Thanks to everyone for responding. My goal is to help these dental professionals realize that they have an obligation to be more aggressive when it comes to abnormal tissue. We are lucky that there are some non-invasive ways (brush biopsy, Vizilite) to at least find out if the cells are abnormal. I want something good to come from my experience with cancer and if one person gets diagnosed early rather than late, that is a good thing.

Thanks again, Barb

Barb,
I have been to dentists who feel the neck for nodes at regular checkups, but that did not happen in my case. Mine was base of tongue, so it was not visible, but it grew to Stage IV before anyone got concerned. I had a dry, scratchy throat for many months, and began having pain in my gum. I started at the dentist, who sent me to the endodontist who sent me to the periodontist. The periodontist did a gum procedure that did not work and thus sent me back to the endodontist to redo an old root canal. When he opened up the tooth, it was fine.

Due to the persistent dry throat, I did ask the periodontist to attempt to look down my throat with his mirror, but my gag reflex did not allow him to see anything. I even went to my radiologist buddy who also tried unsuccessfully to look there. When you are relatively young and healthy, everyone just assumes that you have an allergy.

My tumor was not found until food that I swallowed began coming back up and I went to an ENT who had me do a barium swallow with the radiologist, which revealed something, and followed it up by scoping me, revealing a big tumor.

I cannot really blame the dental professionals since it was not visible in my mouth, but, had they been better trained in feeling around the neck, they might have been able to detect the nodes.

So my thoughts are that it should be emphasized to the dentists to feel around the neck as well as to look in the mouth.

Danny G.

My stage IV cancer was found after the dentist removed two teeth on the lower left side of my mouth in Dec. of 2002. The two teeth that were the farthest back in my mouth. Nothing was noticed during the exam nor during the extraction. I do remember it being horribly painful after the extractions but after a few days that went away. The area where the teeth were removed never really healed, it stayed very red and "angry" looking. I was so very busy at this time of my life, we had just opened our second gym and was managing two businesses and taking care of the four kids we still have living at home........throw in a husband and a house and not much time left to take care of me. I would look at it off and on but just didn't think about it to much. The middle of March 2003 I called the dentist for something not related to me and ended up telling the office girl about my problem. She had me come in that next day. I will never forget the look on the dentists face when he looked in my mouth. He asked me if I had been putting aspirin on it, that the area looked burned. He took an X-ray and sent me to an oral surgeon. The oral surgeon, that I saw that same day, told me I had an infection and put me on antibiotics. I asked him if he thought this was cancer and he said no. The two teeth next to where I had the extractions in Dec. had become sore and loose so he scheduled me to come in and have them taken out four days later. During those extractions he did a biopsy. The extraction for those two teeth was so damn painful, the novacaine just didn't numb it enough. I remember being shaky and very distraught after that appointment. The biopsy was on a Tuesday and that Friday we left for Myrtle Beach with the kids. When we got to the motel room that night I looked at the area and saw that, after 3 days, the white stuff had grown back. That is when I started to fear that I had cancer. I went straight to bed after that, and the movie "Step-mother" was on which of course upset me even more. We returned home on Monday night and that next morning, when I was coming down the stairs, my daughter hollered, "mom, your dentist called yesterday." I knew right then that I had cancer, as I had an appointment for Thursday for the biopsy results and I knew they would only call early if there was a problem.
I went in that afternoon and my world as I knew it was over. Thanks be to God that he allows us to create new worlds!
Once we get past grieving our pre-cancer selfs, life can be good once again!!

My husband's oral cancers were both spotted first by his hygienist during routine cleaning. The first time it was after two medical doctors had said the soreness in the back of his mouth was nothing. The second time he had just had a going over by his surgeon to look for a recurrence 5 days before. It is just so important for the dental professionals to look at more than the teeth. Anything out of the ordinary deserves a biopsy.
Lowanne