Oral cancer: Vital to detect it early

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Dr Shahneza at a talk on ‘Oral care — Prevention is better than cure’.

 

A slideshow of gum swelling.

 

An example of teeth crowding.

KUCHING: Early detection of oral cancer is often possible and tissue changes in the mouth which often can be seen and felt easily might signal the beginning of cancer.

According to a dentist from Normah Medical Specialist Centre, Dr Shahneza Ahmad, there are warning signs that might signal oral cancer and a person can do self checking at home to watch out for these early signs or early lesions.

Any white or red lesion (white or red patch) that does not resolve itself in two weeks should be re-evaluated and need diagnosis, she said.

To conduct self intra-oral examination, under lots of light, she said the person must look for signs of atypical development of the mouth’s tissues, such as nodules, ulcer, atypical growth, red and or white patches, as well as black patches.

As in extra-oral examination, findings of atypical development of tissues do not necessarily imply the presence of the cancer, she added.

She pointed out that after the finding, it is recommended that monitoring be done for two or three weeks as in most cases, such alterations tend to resolve within this time frame.

It if persists after this period, a visit to the dentist or the oncologist is strongly advised.

“Oral cancer is caused by uncontrollable growth of cells in the mouth. At risk are chronic smokers who smoke 20 or more cigarettes a day for many years, betel nut chewers, and those excessively consuming alcohol, and those with family history of cancer,” she said when presenting a talk to more than 60 people at the State Library here yesterday.

It is important to detect oral cancer early when it can be treated more successfully as those who detect it late more often will die from the disease, she pointed out.

She also mentioned that oral cancer awareness is still generally low and that more efforts needed to be done to create awareness of oral cancer and early detection.

She also talked on other common dental problems like tooth decay and caries, gum swelling and bleeding, and tooth crowding.

She said tooth decay is the world’s oldest and most widespread disease.

To prevent tooth decay, she said it is important to brush our teeth at least twice a day with fluoride toothpaste.

“It is necessary to use toothpaste containing fluoride to prevent cavity. Flossing is highly recommended to clean between teeth before brushing.

“Unfortunately, the awareness of using dental floss is still very low,” she said.

As for gum swelling and bleeding, she said common causes include gingivitis which is inflammation of gum, infection by a virus or fungus, poorly fitting dentures, pregnancy, allergy and side effect of a drug.

“Similar to tooth decay prevention, it is important to floss and brush your teeth twice a day especially during the night,” she said.

On teeth crowding, she said causes are oral habit of thumb sucking, mouth breather, pacifier sucking habit; early loss of primary teeth (before time of shredding); small arch, with large size of teeth.

She said if thumb sucking persists after the primary teeth have erupted, it can change the growth patterns of the jaw, and cause significant misalignment of the teeth.