcerations, patches of colors, asymmetries, and abnormalities.

They will also observe your neck, jaw, lips, the inside of your nose, cheeks, and the oral cavity. These are the significant parts of detecting oral cancer. Our dentist will use a mirror and light to look inside your mouth. They will also use a tongue depressor that holds down your tongue as our dentist looks at the back of your mouth. Your dental professional will also ask you to stick out your tongue to expose the areas of the throat that are otherwise not easy to see.

Physical Exam

Besides doing a visual exam, our dentist will also touch your mouth, face, and neck to feel unusual masses or nodules. Touch is vital for finding any abnormalities that may cause mouth cancer. In addition, a tactile inspection helps our dentist find any hard lumps of tissues.

While some oral cancer symptoms may be painful at times, they are usually painless in their early stages.

What Are Some of The Oral Screening Devices?

Our dentist near you may use some specialized examination tools to complete the oral screening. These includes:

• An enhanced oral assessment tool to help identify suspicious oral tissues using a fluorescent light.
• An oral biopsy brush that painlessly removes cells required for testing.
• An oral lesion screening. This uses a mouth rinse to aid with the visual inspection of the tissues in your mouth.

Visit a Dental Clinic near You

If you require oral cancer screening in Houston, TX, call us or book an appointment with Lynn Alan Palmer, DDS. We will guide you through the whole procedure and help treat mouth cancer in its early stages.