Regular oral cancer screenings are essential to your oral health because they allow your dentist to identify and treat abnormalities before they become serious to your overall health.
What is oral cancer?
Cancer is essentially an uncontrollable growth of cells that invade and damage the surrounding tissues.
Oral cancer appears as a growth or sore (that does not go away) on the lips, cheeks, tongue, the hard or soft palate, the floor of the mouth, the sinuses or throat. Oral cancers can become life threatening if they are not diagnosed and treated early.
Why are oral cancer screenings important?
Oral cancer screenings are very important in maintaining your oral and overall health because oral cancer treatments are typically most successful when the cancer is diagnosed early in its development.
This means that by undergoing screenings for oral cancer, your dentist has a better chance of identifying abnormalities early, and preventing them from developing into something life threatening.
What happens during an oral cancer screening at Clayburn Dental?
During your oral cancer screening, your Abbotsford dentist will use a variety of tools and examination methods to look for any discolouration, unusual lumps, sores, or other abnormalities in your mouth. If your dentist does discover an abnormality, they will send a sample to a lab for further testing, to determine if the abnormality is cancerous or not.
VELscope® Technology
At Clayburn Dental, we use VELscope Technology to supplement traditional intra- and extra-oral head and neck exams. Our dentists use this handheld scope to help visualize oral tissue abnormalities, including cancer and pre-cancer.
FREE Oral Cancer Screenings this April at Clayburn Dental
Clayburn Dental in Abbotsford is offering free oral cancer screenings for our patients during the month of April.