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what are mouth cancer early stage symptoms

Table of contents

A Brief on Mouth Cancer
What are Mouth Cancer Early-Stage Symptoms?
Role of Dentists to Detect Mouth Cancer Starting Stage
Why should We Detect Mouth Cancer Early Stage Symptoms?
Conclusion

A Brief on Mouth Cancer

Inside your mouth is a bustling city of numerous microscopic organisms and cells working their parts to keep optimal oral health. When this environment is disrupted by a few rogue cells that turn into mutants and multiply rapidly, it turns out to become cancerous most of the time. In this blog by Power Smiles Dental Clinic, let us understand the mouth cancer early-stage symptoms, and what the role of a dental specialist is or your general practitioner. After understanding these factors, you can then go ahead and undergo further tests to confirm if you have mouth cancer or not.

Major Mouth Cancer Early-Stage Symptoms:

According to the National Oral Cancer Registry, approximately 5 percent of all cancers are oral, and in India alone, oral cancer accounts for 40 percent of all cancer cases. Usually, the early stage mouth cancer is difficult to spot, which gets overlooked often and can develop in different locations in the mouth and buccal cavity such as lips, tongue, inner cheek lining, salivary glands, gums and soft and hard palate.

Some mouth parts like cheek, tongue and gum cancer symptoms include-

  • An ulcer in the mouth which can last more than 3 weeks
  • Pain inside the mouth for no particular reason
  • Difficulty in swallowing
  • A small or large lump inside the mouth or lip
  • An inflamed or white-patched lip or inside of the mouth, known as erythroleukoplakia. Which can be pronounced as (pronounced “eh-RITH-roh-PLAY-kee-uh”)
  • A lump in the throat or neck region
  • Persistent coughing due to inflamed throat
  • Losing weight without much effort
  • Tooth fall
  • Lip sores
  • Ear pain
  • Numbness inside the mouth
  • Regular nose bleeds

Role of Dentists to Detect Mouth Cancer Starting Stage

1. Observation

Dentists play a significant role in detecting mouth cancer starting stage being the first line of dense against the disease. They conduct a non-invasive and painless check-up of your overall oral cavity such as the mouth, throat, cheek, gums and around the neck. This is how they check for early-stage mouth cancer:-

  • Visual examination

    • The dentists conduct a thorough examination by looking around the neck and then examining the mouth. They specifically look for red or white patches, pus, sores or any kind of abnormalities inside the throat and mouth.

  • Screening Tools Assistance

    • The dentists use lights or sometimes dyes to check for abnormal tissue inside the mouth, throat, gums, and tongue, including any tongue black spots.

  • Click pictures

    • The dentists sometimes take digital images of the infected part showing abnormality, which will help identify the precise location.

  • Palpate around the face

    • They feel your neck and cheek from the outside to feel for any bumps around, for any jaw, mouth, tongue or gum cancer symptoms.

    In case your dentist finds anything unusual in these mouth cancer early stage symptoms during these examinations, they may recommend additional tests like a biopsy or consulting an Oncologist to test and confirm further.

    2. Risk assessment

    The dentists check for the risks attached to the patient likely to suffer from mouth cancer, such as alcohol and tobacco exploitation and genetics.

    3. Awareness

    Another primary role for dentists is to spread awareness of the potential risks caused due to the overconsumption of tobacco and alcohol and incline towards a healthier lifestyle devoid of these habits.

    4. Suggestions

    The dentist’s job is also to suggest the next step of action by referring to an oral surgeon, radiologist or an oncologist for examining the symptoms in detail through advanced medical techniques.

    5. Follow up

    Post suggesting, dentists may coax the patient for regular visits to monitor the growth of these mouth cancer early-stage symptoms to see if there is regression or progression of the disease.

    Why Should We Detect Mouth Cancer Early Stage Symptoms?

    It would be alarming to know that only 83% of oral cancer patients have a high chance of surviving the next 5 years. While such is the case of severity, it is crucial to detect the cancer symptoms in the early stages to increase survival chances by a higher margin. For this, timely dental appointments are necessary, or rather mandatory to escape the clutches of this wildfire of a disease.
    If you have detected your oral cancer with the help of a dentist, then you will have to take multi-disciplinary assistance involving dentists, radiologists, oral surgeons, oncologists and other specialists. They provide a comprehensive set of services and ensure you are tumor-free through rigorous therapies, radiation and administering powerful drugs.

    Conclusion 

    Looking at these statistics above makes you wonder how careless one can be by avoiding mouth cancer early-stage symptoms. Hence, it is important to follow a healthy lifestyle and limit your alcohol and tobacco consumption to a judicious amount, to avoid oral cancer. Following a regular oral and full body checkup is a must to stay away from any kind of harsh surprises like oral cancer.
    And if you have detected it, visit your general practitioner or your dentist who can advise you on further courses of action. One such dentist is Power Smiles Dental Clinic, where you can book an appointment for a detailed consultation on oral cancer and more about it.

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