Dr. Eye II, dentist in Harrisonburg, VA has done thousands of Oral Cancer Screening Exams and have been lucky enough not find oral cancer he could detect on a patient. His father, a general dentist in Woodstock, Virginia did find Oral Cancer on a patient who he referred to an Oral Surgeon that later referred the patient for invasive treatment to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. This patient did survive oral cancer and remains a patient in his father’s practice.
The best preventative measure you can do is visit your dentist every 6 months for exam, cleaning and x-rays.
In our practice the oral cancer screening is part of the exam along with the head and neck exam. Oral cancer does happen to those who have no history of tobacco use and is now linked to the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) transmitted sexually. With advances in technology we are now able to detect oral cancer early and treat.