Oral cancer

Cancer is a very rapid infection that evades as living cells, growing uncontrollably with the aim of causing damage to any surrounding tissue.

Oral cancer, sometimes regarded as mouth cancer, is a deadly disease that involves growth of sore in the region of the mouth and does not go away. This infection belongs to a larger group of cancers referred to as Head and neck cancers. It develops in the tissues of the mouth or throat. Cancer that develops in the mouth are also called oral cancer or oral cavity cancer. It can occur at any region of the mouth; surface of the tongue, back of the tongue, inside cheeks, on lips, in the gums, in the floor and roof of the mouth and in the tonsils.

Types of Oral cancer

Verrucous carcinoma: This occurs in about 90% of cases recorded. This cancer grows slowly in the mouth and rarely extends to other parts of the body.
Squamous cell carcinoma: This is the commonest and most rapid type of mouth cancer. This oral cancer develops when the squamous cells, the cells that line the throat and mouth, begin to mutate and become abnormal.
Minor salivary gland carcinoma: This particular infection includes several types of oral cancer that develops on minor salivary glands that are located throughout the lining of the throat and mouth. They include mucoepidermoid carcinoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma and polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma.
Lymphoma: These oral cancers develop in the lymph tissues. Parts of the mouth with lymphoid tissues are the tonsils and base of the tongue, so lymphoma cancer dominates those regions.

Oral cancer screening

Oral cancer refers to the series of examination that is conducted by a Royal Palm Beach dentist on a patients who have/ are prone to having cancer disease. The basic objective of the examination is to look for signs of cancer or precancerous conditions in the mouth of a patient.

Why screening works?

Oral cancer screening works effectively to aid quick identification of any traces of cancer or precancerous conditions in a patient in order to know the right treatment method such patient would need to adopt. It also leads to conduction Of additional tests to determine the causes of cancer. However, the test does not detect all mouth cancer. But it will generally help to predict certain conditions that may have caused the oral cancer.

During a screening test.

During the cancer screening, Royal palm beach dentist will examine areas that are inside and outside the oral cavity. In the screening examination, an extra oral cancer examination of head and neck is included. Also, the dentist performs intra-oral exam of cheeks, tongue, palate, lips, mouth floor and gum disease.

The Royal Palm Beach dentist will also look for any sores, lumps and irregular tissue changes such as coloration. If anything suspicious is found, such as lesions, Royal Palm dentist may recommend a biopsy or refer such individual to an oral surgeon.

What are the risk factors of oral cancer?

Some factors that are liable to increase risk of oral cancer includes the following:

Smoking of tobacco products, cigarettes, cigar, smoking pipes and chewing tobacco and snuffs.
Drinking heavy alcohol may also increase oral cancer risk.
When individuals have weakened immune system, they are likely to be affected with high risk of oral cancer.
Oral cancer can be triggered via a sexually transmitted virus known as Human papillomavirus (HPV)

Oral cancer signs and symptoms

There are notable signs and symptoms individuals may experience to show that they may have oral cancer. Below is the summary of the signs and symptoms.

When an individual has sore on the lip or mouth regions and does not heal, it could be a sign of mouth cancer.
When a patient begins to loose teeth one after the other, it could be a sign that he/she has oral cancer
When you notice a patch of either white or red color on the inside of your mouth, it is a clear indication of mouth cancer infection.
Growth or lump on the inside of the mouth region.
Experiencing difficulty or pains when swallowing solid or liquid foods.

Oral cancer causes

In the world today, the leading causes of mouth cancer are alcohol and tobacco. This is as a result of the fact that both tobacco and alcohol are carcinogenic. This implies that they contain some chemicals that can easily damage the DNA composition in cells and this subsequently leads to cancer.

Oral cancer treatment

Treatment for oral and lip cancers depends on how far the cancer has spread in the mouth and lip regions. Some of the treatment procedures may include surgery, Chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

The surgical treatment is used to remove lymph nodes and to reconstruct the affected areas of the mouth after the cancer has been removed.

If the cancers have spread, Chemotherapy is used to kill the wide-spread cancers.

Radiation therapy is one in which the Royal Palm dentist aims beams of light radiation at the tumor.

However, for advance stages, treatment will usually involve a combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy.