What Can You Do To Guard Against Oral Cancer?

ABOUT 35,000 AMERICANS ARE DIAGNOSED with oral cancer every year. Here at Dental Partners of Boston, we want to make sure our patients are aware of the risk. The numbers are scary, but there’s no reason for you to be a helpless victim. Do what you can to protect against oral cancer, recognize it early, and get the care you need.

Cut The Risk Factors You CAN Control

Smoking and drinking are still the biggest links to oral cancer. Did you know that smoking and drinking together puts you more at risk than either drinking or smoking alone? Our advice is to be careful with alcohol and tobacco. Cutting these out of your life will help your oral health in more than one way. Practice healthy habits in your personal life. And if you’re at risk for HPV, make sure you get screened. HPV has been linked to certain kinds of oral cancer.

It’s important to know about other risk factors, too, even though they’re not things that you can control. Oral cancer usually occurs in people over 40, and men are twice as likely to have oral cancer as women.

Know The Signs

So if you have a few risk factors to your name, make sure you’re aware of the early signs of oral cancer. Catching it early means more successful treatment.

And even if you’re not a 50-year-old male who smokes, you need to know this information. See, 25% of people with oral cancer don’t have ANY risk factors.

Possible Signs Of Oral Cancer: 

  • Sore in your mouth lasting more than 2 weeks (usually these are on the side of the tongue)
  • Swelling in the cheek, or other areas of your mouth
  • Difficulty moving your head, or jaw, or chronic problem swallowing

Don’t Miss Your Regular Appointments

One of the best ways to catch oral cancer early is to come to your regular check ups here at Dental Partners of Boston. We do an oral cancer screening with every checkup. We can detect changes in your mouth that could be a sign of cancerous or pre-cancerous conditions.

We want to do everything in our power to help our patients have long, healthy lives. If ever you have questions about oral cancer or any other related issue, please don’t hesitate to ask us.

We can’t say it enough: thank you for being our valued patients and friends!

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