At Paraiso family Dental and Orthodontics, we do everything we can to help you maintain positive oral and overall health. Meeting this goal means being as thorough as possible when catching the early signs of systemic disease. This includes oral cancer, a disease that kills thousands every year in the United States, largely due to catching the condition too late. With routine visits, you’re guaranteed to receive an oral cancer screening with your visit, ensuring that if any problems appear, you’ll know sooner rather than later. Contact our dental office to get your next treatment scheduled with Dr. Gary Chafee for oral cancer screenings in Newbury Park, CA!
Why Do I Need an Oral Cancer Screening?
Based on the most recent reports, 48,000 individuals are diagnosed with oral cancer every year. However, the survival rate only reaches as high as 50 percent after 5 years because the condition is often not diagnosed until it’s already reached the late stages. Therefore, the sooner you can catch the disease, the higher your survival rate will be. Oral cancer is incredibly difficult to catch on your own because the most notable signs are difficult to see with the naked and untrained eye. With the help of a dentist, catching the disease earlier is far more likely, and dentists are in a unique position to do so.
Furthermore, even patients who carry no risk factors for oral cancer can still develop the condition. Since there is no set of guidelines in place to screen for the disease, dentists are taking matters into their own hands to protect their patients.
