FAQ’s – Oral Cancer Screening & Detection
More Than 30,000 People Are Diagnosed With Oral Cancer Each Year
If any of these oral cancer symptoms or signs are present for days or weeks, Dr. Gerber may recommend additional screening or testing for oral cancer. At each Periodic Examination Dr. Gerber routinely screens the oral cavity for Oral Cancer.
Early Oral Detection & Screening
If you have any questions regarding Oral Cancer or would like to have an examination please call 310-652-0450 or email Dr. Robert Gerber and the Tower Dental Group.
If Discovered in its Early Stages, Oral Cancer is 90 Percent Curable
- More than 30,000 people are diagnosed with oral cancer each year.
- Eight thousand Americans die annually from oral cancer, making it more deadly than cervical, brain, or skin cancer.
- More than 50 percent of patients diagnosed with oral cancer will die within 5 years.
- Ninety percent of oral cancer patients are age 40 or older. Age is the primary risk factor.
- Patients younger than 40 years of age are considered high risk if they have contracted human papillomavirus (HPV).
- Users of any smoking or chewing tobacco, currently or within the past ten years.
- Users of one or more alcoholic drinks daily, including one beer, one glass of wine, or one drink of spirits.
- Patients with any combination of these risk factors and patients with a family history of oral cancer are considered at highest risk.
- Alarmingly, 27 percent of oral cancer victims have no lifestyle risk factors.
Oral Cancer Symptoms
- Persistent mouth sores
- Persistent mouth pain
- Lumps or thickening of the cheeks
- White or red patches on the gums, tongue tonsil , or ling of the mouth
- A sore throat or feeling that something is caught in the throat that does not go away
- Difficulty swallowing or chewing
- Difficulty moving the jaw or tongue
- Persistent numbness of the tongue or areas of the mouth
- Voice changes
- Lump in the neck
- Loosening or pain in the teeth or jaws