2 Minutes That Could Save Your Life

Oral Cancer Screening…it takes 2 minutes and it could save your life.

of people out there are scared of visiting the dentist but oral cancer is even scarier.  Just take a look at these oral cancer statistics:

Over the last 8 years Oral Cancers have increased, most other cancers have declined.

49,670 people in the U.S. will be newly diagnosed with oral cancer this year.

Even though the two main risk factors are tobacco and excessive alcohol use, there is increasing numbers of young non-smoking oral cancer patients due to certain strains of human papillomavirus (HPV).

70% of oral cancers are found in late stages (stages III or IV).

9,700 deaths this year will be due to late diagnosis of oral cancer, killing roughly 1 person per hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

At TLC Dental Care we perform the The American Dental Association mandatory protocol for detecting oral lesions which is an annual health history review with a visual and tactile (look and feel) examination but we have added a Laser Assisted Screening also.  We have done the research and feel that the laser can help us find cancers when they are smaller and at an earlier stage.

It is our goal to have no one die from oral cancer in our practice and finding the cancer at earlier stages will go a long way toward that goal.  We decided that doing the screening is so simple that we’ll do it more often, at every check-up appointment instead of once a year, and we’ll use the laser every time.

We also realized that we couldn’t accept that someone might end up with a late stage cancer because they felt they couldn’t afford the Laser Assisted Oral Cancer Screening, so we made the decision that we’ll provide this service at no charge even though we’re gonna use a fancy laser each time.

And for the month of April, this complementary screening is extended to everyone in Knoxville even those folks who are not yet our patients.  Just contact us and we’ll find a 5-minute slot to do your 2-minute screening.

We know a lot of people out there are scared of visiting the dentist but oral cancer is even scarier.   So if you don’t go to the dentist for anything else, at least get screened for oral cancer every year.  It is a simple process, it takes 2 minutes, and it could save your life.