Stats from the UK shows that Oral Cancer Rates are Rising There as Well

Oral cancer rates are on the rise here in the US. Now stats show that across the pond, the rates are rising as well.

This story from the BBC gives all the current details.

Since we know this is happening, i thought I'd take a moment here to give some rather frightening stats on the disease. It is imperative that patients should have oral cancer exams done by the dentist & that dentists should be doing everything we can to spot & help catch this terrible disease in its earliest stages. Take a look at a few amazing statistics:

• Oral cancer kills almost three times as many people as cervical cancer every year.
• Oral cancer is responsible for more deaths tan from other cancers we hear about more routinely such as lung and skin cancer.
• This year around 37,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral cancer.
• One person every hour of every day will die from the disease.
• The fastest growing segment of the oral cancer population is the 25-50 age range who have had more than 3 sexual partners.
• Cancers are caused primarily by the human papilloma virus strains 16 & 18.
• If oral cancer is detected early in stages 1 or 2, the survival rate can be as high as 80-90%.
• Later detection in stages 3 or 4 causes survival rates to drop to 20-30%.

So it's imperative that both patients and professionals are doing everything we can to find this disease at its very earliest detectable stages. There are currently (at least the I am aware of) 4 companies that have products designed to help the screening process. They are:

• Velscope
• Dentlight Dental Oral Exam
• DentalEZ Identafi
• Vizilite Plus