Oral Cancer Screening
April is National Oral Cancer Awareness Month
Free Oral Cancer Screenings for the public in April 2018.
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Mississauga Valley Dental Centre is providing free Oral Cancer Screening in April to educate the community about oral health. While all patients routinely receive oral cancer screenings during regular visits, April is recognized as Oral Cancer Awareness Month by the Oral Cancer Foundation. Mississauga Valley Dental Centre is partnering with the Oral Cancer Foundation to bring community awareness about the important aspects of early screening and detection for this type of cancer.
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It is not necessary to be a current Mississauga Valley Centre patient to receive these screenings, and this is at no cost to you. Patients who are screened and need further evaluation will be referred to a specialist. Enhanced screenings are also available for an additional cost, and can help to identify suspicious lesions earlier. There are several important facts to recognize about oral cancer:
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Oral cancer is now being diagnosed in younger age groups (20s and 30s), even if they don’t use tobacco products.
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There continues to be an increase in the rate of occurrence of oral cancers.
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There are two distinct pathways by which most people come to oral cancer. One is through the use of tobacco and alcohol, a long term historic problem and cause, and the other is through exposure to the HPV-16 virus. A small percentage of people do get oral cancers from no currently identified cause.
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While some think this is a rare cancer, mouth cancer will be newly diagnosed in about 100 new individuals each day in the US alone. A person dies from oral cancer every hour of every day.
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When found at early stages of development, people with oral cancers have an 80 to 90% survival rate.