Oral Cancer Is a Killer
The Mouth and Body Health Connection The old way of thinking: Seeing your dentist only helps you keep pace with good dental hygiene. The New Truth: Amazing new technology has opened the scope up for painless dental procedures such as ViziLite, to be key for frontline detection for the health of not only your mouth and gums, but for the entire body, as well. Life-threatening diseases such as Oral Cancer are now being exposed through simple dental exams, thus saving lives through yourregular annual or semi-annual check-up. And this is only the beginning to the manyconnections... Oral Cancer is curable, but there's a catch. You have to get it diagnosed in its earliest stages to beat it. According to the Oral Cancer Foundation (OCF), more than 34,000 people will be diagnosed this year in America alone. The result, over 8,000 deaths, which equals roughly 1 person per hour and only half of those newly diagnosed 34,000 will be alive in 5 years. Sound scary? It is. The statistics are staggering but subtle. Most people don't even consider Oral Cancer when they think of the "Big C", however, as silent as it is, it's just as deadly as the more openly discussed cancers when untreated. Who Is Most at Risk? Demographically speaking, the majority of those diagnosed are over the age of 40, however more and more (people) under this age are being treated. Younger (and older) people alike, who use the "smokeless" chewing or spit tobacco are significantly at higher risk than those who do not partake in it at all, although the marketing message of these products has been their users are less susceptible compared to actual smokers. According to the OCF, this alternative tobacco intake hasn't proven to be any safer, so think twice before you purchase the next pouch of chewing tobacco. Parents, pleasebe aware. Gender wise, historically the Oral Cancer ratio has been one woman for every six men diagnosed, but more recently it has swayed to two men for every woman. Evolving lifestyles have almost certainly influenced this change and although laws have been made tougher on under-aged participants, kids are still a higher risk age group to this. Make no mistake, data is still being processedon this kind ofcancer, but it's best to get your annual check-up, just in case,to ensure the health and safetyofyour mouth and body in the long run. Ask your dentist about theViziLite procedure. It's a simpleprocedure that could end up savingyour life.
From all of us at Dr. Siegel's Office, we wish youandyour family Health and Happiness throughout 2009!
(Dr. Siegel strongly acknowledges the Oral Cancer Foundation as a vital source of this article.)
