That will be tomorrow afternoon. I should have done this back when my dentist made the appointment last month. Maybe a bit of denial. Anyway I have a lot of background and hope to not make this a book. March of 2018 I had a surgery and 6 months latter was diagnosed with a large DVT in my left leg. I had other left leg injuries in the 1980's and guess the problem had been going on for some time. A blood test was done that I thought was to check if I had cancer but I don't know what type it was or what all it checked for. Was told Xrelto would take care of it and go away and don't return. Had another surgery April 2021 and 6 months later more left leg DVT problems and switched to Warfarin. I have had some other gastro problems. I am from an area that is lacking in terms of health care. Big insurance companies run health care. So I have some experience with doctors and insurance. I smoke cigars. So I don't know if the 2018 test was just for lung cancer or if it was for all cancers. My dentist had been noticing places in my mouth over the past several years and I had attributed these to aggressive cleaning prior to my visit and eating really hot food that blisters the inside of my mouth. And I sometimes will bit my tongue or cheek. They wanted to do an $15 scan but never had it together to do so in the time I had for the appointment. Finally had one last month and they had me come back 2 weeks later and did it a gain. They had told me it was just going to be a visual check but instead use the special light scan thing again. One of the places was gone or greatly improved and another was worse or the same so an appointment was made for me to see and oral surgeon. My mouth does seem to be more sensitive now and sore much of the time. I don't know if it is just me and my worry and concern about this.

Lots of stuff going on in my head right now. As I had feared cancer since my DVT in 2018 and again with my gastro issues 2020/2021. So one side is saying the dentist test is not a good indication just wait and most likely all will be good after I see the oral surgeon, The other side is that my dentist and the people in the office know what they are doing and I need to start gathering information on this. I have Medicare now so I can travel outside my home state for medical care. Another part of me is worried that I have cancer in other places in my body and that it will not be looked for or dealt with and I will just suffer with having a large part of my face removed and be some kind monster to look at and some pain to go with it. Just worried I will be told they will check a place on my tongue and maybe remove a little piece of it and wake up with my lower face gone. I have seen some photo's of this and they are disturbing. Then after that is done they will find the other cancer.

So I am new to this. As I said I should have done this sooner to get an idea what I need to do or ask at my appointment tomorrow. Or where to go to find the best doctors for this close to Kansas. I am just kind of going into this blind. Any information i the next 24 that would help my first doctor appointment would be welcome. Sorry but not sure what else to ask right now.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you all are doing well.

The oral surgeon did not do any testing just an examination. He did not seem to know what the light that was used in my mouth to show cancer before it could be seen with just regular light. Said he was not going to do a biopsy on what the dentist had seen. Said to come back in 3 weeks.

Does anyone have any information on the special light the dentist uses to detect early cancer?

The light common in dental practices has several brand names, one of the bigger companies known as VELscope. They are all very specific blue spectrum lights, and work on the principal of tissue auto fluorescence. Human tissues contain fluorophors, which when agitated by this spectrum of blue light, or by certain chemicals fluoresce, or put out a glow when healthy. When a dentist looks into your mouth with that light while wearing some amber colored glasses, normal fluorescing healthy tissues look light green like a green apple. Cells that are damaged in some ways will not do this and appear black. This loss of fluorescence can be caused by things outside of dna damage related to malignancy, so it is not totally specific to finding cancer. But it helps identify areas that are suspect and maybe in need of further inquiry, perhaps through a biopsy, which will determine their condition through a different means under microscopic examination.

The Oral Cancer Foundation was an early sponsor of this research idea back in 2002-4 when it was being explored for use in cervical cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. We recognized early on what this opportunity would bring to the oral cancer world, which is heavily white light visual and tactile exams. Because the funding came from government (NIH) and a charity source, the published science was in the public domain. A Canadian company named LED was encouraged by OCF to look at the development of a hand held device to sell to the dental market. After doing so, and showing that it was a viable discovery (not diagnostic) device, other companies also entered the market place. OCF has frequently been at the forefront of sponsoring ideas that are breakthroughs as we are very connected to the research world and watch for new ideas to put our donor dollars towards.