If you are proactive with your dental hygiene, scheduling appointments with the dentist’s office near you for checkups and cleanings, the dentist, besides evaluating your mouth for cavities and gum disease, also looks for signs of oral cancer. Dentists are healthcare providers you meet most often, and the professionals receive training to identify early signs of oral cancer.
If you are in the high-risk category of developing oral cancer, your dentist recommends checking your mouth every month at home to detect signs of oral cancer. Unfortunately, this devastating condition doesn’t announce its arrival showing off indicators of its presence in your mouth. Therefore, you might think checking for oral cancer yourself is challenging. However, if you inquire with the oral cancer dentist in new Port Richey, the professional provides suggestions on detecting the symptoms of oral cancer.
First Signs of Oral Cancer
You must get into the habit of checking yourself for signs of oral cancer if you are a tobacco user, consume alcohol excessively, are at risk of contracting HPV, and are significantly exposed to sunlight. Looking for signs of oral cancer every month ensures your mouth remains healthy. However, what do you look for when performing oral cancer screenings on yourself at home? Please continue reading for tips on looking for the first signs of oral cancer.
Oral Cancer Symptoms
Oral cancer can affect you in various ways developing on your face or neck, bumps on your lips, red and white patches in your mouth, and dark-colored areas or lumps on your palate. The color of your tongue might also indicate a symptom of oral cancer. When you notice any swelling, bumps, lumps, sores that don’t seem to heal, it helps if you make an instant appointment for further oral cancer screening in port Richey to have your findings diagnosed by a professional.
Paranoid about Oral Cancer
If you are a high-risk individual and paranoid about oral cancer, you must consider your dental appointments seriously and make every effort possible to reduce your risks of developing this life-threatening condition before it is too late. You don’t have to wait until the last moment to visit an emergency dentist near you for oral cancer screenings so long as you maintain your routine visits to your dentist every six months or a year, depending on your oral health.
When checking for signs of oral cancer at home, you can:
- Check your face and neck for sores and swelling.
- Feel your lips for bumps.
- Look for patches on the cheeks and lumps.
- Verify the color of your palate.
- Assess the color of your tongue and texture.
If you notice any signs that might indicate you have oral cancer, it is time for you to schedule an appointment with Dr. Srividya Vulugundam, an experienced dentist, to help you further.
Please do not expect treatment for oral cancer from dentists because they aren’t trained to deal with this condition and need help from specialists diagnosing and treating cancers and precancerous lesions in your mouth or any other part of your body. Therefore after you contact the dentist reporting signs of oral cancer, expect to undergo further evaluations when the dentist might recommend a biopsy for laboratory testing to detect whether oral cancer cells exist in your mouth.
If you notice signs of oral cancer, you don’t need to fear the condition because when detected early oral cancer is entirely treatable. You might have to visit oncologists and other medical specialists to receive treatment, but medical professionals can eradicate the condition from your mouth.
The goal of getting regular dental exams is to ensure besides having excellent oral health; you are also free from conditions like oral cancer dentists are trained to detect. If you are at high risk of this condition, your dentist might recommend checking for signs of oral cancer yourself at home to ensure the situation doesn’t develop between your six-monthly or yearly visits for checkups.
While you may succeed in spotting some signs of this condition, you might find it challenging to determine which lumps or bumps might indicate oral cancer and might spend the better part of the day trying to get over your paranoia of this problem.
If you find it challenging to detect oral cancer at home Orange Groove Dental can help you with the diagnosis if you schedule an appointment for additional dental cleaning.