According to the American Cancer Society, 2 to 4 percent of cancers diagnosed in the United States each year occur in the oral cavity. This includes sites on the lip, tongue, floor of the mouth, gingiva, alveolar and buccal mucosa, and oropharynx. Approximately 30,000 cases of oral cancer are diagnosed annually, and approximately 8,000 deaths occur each year from oral cancer. At the time oral cancer is diagnosed, more than half of the patients have invasive or metastatic disease, which reduces long –term survival rates. Early diagnosis is believed to be critical to increasing survival rates from this deadly and potentially disfiguring disease. The centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) states that the five-year survival rate for patients with localized disease is 81 percent, however, the five-year survival rate for patients with oral cancer that has spread to other sites is only 30 percent. In addition, patients who survive a first diagnosis of oral cancer have a 20 times higher risk of developing a second cancer.

Dental professionals obviously play a key role in the early detection and diagnosis, especially since at least 50 percent of Americans see their dentist at least once a year.

Our job as dental professionals is to provide a thorough screening to those patients whom we see regularly, using the most up-to-date screening and detection tools available.

There are some new developments in early detection of oral cancer that can make a difference in our patient’s lives. The newest technology is chemiluminescence with the trade name of Vizilite™.

Although traditional visual and tactile (palpation) techniques are still utilized, this new technology further increases detection by illuminating early changes in oral tissue that may not be visible to the naked eye. Abnormal epithelium will appear white when exposed to an acetic solution and then viewed under a low-energy wavelength light; however, normal tissue will remain dark under the same conditions. Vizilite ™ provides both the patient and doctor with an additional sense of security knowing that even the earliest stages of abnormality can be identified, along with the traditional practice of visual and tactile examinations