Oral Health

None of us likes going to the dentist. But even when we have a sore or painful patch that needs checking we rarely think of it as life threatening. It may be gum disease, a cavity that needs filling or at worst an expensive crown.

Few of us though ever expect to hear that we have a suspected mouth cancer. While we are all too familiar with the breast, bowel and prostate forms of the disease, most of us never give a second thought to getting cancer in the mouth. If you’re concerned about anything cosmetic or health-related to do with your mouth, then it’s worth visiting a dental clinic from Buckinghamshire or the surrounding area.

Raising awareness

Raising awareness of how people can detect early mouth cancers, and indeed take precautions to prevent them developing, is the focus of Open Up to Mouth Cancer - a recently launched campaign run by Cancer Research UK and funded by the Department of Health.

Mouth - also known as oral - cancer is a growing problem in the UK. More people are being diagnosed each year and survival rates are poor. The latest figures show that 4,400 people are diagnosed annually in the UK and almost 1,600 die from the disease. In 2003 more people died from mouth cancer than cervical and testicular cancer combined.

Oral cancer is defined as cancer of the lip, tongue, mouth and pharynx (excluding the nasopharynx). And most cases are preventable. Around one third of oral cancers are diagnosed in the mouth cavity and just over a quarter on the tongue.