Close to 450,000 new cases of oral and oropharyngeal cancer are diagnosed every year. With only a 57% 5-year survival rate, your providers at The Smile Shoppe are diligent in providing you the very best in oral cancer screenings.
Mouth, head, and neck exams are performed for free on every patient, and the Velscope is recommended for all patients of adult age.
Please report to your dental provider if you have any concerns about your oral health, or have noticed any sudden changes.
Mouth, Head, & Neck Exam
Starting with the head, your dental provider will palpate (feel) all areas of your head and neck for abnormal lumps. This will include the base of the skull, behind the ears, lymph nodes, collar bone, neck muscles, and thyroid. You may recall your hygenist giving you what felt like a massage at your last cleaning appointment, this was the external oral cancer exam.
Inside the mouth, your dentist or dental hygienist will look at all soft tissues including the lips, inside the lips, roof of the mouth, back of the throat, gums, under the tongue, on top of the top, and inside the cheeks. They are watching for tissues that have an abnormal appearance or lesions. You may recall your hygienist asking you to stick your tongue out, at which point they grabbed it with a piece of cotton and moved it around. This was the internal oral cancer exam.
Velscope
While the mouth, head, and neck exam is a visual exam, it is always best to get a more thorough look below the surface in the mouth.
The Velscope is a device which uses a special light which penetrates several layers, allowing your provider to see deeper areas where cancer could be growing. These are areas that are not visible to the naked eye. Velscope is a painless procedure and takes very little time for piece of mind.
Your hygienist will offer Velscope to you at the end of your routine dental cleaning.