The Benefits Of Oral Cancer Screening Tests

By Janine Hughes


Screening is a process used to look for cancer before a person has any symptoms of having one. This helps anyone to find any symptom at early stage. Once abnormal tissues are found earlier it would be easier to treat someone. By the time symptoms appear, it also means that cancer may have started to spread. Experts are also trying to better understand who are more likely to get these types of diseases.

They have studied a lot of things so people will be aware on the causes of cancer. This information is a great help for doctors to recommend people to undergo screening tests for cancer and how often it should be done. If a screening test is abnormal, you may need more tests done to find out if you have this disease. These are called as diagnostic tests. Therefore, an oral cancer screening Oregon is important.

During your checkups, your dentist will conduct oral tests by using necessary tools to look for any discoloration or mouth sores. With the use of their advanced tools, they can detect some tissues around the mouth for any lumps or abnormalities. If they also detect forms of abnormalities, they will send sample for further testing.

Anything that increases any chance of getting this disease is called a risk factor. Having risk factors does not mean that you have the chance of getting cancer, not having risk factors does not mean that you will not get cancer. The risk factors for oral cancers may include, people who are using tobacco products, heavy alcohol use, chewing betel nuts, being infected with a certain type of human papillomavirus, being exposed to sunlight and being male.

Although it has been proven that those who have been diagnosed with oral cancer usually have one of those factors, there is still an increasing rate of people diagnosed with oral cancers who have no risk factors at all. Thus, if you do not have any factors above, then you may undergo further screening tests to maintain your overall health.

Oral cancers may develop in different areas, such as on the lips or in the oral cavity. It is also possible in front two thirds of the tongue, in the gums, in front of your mouth, may develop in the bottom of your mouth under the tongue, the small area behind the wisdom tooth and also inside the lining of the cheeks.

A dentist may perform the process to look for some symptoms They will find out if there are white or red patches inside your mouth, spots that continuously bleed or do not heal, a hard spot or lump in the mouth and numbness or pain when biting your teeth.

The best way to avoid this disease is to undergo regular screenings during your checkup. Your dentist would be able to check you during the exam, but they will send sample to the lab to identify if you have the disease. Although this usually occurs in all adults, it is mostly common in older adults. Also, it usually occurs more often in blacks than in whites and in men than in women.

The numbers of new cases and deaths decreasing drastically over the past few years. However, new numbers of cases caused by certain types of HPV has also increased. This is because, it can be passed easily from person to person during sexual activities.




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