Mike,
I have talked to him, he has seen exactly 3 oral patients in his entire career (me being one of them)- I started with him as patient number 12 in 1971. He's a great dentist and I still have all of my teeth today. But one thing he is not, is an ENT or head & neck surgeon which is highly specialized. Most tumors aren't even in the normal field of view for where most dentists and hygenists go.

I think its a great thing that dentists are getting access to more screening tools. I would like to see some hard data in the future that this really is resulting in a difference in early detection and not giving patients a false sense of security. I had (and still am) getting regular oral cancer exams by my hygenist -they still "missed" a 6 cm highly visible tumor. Even went so far as to tell me that they didn't think "I had anything to worry about". This is not just my story here but many others as well. Brian has worked long and hard on working with the ADA and educational programs for dentists. IMHO I think that this a worthwhile endeavour - but knowing what I know now, I would be getting regular screenings from an ENT annually after 40 or so anyway and earlier if tobacco and/or alcohol were a regular part of my lifestyle.