Your Dentist Could Save Your Life. No Kidding!

Your Dentist Could Save Your Life. No Kidding!
By Family Dental Associates of KY, PSC

Lesion Detection Light

Your dentist could save your life.

Oral cancer is now claiming a life every hour of every day. Sexually-transmitted Human Pappilloma Virus (HPV) is now the leading cause of oral cancer in much younger populations and the numbers are rising at an alarming rate. Researchers at Ohio State University and the National Cancer Institute recently reported that if this trend continues the number of HPV-related oral cancers will surpass cervical cancers in the United States within the next ten years.

Women can get HPV-related oral cancer. However, men have the greatest risk of developing it and the rate of incidence has increased some 28% since the late 1980′s.

Early Stage One Oral Cancer

Most oral cancers are discovered in the late stages when the lesions become visible to the naked eye or are palpable. The five year survival rate is a mere 30%. However, when discovered in early stage one the survival rate approaches 90%.

At Family Dental Associates of KY, PSC (FDA), we are using a lesion detection light as part of the oral cancer screening process. Lesion detection lights can spot suspicious lesions that may be precancerous or cancerous before they are visible under normal light or large enough to palpate. The lesion detection light uses a specific wavelength of light that causes normal tissue to fluoresce a bright apple green color. Abnormal tissues do not fluoresce and appear black.

The photo above was taken two weeks ago on a white male in his late twenties. The dark circular area on his hard palate, as seen through the lesion detection light, was not visible under normal light. A biopsy was performed. The pathologist said that it was an early stage one carcinoma. We may have saved this young man's life.

The oral cancer screening examination is simple, non-invasive, painless and only takes a couple of minutes to perform. We recommend such screenings at least once a year for those 18 and older. The lesion detection light also helps discover several other types of oral diseases, including lichen planus, fungal infections and other infectious diseases. These conditions, while much less serious, need to be diagnosed and treated in a timely fashion too.

The Oral Cancer Foundation has an informative video on You Tube at: http://youtu.be/JJY2ynlXoKA.