This is a follow-up to the topic "Not Sure" that developed in the "Symptoms & Diagnosis Forum.

It's great that there are so many members that want to get their local dentists starting to do thorough oral cancer screenings.

Two of the most helpful websites are as follows:

www.sextetscreening.org. This website was started by two OCF members, Barbara Boland and Eva Grayzel. By clicking on the "Dental Professionals" link on the home page a dentist can find 6 steps, with photos, showing how do to a visual and palpation exam.

The other site is, www.gotodds.com Specifically this link, http://66.148.2.226/miva/merchant.m...amp;Product_Code=25&Category_Code=09 will get the dentist to a page where they can purchase a DVD Package that icludes the DVD "Comprehensive Head & Neck Examination" as well as some handy Quick Guides showing the steps of the exam that are outlined in the DVD.

As far as the VELscope is concerned, their website, www.velscope.com will tell a dentist all that they want to know about the product. This is a $5,000 investment, with an ongoing cost for each examination. Considering the potential life saving ability provided by the light, it is an investment that any office could and should afford.

Colleen, as usual, makes some valid points and asks some excellent questions. An office that says they do an oral cancer screening, doesn't mean that are doing a thorough examination. Just looking is NOT enough. It requires palpation and the VELscope adds another layer of thoroughness.

Educating the public so that they are well informed and then demand that they receive a thorough oral cancer screening will go a long way in helping early detection.

In an ideal world, patients should feel confident that they are in good hands with their dentist and hygienist. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Way too many oral cancers go undetected and untreated. Many of our members are proof of this fact. However, on the flip side, many owe their lives to the dentists and hygienists that did take the correct action.

What I would like everyone to understand, is that in most patients, it is very difficult if not impossible to vizualize the tonsils fully. Also, it is impossible to fully vizualize the base of the tongue. Only a scope can do this. So if symptoms appear in these areas, an ENT is the only one that can fully examine these areas.

Please let me know if there is anything else that I may be able to shed some light on. I have mentioned before, that at this particular point in time, there are more members actively trying to advocate for oral cancer and early detection awareness, than any time during the 2 years that I have been a member. This is an admirable fact and one that I am thrilled to see.

Jerry

Hi Jerry -
I have been actively researching to understand the difference between a Vizilite and the VELscope, to no avail. I even emailed the VELscope company and asked that they provide a list of dentists who have purchased the VELscope system, but I never heard back from them. We are looking around for dentists here, but the one we settled on, has Vizilite but not VELscope. What is the difference? THANKS! JaneP

Hi Jane,

We used Vizilite for the last 2 years, but felt that VELscope gives us a higher level confidence. I have some of the technical information at my office and answers to many of the questions about the differences, there, too.

Since I work late tomorrow night, I'll try to get back to you before I go to sleep when I get home.

I know that Colleen was able to find the names of dentists using the light by calling them. The phone number is on their site. Unfortunately, there still are not a great many out there yet, but I believe they are selling a lot of them.

Jerry

The telephone number of the company led me to very helpful persons. I live in Central Louisiana, and I was told that the closes practioner to me with a Velscope is in Houston. I want to plan a public oral cancer screening, as well as a workshop for the dental community soon, and I have been in touch with the Velscope field rep. I don't know how many they have, but the wrong one called me back the first time, and he was supp. to have forwarded my request for info. to the one in charge of my area.

Just call the company and start asking questions.

Thanks Jerry and thanks Colleen - I will follow up. Warmly, Jane

So when I GO to the local dentist in our area with the brochures on oral cancer ..I can bring them the info on the velescope as well ! Right ! so maybe I can actually talk to the dentist and let them see the importance of the screening and I will get no benefit from this, as far as fiancial , just the satisfaction knowing that one person can be diag earlier. And maybe Because I am not the sales person they will listen to me !

Right on, Sharlee - What I am going to do after I get my questions and info all together is drop them off the the office and make it clear when I go for my teeth cleaning that I am going to pick a dentist that has the best qualifications for performing the most qualified oral cancer screening. The urls that Jerry posted above are awesome! There are detailed pictures and I'm printing out everything for both my dentist and periodontist. Going to ask them too if they know of any free oral cancer screenings in my area.

The Velscope website has good information that can be printed and taken to the dentist. ..attractive like a brochure

I am still trying to find information that is not too technical to explain the differences between ViziLite and the VELscope. I'm glad that the websites are helpful. I know that Brian has been very involved during the development and improvements in both systems and I hope he can find the time to help out here.

I think that there are many dental offices that are really not aware of the VELscope, since it is so new. I believe that this June will be one year since it was introduced for sale. I'm not sure that I would have known about it yet, if I weren't in the position that I am in right now.

It is great that all of you are so motivated to bring this information to your dentists. You are doing a great service to those patients that will be helped by the early detection that is possible through this device.

Jerry

I want to find the place where I saw that the Velscope was developed in teamwork with MDAnderson. I think that I read that, and if anyone finds it, please let me know where. That carries a lot of weight with professionals, of course. I also have read that MDA is working on a two-stage/two-device process that would be the next improvement in the process.

Jerry,

I just sent your post wrapped in a sugarcoated message to my dentist.

Don't want to offend the guy with sharp tools in my mouth, now do I?

Thanks for taking the time to develope the post.

Colleen,

The info I have directly from VELscope is that the device "was developed by The British Columbia Cancer Agency and LED Dental Inc. This is from a Public Relayions Statement given to me by them after purchasing the light. MD Anderson may have been involved, but not acknowledged here.

David,

Glad to help. Good luck with your dentist. If he wants to discuss the VELscope and it's usage with me, let me know. I'll get in touch with him.

Jane,

Getting back to your April 30th question:

1. ViziLite...This is a link to the page on their site that explains how it works. http://www.vizilite.com/about/

2. VELscope...There is no real good explanation on their website, so I found this in some literature I got with the light: "The VELscope handpiece emits a safe, visible blue light into the oral cavity which excites the oral tissue and causes it to fluoresce. When viewd through the VELscope Handpiece, healthy tissue typically shows up as a bright green color while suspicious tissue can cause a loss of fluorescence, which thus may appear dark."

I hope this helps. Let me know if there is anything else I can do.

Jerry

Thanks. I wonder where I got the MDA info for the development of the original Velscope. I will work on that, bec. I surely do not want to mis-represent anything.

I do know that MDA is working on a similar device, which will use two separate instruments in two separate steps.

when I get a minute.....another day!................I'll do that research and report back.

OK..Here is the quote from the Velscope website, under "History:" "VELscope is a revolutionary hand-held devicee that provdes dentists and hygienists with an easy-to-use adjunctive mucosal examination system for the early detection of abnormal tissue. The patented VELscope technology platform was developed in collaboration with the British Columbia Cancer Agency and MD Anderson Cancer Center, with funding provided in part by the HIH. It is based on the direct fisualization of tissue flourescence and the chanages in flourescence that occur when abnormalities are present."

At least I did not imagine reading that MDA had had a hand in the development of the VELscope, or at least the "patented technology platform."

I will try to find the link to the MDA site that describes their current work on a newer version of the same instrument.

That's the way with technology, isn't it? It's obsolete before you get it out of the box.

That's "NIH".....I need to proofread my posts better!

I am thinking that the two-part diagnostic process might have come BEFORE the VELscope. I'll keep looking. A 2005 MDA article mentions it.

Well, I have to step in here and set a couple of things straight. The science of tissue fluorescence has been around awhile. The NIH, under the arm of the NIDCR (with insights starting much of this direction from previous director Dr. Hal Slavkin who is now dean of the USC School of Dentistry, and an OCF Advisory Board member, and current NIDCR leader Dr. Larry Tabak who I have met with on several occasions.) has put up the bulk of the money for looking at this science. Even the BC Cancer agency under Dr. Miriam Rosen (our newest advisory board member) who I just lectured with at the public health meeting in Denver this last week, got their funding from NIDCR. Some of the earliest work came out of multiple universities, again with the same funding source. The first working prototypes were made at the University of Texas, School of bioengineering. Those prototypes were tested by Dr's Ann Gillenwater and Rhonda Jacob at MDACC (Also friends of mine and with Jacob an OCF advisory board member). Gillenwater did proof of principle in the cervical area, and Jacob in the mouth, but they have consistently worked as a team. They are still working on the second-generation design, which is less a discovery device and more of a diagnostic device. This version is the VELscope on steroids. Since LED

Dentists aren't gonna have any incentive to be trained in or use this thing because oral cancer is not an issue with the large majority of people. You can bet that most of us when diagnosed had no idea of the sypmtoms, let alone any thoughts or fears about H&N cancer.

With respect to the group that does care (not all of them are without incentive to do good in their patient populations) they will use this device, and the companies are selling a bunch of them. It has been suggested that this change in their behavior, the first of significance in 5 decades, is less about doing what is right, and more about creating a new profit center in their practices - the oral caner screening process. I will refrain from comment, as I feel the end result will be the same. More people will get screened regardless of motivation, and more disease will be found early.

Also please note that as a very vocal organization about all this, OCF has effected some of this change. Much of my time is spent lobbying wiht the organizations involved in the entire process from the CDC to the ADA and everyone in between. Do not think that when I get the attention of several thousand doctors at a meeting and speak to the issues of non compliance with any screening effort, lawsuits for failure to daignose, and more, that they ignore the issue. Change does not happen overnight, but it does happen if you hammer on it enough with the right incentives.

WOW! Brian you are so totally informed! Thanks! I want to help promote the VELscope, but I didn't want to say anything that was not correct.

Late to the party as usual, I will add my two cents as well. I use my background as a dental hygienist, oral cancer survivor and dental practice management consultant to educate dentists and hygienists on the necessity of early detection, their obligation to be doing thorough oral cancer screenings on every patient, and the realities of who is getting oral cancer today. My experience as a dental professional and oral cancer survivor gives me credibility with the dentists and hygienists and most of them have their eyes very widely opened when I speak. I educate then about how to do a proper head and neck exam, a thorough oral cancer exam, about how both ViziLite and VELscope work, and how to integrate one of those technologies into their practices, not as a profit center, but as an adjunctive screening tool that may increase the odds of finding precancerous and early cancerous lesions.

When I speak, I am not paid. The only time I was paid, I donated the money to OCF ($580 to the walk in New York). I have several speaking dates scheduled and I will post them so anyone who wants to let their dentist know about them can do that, if Brian says it is okay. My goal is to make a real difference in the five year survival rate for this disease, so if I have to do it by training one dentist at a time, I will do it.

I am serious about this commitment.

Barb

Thanks Brian, for adding your knowledge about the differences between the two devices as well as all the background information. I knew I could count on you.

I would hope that any office that puts the VELscope into use is fully trained in vizual and palpation examinations as well. Your point about being able to diffentiate between normal and abnormal is well taken. One has to decide when a biopsy is needed and this has to be based on clinical as well as VELscope results.

When we started using the ViziLite system as well as the switch to the VELscope, we did it for the pure purpose of using it as a diagnostic aid and not for profit. We also decided that we would charge only enough to cover our costs. I know that there are offices charging as much as $65 for these exams. We started the ViziLite at $25 and have continued the VELscope at $25. I think that the combination of my history with oral cancer (which most patients are told about) as well as the small fee, have been the reason why I personally have had only 2 patients refuse to have the VELscope used.

I applaud Barbara for all that she does for early detection (and OCF) and know that her educational seminar in my office went a long way in helping my staff and me feel more confident in the way we do oral cancer screenings.


Jerry

Barb...when you have reason to come down South, please let me know, and I will get you an audience. I am serious!

Clearly I would like to endorse Barbs speaking engagements. For that matter, I have also given out Jerry's name and info to several looking for speakers as well. When you can get someone that is dentally educated like Barb or Jerry, who also brings their patient's perspective to the information, you have a powerful package. As to making money and doing good in the world, I do not see them as mutually exlusive things.

We are very blessed to have such knowledgeble people on our side. Thank you Brian, for a thoroughly defining explanation between the Vizilite and VELscope systems. We all appreciate it..now I have to get busy and find out which dental practices in our town have the VELscope system, by calling the company. Thanks again!
JaneP

Can I sk a question ...I may be wrong to ASSUME THIS ( as you know what they say ) But I was always under the impression the dental offices make a decent amount of money . if this is the case then $5000 for such a piece of equipment does not seem like such a big deal...Why wouldnt more offcies use it? I am not 100% positve but I am pretty sure when I say that I dont think many if any in our area use one .. I have called alot and brought brochues and spoke to them .( Now will do the same with the velscope brochure, try to get them to get more info) But most in our area dont even have info on the disease..Just wondering and I am sure there is no straight answer.

Shar,

That is an interesting statement and question. I think the problem is not really about money, although in some practices, that may be a factor. What most people don't realize is that the overhead of the average dental practice can be in the neighborhood of 60% to 65%. For someone starting out, this could be a very big problem and add to that, paying off an expensive four year post college education.

But, putting that all aside, I think the problem is:

1. A lack of education in the correct procedures for doing a thorough oral cancer screening and

2. Knowing about supplemental devices that are available to the profession to accomplish that goal.

The VELscope was introduced to the profession less than 1 year ago and I would guess that there are not many dentists that know about it's existence. I don't think that I would have known about it yet, if I were not involved in oral cancer the way I am.

I just called my rep (in Chicago) and found out the following:

1. Their advertising is currently running in about 3 dental magazines

2. They promote the light through dental supply companies.

3. They do have a brochure that could be given to a dentist. He is emailing a PDF file to me and sending one in the mail. I will get back to this thread with more info after I receive the brochure.

He was very excited about the interest that our members are showing in the VELscope. He has promised to keep me abreast of what is happening in their promotions department and is going to have their new advertising person get in touch with me.

Jerry

I think Jerry has hit this at the right angle. The device is very new and the company is small and just starting to get out into the marketplace. MOST IMPORTANTLY, this is an adjunctive device - and while it aguments a good examination, potentially finding something that might get missed, it is not going to be a substitute for that non complacent dentist, who does a thorough, and knowledgeable visual and wet finger tactile examination. This device is not going to change to world. Involved dentists and hygienists will, with or without the device.

In the next couple of years, salivary diagnostics is poised to deal with the MASS screening of the population, done without a doctor, which will screen out the "at risk" population, who will THEN be on routine recalls to a real doctor/dentist who will be carefully looking (perhaps with a device) for the first manifestations of disease, as hopefully a pre cancer. People will then be caught at stages when survival is greatest and morbidity associated with treatments is the lowest.

But ,, It wouldnt hurt for me to bring around the brochure that I have printed of line as well as a list of the dental supply companies who carry this Velscope. As you said it is fairly new so I could help get the word out , atleast give them a heads up and somthing to think about and check into. Along with that I have printed out the Diag on a complete oral screening ( one of the links you posted Jerry) AS you said some just are educated or aware enough. SO the more info I can give them the better off they and others will be ...And IF I have some that are interested Jerry Maybe I could have your reps Name and number to give them so they feel they have a CONTACT to speak with , even though there is a number on thte brochure .

Shar

I still have not received any brochures either by email or in the mail.

I don't know how many reps there are, but I assume there are not many, so I think the best contact would be through the company phone number.

Jerry

That's because they are so far behind the 8 ball they have not printed one. I am working with their agency in Chicago to remedy this giving them some ideas and fact checking what they are producing. Don't hold your breath for too long on this, they just got started.

I have a brohure ..I printed it right off their website. SO I will get the word out arround here !

Shar,

I was hoping to get a glossy, printed one. I wonder if the ones on their site are different than the one that Brian mentioned above. Have you called their office to see if they will supply them to you and others? The sales rep seemed to indicate that they would do that.

Jerry

no I havent ..But I will ! THANKS !

Sharlee et al,

After several emails, I have found out that the only brochure available from LED is the single sheet brochure on their website. This is the link to the brochure.

http://www.velscope.com/pdf/guides/LED%200101%20VELscope%20Single-sheet%20Product%20Brochure_D.pdf

I was told that they are available to any member that wants to bring them to dental offices. I have not personally received a copy of one yet.

Just as a reminder, as stated by Brian, Barb and me previously, this device as an adjunct to doing a proper oral cancer clincal examination. One must be thoroughly trained in interpretation of what one sees through the light for it to have any benefit.

Jerry

Jery

Thanks ! Yes that is what they sent me maybe like 30 -40 of them ..and I agree ..they need to know what they are looking at !


Sharlee