Your experience is especially important to me here. My dentist (who does my cleanings) cleaned my teeth in Jan and missed the large tumor in my tongue/I'm sure it was smaller than but I think it would have been pretty easy to spot if your hands were in my mouth. I discovered it June 5 and it is a T3. Now, I'm not going back to play the "who's to blame" game, but I have since switched dentists. I would like to go to my old dentist and tell her what happened and make a plea for her to do more thorough examinations. I just feel some sort of moral responsibility for her future patients. I realize that she may get very defensive, but I think she needs the info about what happened to one of her patients. What do you think?

Write her a polite letter and move on.

Susan,

I also had this experience. I saw the dentist 3 weeks prior to diagnosis and nothing was said. I did mention to him that I was on antibiotics for swelling of my lymph nodes and my tonsil being enlarged. I had been seeing my dentist for 4 years for major dental work in addition to my regular cleanings, so he knew my mouth anatomy pretty darn well yet he still missed the tumor.

I initially was very upset with him and said I would never go back to him. I even called him the day I was diagnosed and asked him how he missed this, he was stunned that I had oral cancer. After calming down and much time later, I finally decided that no one was to blame, not me, not the dentist, not anyone....sometimes bad things just happen. He is human and errors happen but you better bet he does a better oral screening now. With that said, I do say most definately bring this to her attention, although it doesn't benefit you, it benefits future patients.

Oh, and yes, I still see the same dentist, he is a great guy that has learned a valuable lesson in his practice.

thanks, Elizabeth. I'm on the same page/kind of fruitless to blame her. I have changed dentists, because I always felt she wasn't that thorough (compared to a previous dentist).

Susan, the dentist missing the mark just continues to astound me. Teresa was treated by her dentist for 2 months prior to finally being referred to and ENT who took one look, did the biopsy right there and prepared her for the SCC diagnosis.

She had lichen planus in the past and he was convinced it was a recurrence despite the horrific pain she was in (obviously the cancer was biting on a nerve). Then he decided she was biting her tongue during the night. After her diagnosis she saw him and he told her about a false scare with a patient in the past. DUH! I have begged her to never see this guy again. As far as I am concerned he was protecting himself rather than looking after the best interest of his patient. While I don't blame the guy for her cancer, he sure as hell allowed it to progress while he piddled around for two months.

Sorry to rant, but it just irritates the me to no end that the guys on the "front lines" so often fail to make the referral on a timely basis.

Dodie