Children who have had previous radiation therapy such as for childhood tumors and radiation therapy had increased chances of getting oral cancer.

Oral cancer may cause any of the following signs and symptoms. If you suspect you or your children have any of these symptoms, check with your doctor and family dentist.

• A sore in the mouth that does not heal.
• A lump or thickening in the oral cavity.
• A white or red patch on the gums, tongue, tonsils, or lining of the mouth.
• Bleeding, pain, or numbness in the mouth.

You dentist or doctor may order several test to diagnose and stage oral cancer. They may include:

• Physical exam and history.
• X-ray.
• MRI of the head and neck.
• CT scan.
• PET scan.

Treatment of oral cancer in children usually include surgery for most benign tumors as well as chemotherapy, and radiation therapy for malignant tumors.

Although oral cancer is not seed in children, it is still important to understand the symptoms of this terrible disease. If you would like to talk with a Plymouth family dentistry, visit us at Wayzata Dental & SmileSpa. We work with a variety of preventative and restorative treatments and offer an oral cancer screening. Our office is child-friendly. Check us out online, where you can also make an appointment.

We are a Minnetonka family dentistry, which offers oral cancer screenings and which enables us to identify oral lesions at their earliest stage of development. Pre-malignant lesions or early stage oral cancer is treated much more simply and is less invasive. The good news is that the success rate for lesions caught early is more than 90 percent.

Who is at risk for oral cancer? You?
Just about everyone is at risk for oral cancer. It is important for those with increased risks to be screened for oral cancer annually. These people include those 40 or older, tobacco users of any age and people with history of oral cancer.

For folks who are a little hesitant about dental visits, they should not feel scared about these screenings. Oral cancer screenings are quick and painless with new, modern technology. The process is as simple as rinsing with a special solution and allowing our dentist, Dr. Jason McDowell and staff, to examine your mouth. If they suspect a lesion, it will be marked and documented.

If you want to live a healthier life, make sure take care of your teeth plus take the time to get the proper cancer screenings, such as for oral cancer. It just takes a small amount of your time for such an important thing.

What causes oral cancer?
There actually are a number of factors that may contribute to the development of oral cancer. However, the most common are the use of tobacco and alcohol. Other ways you can develop oral cancer is poor oral hygiene, irritation caused by ill-fitting dentures and rough surfaces on teeth, poor nutrition, some chronic infections and combinations of all these factors.

Smokers increase their chances of death from oral cancer than for nonsmokers. Research has also found that pipes and cigars irritate the mouth and can lead to lip cancer. People over the age of 40, heavy drinkers, smokers and tobacco are at the highest risk for oral cancer.

Family dentists and oral surgeons recommend that people who are in a high risk category should perform oral examinations using a bright light and a mirror:

How to check for oral cancer:
• look and feel inside the lips and the front of gums
• feel the roof of your mouth
• pull out your tongue and look at all of its surfaces
• pull the cheek out to see its inside surface as well as the back of the gums
• feel for lumps or enlarged lymph nodes in both sides of the neck

What are the signs of oral cancer?:
• white or red patches
• a sore that fails to heal and bleeds easily
• chronic sore throat or hoarseness
• difficulty in chewing or swallowing
• a mass or lump in the neck

Your mouth is sometimes one of the first places to show signs of illness. Don’t ignore signs. If you have questions or concerns about oral cancer, seek the help and advice from a family dentist such as Wayzata Dental and SmileSpa. We offer oral cancer screenings to immediately detect any possible problem.

While those facts are disturbing, the real problem is that people who are at risk don’t take any measures to protect their future. A simple visit to the dentist every two years for people under 45 and every year for those over 45 can save lives. Why a dentist? If you think about it, dentists are closely involved with what goes on in the mouth. They also have the equipment and training that can help to identify possible problems in the mouth.

Oral cancer screenings are quick and painless and involve your dentist coating the inside of your mouth with a special liquid, then using a special light to check the lining of your mouth. While this will not detect cancers as such, it will indicate problem areas that warrant further investigation. Caught early, the chances of surviving beyond five years are very good.

If you are a user of tobacco products or drink alcohol on a regular basis, then it will pay to have your mouth checked for any abnormalities since those substances place you in the high risk group. Most of the time, these abnormalities are not cancers, but if they are, you can have them dealt with quickly. Do see your dentist if you are in the high risk group.

The best person to go to for an oral cancer screening is your dentist. This makes sense since dentists are always looking in people’s mouths. An oral cancer screening is just one small procedure that can be added to annual dental checkups. The procedure itself is fairly straightforward.

Oral cancer screenings use a special mouthwash together with a special light. Together, the dentist can identify areas that may be of concern and may require further investigation. This screening will NOT identify cancer, however, it will identify areas that are suspicious. If your dentist finds a suspicious area, he will refer you to your doctor for follow-up tests.

By identifying these suspicious areas early, any that are found to be cancerous can be treated. This early detection and treatment has saved thousands of people from major problems including death and terrible face disfigurements following surgery.

If you are a consumer of tobacco products or a heavy drinker of alcohol, then having a regular oral cancer screening may save you from suffering the effects of serious oral cancer. Left undiagnosed and untreated – and oral cancer is 100% deadly – it’s not a condition that should be lightly dismissed since you won’t know you have it until it’s far too late.

Some of these conditions can include liver or kidney problems, and problems of the digestive system including cancers of the stomach and ulcers. Many of these have strong links to gum disease, the problems often being caused by the bacteria that thrives in infected gums.

Oral cancer is one of the most devastating cancers known and can result in severe disfigurement of the face and neck areas. While oral cancer does kill many, early identification generally has positive results with the cancer stopped before it can do any major damage.

Whether it is oral cancer or serious gum disease, the only way to identify either is by visiting a dentist. Most dentists now have the technology that can identify areas that could be cancerous or pre-cancerous. Your dentist is also able to prescribe antibiotics to deal with gum disease, and to commence a treatment plan that can help restore your gums to their best.

These oral health issues can be dangerous to your long term health if left untreated. Gum disease can also create social problems such as severe bad breath – renown for scaring off even your best friends. If you are having system health issues, have been a tobacco user, or suffer from bleeding gums and bad breath, then visit your dentist. They may be able to identify and help to resolve many of these issues.

Most dentists now have technology that enables them to do oral cancer screenings. In most cases, it’s simply a mouthwash together with a special light that can help to identify suspect areas. It should be pointed out that the important word here is ’suspect’. Your dentist cannot find and diagnose oral cancer – but they can find those suspect spots.

In fact, if the spots are still in the suspect stage, then any that do prove to be cancerous are easily dealt with by an oral cancer specialists. In many cases a suspect spot will turn out to be nothing to worry about at all and you can breathe easily.

Tobacco users are the most at risk of oral cancer. If you have been a tobacco user (or still are), then ask your dentist for an oral cancer screening. If spots are found now, they can be treated before they become full blown cancer and devastate your life. If there are no suspect spots found, you can relax – at least for another 12 months. An annual oral cancer screening is recommended for those over 50, especially if they have been tobacco users. Talk to your dentist about it.

In simple terms, oral health could be considered to be the general state of your teeth and gums. However, it is ‘oral’ health we are talking about so we should be adding the tongue, the roof of the mouth, and any other areas associated with the mouth. Oral health would also then cover what we do to our mouths, and what sort of preventative program we have in place.

Tobacco products are known to be cancer causing products. Chewing and smoking tobacco products does increase the chance of oral cancer. This includes all cancers from the lips all through to the throat, and every tissue in between. There have even been rare forms of tooth cancer detected, although this has not been directly attributed to tobacco products.

Of course, tobacco is not the only product we consume that is known to cause cancer. We also know that poor dental hygiene can increase the risk of some oral cancers. Failing to clean on a regular basis and failing to visit a dentist twice a year can increase your cancer risk.

Unfortunately, too many people die each year from oral cancer when they shouldn’t. A regular visit to the dentist who performs oral cancer screenings can detect problems early. What causes the high number of cancer deaths at present? – Late detection. If you think you’re in a risk group, see you dentist for an oral cancer screening test – it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Dentists have been able to perform oral cancer screenings for some years now and one of the technologies is really nothing more than a light being shone onto the surface of the inside of the mouth. ViziLite is one such technology. The patient first rinses his mouth with a special solution. The dentist then uses a special light to examine the inside of the mouth looking for telltale white patches. Normal tissue will absorb the light and appear quite dark – abnormal tissue will reflect the light and look white.

Abnormal tissue does not necessarily mean you have oral cancer. They may indicate pre-cancerous lesions, for example, or just thickened tissue in the mouth. However, an annual screening for those in the high risk categories is recommended. If abnormal tissue is discovered, it can be further explored to determined its nature. Who is in the high risk category?

Although tobacco is a leading cause, it is not the primary risk factor used to determine whether or not you should have a screening (25% of oral cancer sufferers have no history of tobacco use). Males 40 years old and older are in the high risk category with alcohol and tobacco use adding further weight. Males outnumber females 2:1 when it comes to oral cancer and the predominant age group is 40-plus. This doesn’t mean that females or those under 40 don’t get oral cancer – they do, but in reduced numbers.

If you are 40-plus and male, consider regular oral cancer screenings. If oral cancer is a threat, it will be detected early and with treatment will help you to live longer.

A dentist can now undertake a variety of tests, all designed to help identify areas that may be vulnerable to cancer, pre-cancerous, or cancer tissue. These tests are referred to as screens in that, rather than waiting for a problem to arise, the dentist will perform a test that we all hope eliminates a patient from any unfortunate diagnosis.

Those at risk of oral cancer include:

• smoking of any substance
• consumption of tobacco
• consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol
• poor oral hygiene
• damage to the internal structure of the mouth or tongue by broken teeth
• exposure to HPV (human pappiloma virus)
• over exposure to the sun’s UV rays

If you have experienced any of the above factors then you are a good candidate for an oral cancer screening. These screenings can be done fairly quickly in the dentists chair during a standard appointment. If you haven’t discussed oral cancer with your dentist, and you have experienced any of the above situations, it may be a good idea to do so. Oral cancer caught early is treatable – the longer it goes untreated, the harder it is to treat.