Oral Cancer Awareness Month!

April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month and we at Aesthetic Dental Designs® want to help spread the word about the importance of routine yearly oral cancer exams. In particular having a new, non-invasive device (Velscope Vx) that takes less than two minutes utilized could be a life saver.  30,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer this year. It will cause over 8,000 deaths, killing roughly 1 person per hour, 24 hours per day. Of those 30,000 newly diagnosed individuals, only half will be alive in 5 years. Overall survival rate is 18% or less.  This is a number which has not significantly improved in decades. The death rate for oral cancer is higher than that of cervical cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, cancer of the brain, liver, testes, kidney, ovary, or skin cancer (malignant melanoma).  The Velscope Vx has the ability to locate tissue irregularities early so that they can be properly handled before becoming something more serious and life threatening. If you expand the definition of oral cancers to include cancer of the larynx, for which the risk factors are the same, the numbers of diagnosed cases grow to 41,000 individuals, and 12,500 deaths per year in the US alone. Worldwide the problem is much greater, with over 350,000 to 400,000 new cases being found each year. The death rate associated with this cancer is particularly high due to the cancer being routinely discovered late in its development. Often it is only discovered when the cancer has metastasized to another location, most likely the lymph nodes of the neck. Prognosis at this stage of discovery is significantly worse than when it is caught in a localized area. Besides the metastasis, at these later stages, the primary tumor has had time to invade deep into local structures. Oral cancer is particularly dangerous because it has a high risk of producing second, primary tumors. This means that patients who survive a first encounter with the disease, have up to a 20 times higher risk of developing a second cancer. This heightened risk factor can last for 5 to 10 years after the first occurrence. There are several types of oral cancers, but 90% are squamous cell carcinomas.Dr. Todd Snyder an international lecturer and author utilizes this on all of his patients. Make sure to get an oral cancer screening at least once a year from your dental office.  In addition, get screened with a Velscope Vx System.  Find out more about this incredible life saving device at www.velscope.com