oral cancer prevention

At our Midtown Manhattan dental office, we strongly encourage regular brushing and flossing to keep plaque off of your teeth and gums. But did you know that maintaining good dental hygiene can also lower your risk of dying from cancer?

According to research conducted by the British Medical Journal Open, high levels of dental plaque increases the chance of dying prematurely of cancer by 80%. The reason for this link is most likely due to inflammation, and since thousands of species of bacteria live in our mouths, plaque is consistently present. Plaque covers the surface of teeth, accumulating in the space between teeth gums; the persistence of plaque increases the chances of infection, which elicits the body’s immune system to defend against the inflammatory reaction. In turn, enzymes and other chemicals are sent into the bloodstream, pushing vulnerable cells to hastily divide and form tumors. It is also worth noting that one in five cancers are driven by some form of inflammatory process.

Clearly, good dental care contributes significantly to one’s well-being, and staying on top of plaque will prevent infection and the inflammation that is linked to cancer. Our dental professionals are also on hand to fend off plaque, and we emphasize the importance of our patients to keep up with regular 6-month check-ups!

In the United States alone, over 30,000 cases of oral cancer are diagnosed each year, and more than 8,000 people lose their battle to the disease. At our Midtown Manhattan Dental Office, the health and satisfaction of patients is our top priority, and if cancer is detected, we want to ensure that it is taken care of and defeated. Our New York City dentist uses the latest detection technology to catch cancer at an early stage.

As our patients know, regular dental exams should be scheduled every six months. Not only do dental exams keep your teeth and gums healthy, they can be used as part of the oral cancer detection process. Our team of dentists will check your mouth for lumps or irregular tissue changes in your head, neck, cheeks, and oral cavity. The soft issues in your mouth are also examined, as sores or discoloring can be a sign that cancer is present.

It is also important to be aware of the warning signs yourself. The disease occurs on the mouth, lips, tongue, gums, salivary glands, and throat, and many times, symptoms are initially painless and unobvious. However, signals of oral cancer include sores that do not heal, difficulty chewing or swallowing, ear pain, trouble moving the jaw or tongue, abnormal bleeding, lumps or hard spots, hoarseness, numbness of the tongue, and changes in the way teeth fit together. Oral cancer is diagnosed by a confirmed malignant biopsy, and a clinical evaluation will determine the stage and grade of the cancer.  The dentist may refer you to an oncologist if you are found to have the disease.

If it is not diagnosed and treated early, oral cancer can be an extremely difficult disease to combat. So, the next time you pay a visit to our New York City dental practice, make sure to ask about ask about an oral cancer screening!

We've written before about how dentists can use technology to help smokers quit their habit, but a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that smokers on average visit the dentist less than non-smokers. This is worrisome indeed, as smoking can have an adverse effect, not just on a person's lungs and chest, but on their mouth as well, as it leads to gum disease, infection, and oral cancer. In our midtown Manhattan dental office we would advise all of our patients to quit smoking if they do, but the figures released in the report suggest we may need to find other methods of reaching smokers.

The report says that more than a third of smokers complained of three or more dental problems in a survey, which was twice the amount of non-smokers who complained of the same thing. Furthermore, 20% of smokers said they hadn't been to the dentist in five years or more, whereas only 10% of non--smokers said the same.

Our patients know they have a friend in their dentists, and if they choose to smoke, we respect that is their business. But for patients who want to quit smoking, we can help them too. And we hope that everyone, regardless of whether they smoke or not, visits their dentist every six months for regular dental check ups.

We hope our patients understand how dangerous it is to smoke, but it's so important that we're going to discuss a couple of the reasons why it is so dangerous today. For one, it leads to potentially deadly cancers, including oral cancer, as well as gum disease and plaque build up. Not to mention, it makes your breath smell bad. The dentists in our Manhattan dental office tell all their patients to never pick up the habit, but of course many people in New York do. Dentists can't make anyone stop smoking, but they can do something to help people quit. 

The health insurance company Aetna recently developed an app for the iPad that is designed to enhance the relationship patients have with their dentists. This app, which patients can easily procure, comes with tools that connect patients and doctors, makes it easier for patients to schedule six month regular dental check ups, and generally helps allow dentists to provide the best treatment possible. It also comes with tips and tools that help people quit smoking. Our qualified dentists are more than happy to point any of their patients who are smokers in the direction of this app. We hope that it will help anybody who needs help. And we can't stress enough how important to your health it is to just say no to tobacco.

We hope that these blog posts are making you see how important it is to go see a qualified licensed dentist every six months for a check up. Between the teeth whitening, teeth veneers, and other tools of cosmetic dentistry that can lead to aesthetic perfection, and the dentist's ability to protect you from dangerous oral illnesses, there's every reason to find a dentist in your area, and develop a personal relationship with him or her. One thing that sometimes gets forgotten however is how important it is to get in the habit of visiting the dentist at an early age. Dental experts recommend that children visit the dentist by the time of their first birthday.

This may seem like overkill to some, but the reality is that many orthodontic problems can be solved while small children are still developing their teeth. Dentists say that dental abscess, tooth decay, bad breath, tooth loss and toothache have a better chance of being avoied if children begin scheduling regluar check ups early. In our midtown Manhattan dental office, we're pleased whenever we see our patients come through our office with their children in tow. It helps us to get to know our patients better, and it also creates lasting relationships with those children, that in turn create better dental health for them.

Our dentists believe that patients should get regular check-ups every 6 months. Not only is it important to get your teeth cleaned by a professional dentist, but routine check ups often help us catch dangerous diseases early, while we can still treat them. Gingivitis and other mouth diseases are things we deal with often, but advancements in dental science now make it so that we can now monitor saliva for distal systemic diseases such as pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, and others.

Scientists have discovered that evidence of many forms of cancer can show up in saliva glands. They hope that this information could be used in the fight against cancer and other deadly diseases. But as the research continues, it becomes even more important to visit a qualified licensed dentist regularly, one that will examine your saliva and maybe catch a dangerous disease while it is still easily treatable. In our Midtown Manhattan dental office, we are extremely excited about what this research could mean for our patients.

Not too many years ago, doctors around the world would have told you that oral cancer was something that only men who spent their nights drowning their sorrows in vodka and smoking cigarettes needed to worry about. However, as Dr. Oz states in his recent show, oral cancer is on the rise. In fact, one person dies from oral cancer every hour. And these aren’t just men that are dying. Now, women are at a greater risk than ever of developing oral cancer. Today, the HPV virus causes most cases of oral cancer – the same virus that causes cervical cancer in women. HPV is transmitted sexually, and 50% of all sexually active people are at risk of obtaining the HPV virus. Scary, right?

Recently Dr. Oz brought to our attention that “indiscriminate” use of X-ray radiation has brought an increase of thyroid cancer. He mentioned the fact that using X-ray for things such as acne and tonsillitis and shoe size measurements are NOT necessary. I agree.

We are keenly aware of the fact that radiation should be minimized at all costs. Our team if anyone could be exposed to dental radiation everyday. There are many measures we use to minimize the exposure to ourselves and our family of patients. Firstly as Dr. Oz mentioned technology has changed and digital X-rays have brought radiation doses down significantly. We have had digital X-ray systems for many years now. We have the most recent release of the industry leading Dexis X-ray sensor. We have a digital panoramic X-ray machine, this beam is less intense over analog systems by far.

I have posted this Popular Science article excerpt with a link to the original. The technology is similar to what is used at our Manhattan dental office. I am happy to see that technology is progressing in multiple fields of medicine. I am also very happy that we have already implemented such technology into our routine examinations. If I can stop one person from feeling the damages of Oral Cancer it is all worth it!

During the course of my career as a dentist, I have found three lesions which were diagnosed as cancer.  Fortunately, they were all small and completely cured!  Each of these cases were outside of the mouth; two were on the face and the other on the tip of an ear.