Hi Banker,

I was happy to read that your cancer was a Stage I with no lypmh node involvement. I was wondering what type of treatment you had. Was it surgery only?

The topic of a missed diagnosis is one that is very important to me as a dentist, oral cancer survivor and a member of the OCF. There hasn't been a week that has gone by since I joined the OCF that someone here doesn't say that their cancer was missed by their dentist, hygienist, oral surgeon, etc.. I find this to be very disturbing, to say the least. In all fairness, there are many members whose dental professional did find their cancer. But, as far as I'm concerned, one missed diagnosis, is too many. And Cathy, to blow off a lesion because the patient doesn't smoke or drink, means that someone is uneducated.

In my case, I did not suspect that I had squamous cell carcinoma nor did the oral surgeon in my office that performed the biopsy. But, because the sore wasn't healing, we did what we knew should be done. To say the least, I was shocked.

As many of you know from my previous posts, an article that I have written and activities such as oral cancer screenings at the Relay for Life and participating in the NYC Walk for Oral Cancer, I am trying to make a difference. I feel very strongly about the fact that something has to be done to better educate the dental profession and the public so that the words "Oral Cancer" are as noticable as Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer, etc.. I want patients to ask their dentist why they are not getting screened for oral cancer and to switch dentists if nothing is done about it.

Now getting to the topic of suing. It would probably be a very hard case to win. Considering the time and money you would have to put into a case, it would hardly seem practical. I not saying this to "protect" the dentist(s), but because I honestly believe that it would be hard to prove negligence. But, I'm not a lawyer.

On the constructive side, have you told the dentists involved that they missed your cancer? It would be a service to them and their patients, if you could make them aware of what happened and suggest that they look into continuing education courses and ask them to check out websites like:
www.sextetscreening.org
and www.gotdds.com
for training on how to do a thorough oral cancer screening. The American Dental Assoc. offers a continuing ed course on oral screenings.

If you would like a copy of the aricle that I wrote for a local dental journal to give to the dentist(s), send me an email and I'll attach it as a word document.

Jerry

PS Gary, I know how down you are on dentists in general about their lack of screenings from many of your previous posts and I was happy to read above that you appear to still be friends with your dentist. Also, Gary, you make a good point that many lesions are very difficult to see and I may add, many times require a scope to be vizualized.