Oral Cancer Discussed by Dentist in Warren, Michigan

Hi I’m Doctor Greg Apsey here in Warren, Michigan at 11270 13 Mile Road. You can find us on the web at DrApseyDDS.com. I’d like to speak today about oral cancer. We are seeing oral cancer on a fairly regular basis. As dentists we should be examining all of our patients, including young patients, at every six month visit for this disease. This is something we’re trained to look for and we do a full evaluation of the mouth and the head and neck looking for changes in the tissue and, or development of masses internally in those areas.

What we are finding though, is that there is a rise in oral cancer in people under the age of 30. And, this is very concerning to us and what we’re finding is that there seems to be a link between the human papillomavirus, which is the virus which causes genital warts but it also can cause you to get human papillomavirus infections in the mouth. If this virus is passed by skin to skin contact and of course intimate contact can pass this virus. And 40% of those, of the viruses that come from the different strings of human papillomavirus can be transmitted to the mouth as well.

Recent studies have found that whereas 10 years ago 40% of oral cancer lesions contained human papillomavirus, now when they’re being evaluated or the biopsies and they’re being evaluated by pathologists, they’re finding 80% of oral cancer contains human papillomavirus. So it seems that it’s being linked more and more to oral cancer, and this is really concerning to us. The same factors that caused cancer in the past and that we saw as risk factors are still risk factors, those being heavy alcohol usage and tobacco usage, both chewing tobacco and smoking. Those were the traditional, major causes of oral cancer and that’s why we would generally see oral cancer in men over the age of 50 and also it was more common in African Americans. Of course those are still risk factors and still areas of concern. Main thing is visiting the dentist every 6 months. It’s not just about cavity detection or gum disease detection. It’s also about oral cancer screening and you may not even know that you are having an oral cancer screening exam done.

And if you have any questions about it, ask your dentist. And of course, you’re always welcome to come to my office, but it is very much a part of the exam, we think a very important part of the exam, and it’s something we do every 6 months when we see you in our office. Thank you for listening today.