Make a commitment to finding oral cancer early

Spotting oral cancer as early as possible can save lives. In honor of Oral Cancer Awareness Month, now’s the time to make oral cancer screening a priority in your practice.

If you don’t catch it until it’s easy to see, it may be too late. That’s why it’s so important to catch oral cancer in its early stages, when treatment is least invasive and survival rates are highest.

If you’re not already doing oral cancer exams for every patient, Oral Cancer Awareness Month is a great time to start. Performing a conventional white light oral cancer screening exam will help you discover potential problems and take any necessary action. The exam itself only takes a few minutes and is easy to incorporate into routine appointments, so there’s really no reason not to make these exams a priority at your practice.

Remember, even when you perform a thorough exam, it doesn’t mean you’ll see everything in every patient’s mouth that might be suspect. That’s where adjunctive devices come in. They can help you see what the naked eye might miss with light reflection alone, and catch subtle lesions before they become a threat.

From VELscope Vx to ViziLite Plus with TBlue to the Identafi Oral Cancer Screening Device, there are plenty of adjunctive devices to choose from-you just need to determine which one works best for your patients and your practice. Do the research, get your team on board and find a way to incorporate these screenings after a patient’s conventional exam. You’ll soon discover you’re finding lesions you never would have seen before. While most of these won’t be cancer, the extra effort will be well worth it for the ones that are.

Your patients are your practice. Without them, where would you be? You have to know the best ways to attract them to your practice, get them to accept treatment and make them happy, life-long patients.

That’s where we can help. Check back regularly for tips on how to keep your patients happy, healthy and loyal.

Check out this video from oral cancer survivor Michael Douglas, courtesy of the Oral Cancer Foundation: