We have several added new buttons designed for dental office personnel to add to the package we provide to participating dental offices. These

Brian.....please send me several buttons so I can share them with my dentist and his staff. Thanks loads.......Mary Ann XXX, XXXXXX Drive, Lansing, MI 48917 (address removed by OCF staff)

I will send the buttons out on Monday. To all who use this forum, the web site is open to everyone in the world. You never know who is reading things and what kind of person they are. Please contact me with your address etc. by email and do not post them here on the wesite.

The buttons are great.

But here's a naive question. Do all dentists know how to perform an oral cancer screening?

If a patient agrees to one, would there an extra cost?

Shouldn't oral cancer screening just be a routine part of a dental visit or a tooth cleaning visit? Should a patient even have to ask for an oral cancer screening?

That is the $64,000 dollar question..... There are published studies that show that far too many dentists do not perform the screening, and many dentists do not know enough about oral cancer to do it properly. This is a sad commentary on dentistry as a whole.

Here are the answers. Dentists are trained to do it in school. It SHOULD be part of every oral examination, but it is not. When you ask dentists if they are doing it, they will all say yes, but when I have talked to their office staffs, the answer is different. There isn

My question on this topic is what exactly is performed with an oral cancer screening and how would you know if your dentist is actually performing one?

Screenings take less than five minutes and are primarily a visual examination combined with manual palpation of the nodes of the floor of the mouth and neck. The tongue should be pulled outwards from the mouth and the base of it examined visually as well, since this is a common site for OC and not visible unless you pull the tongue out. (If the doctor did not do this, you have not had a good examination.) The tongue boarders, which are a frequent site for oral cancer, are felt with a finger for hard spots, which might indicate a suspect area. If you want to read a complete description of the exam written for dentists, go to the dental section of the web site and you will see a link to it there. Oral cancer, and even the precancerous tissue changes before a real cancer exists like erythroplakia and leukoplakia, can be seen with the naked eye, without special equipment or felt with the fingertips. It should be part of a regular dental examination, but too frequently it is not. If a doctor find a suspect area, he may immediately do a simple brush biopsy, (3 min, painless and inexpensive) or he may decide to observe the area for a couple of weeks to see if it will resolve on it

Hi, I received my buttons in the mail last Friday. I plan to send them to all my friends and family for Valentines Day with a note that says something like "Talk up getting an exam for oral cancer to all the people you love". I can't think of a better way to let people know I love them than that.
Thanks, Brian
Karen in deep south Texas

Oh, yeah, one more thing about the buttons. Jim does not normally like to discuss his cancer with people he does not know, but when he saw the buttons he asked for one and is wearing it every day. Since we are managers at a RV resort in south Texas, he has that button out there in the public eye all day. I am so proud of him that he is taking that step. Yea, Jim!!

Karen,

I second that. Way to go, Jim! What a wonderful, selfless way to get the word out. Wishing you both the best.

Rosemary