Hi, my name is Dr. Antolak. I’m at www.thegentledentist.com in Shelby Township Michigan. Our phone number is (586) 247-3500.

And one thing that we check for during every single examination I do is for oral cancer. Oral cancer develops in the very back of the, usually, the most common area, is the very back of the tongue, underneath the tongue. Oral cancer is more prevalent in people who are smokers, the people, the most prevalent are people who are, who have drinking habits, and they’re smokers also. So people with that type of profile, are at a much higher risk for developing oral cancer. Oral cancer, unfortunately, is, it’s a very prevalent, disease.

And unfortunately we normally will see it at a later stage, and development so the, the fighter survival rate is quite low.

We do do is if we can, when we, we look to see if, if we can diagnose it or determine there is cancer. We do something called a brush biopsy. You know, in the soft tissues you wanna see if, if things are, the color changes are, are, an important aspect of what cancer would look like. But to be certain, we’ll take what is called a brush biopsy, still, this is a little brush that we use and on this brush.

We’ll actually take someone’s mouth, and we’ll scrape the soft tissue off of that area, so we want to get down to some deeper, some deeper, deeper, deeper cells, where that lesion might look like in the tongue. And then what we do is, then we’ll take that, and we’ll put that on a microscopic slide, Eric, and we have some things to put on it, and we’ll just go ahead and rub that on there like that.

And then we put a cover slip over it, we send it to a lab. That laboratory will go ahead and do a, they’ll do a screening of that. And, and give us an idea if there’s things that look normal, or if there’s something that looks abnormal. then we’ll go into the next level. You.

It is something, so. You know, unfortunately oral cancers, like any cancer, very, very rarely do you even know what’s going on in your mouth.

Body until it’s too late. So, what’s really important is early diagnosis, early diagnosis. That means getting into the dentist. Having your, you know, when we check, we check the lymph-nodes in the neck, we check the lymph-nodes, underneath the chin here. We look at the lips.

We look at the soft tissues near the tongue. All these areas are indicators of health, and whether there’s something that’s going on. So, it’s really important to do that. You know, especially if you do have a habit of smoking, and if you’re a drinker. You’re at a much higher risk.

So do something as a favor to your loved ones, get yourself checked up, and then if something is necessary we do use a brush biopsy like this to do the preliminary, examine. So, if there’s any questions you have, we can be reached at 586-247-3500. Thank you.

Shelby Township, Michigan Dentist Talks About Oral Cancer