Oral Cancer Screenings Arlington Heights

What Is Oral Cancer?

Oral cancer affects over 60,000 Americans a year. While anyone can get oral cancer, those who use tobacco products, drink excessively, have a family history, or have HPV may have a higher risk of being affected. Typically, oral cancer is incredibly difficult to spot on your own, which is one of the reasons why our routine screenings are so important. While this type of cancer can be life-threatening, it is completely treatable if caught early on! That’s why we provide our patients with oral cancer screenings during routine dental checkups. We give our patients peace of mind that they are cancer-free, making your regular dental appointments more vital than you may have guessed.

Common Signs of Oral Cancer

While oral cancer is often tough to spot, you can do your best to be aware of some of the most common symptoms:

• Pain, bleeding, or numbness in the mouth
• White or red patches in the mouth
• Consistent soreness in the throat
• Pain when chewing
• Hoarseness
• Pain in an ear

If you notice any of these warning signs, contact our dental office right away. One of our expert dentists will carefully examine your mouth and provide you with the best next steps.

The Oral Cancer Screening Process

From start to finish, we will ensure that you’re happy and comfortable. An oral cancer screening is painless, quick, and noninvasive. In fact, you may have even received a screening before without even knowing it because it’s over in a matter of minutes. First, we will visually examine your mouth, checking for any signs listed above or other abnormalities that can occur. We’ll examine your throat, lips, tongue, cheeks, gums, neck, head, and any other related areas. Next, we will provide a physical exam, where one of our experts will feel around your jaw and lymph nodes to make sure there aren’t any lumps, bumps, or asymmetries. If we do notice any signs of cancer, we will order a biopsy for further investigation. However, this part of your routine dental appointment will only take about five minutes maximum.

VELscope Technology

Westgate Dental Care is proud to now use VELscope as part of our oral cancer screening process. This advanced tool utilizes Fluorescence Visualization (FV) to expose changes and possible lesions in the oral tissue that would otherwise likely be invisible to the naked eye. While healthy tissue will show up as green in color, problematic areas are much darker, which makes it easy to pinpoint problems and do further testing. Better yet, the process only takes a few minutes and is completely noninvasive. Your safety and health is very important to us, which is why we go the extra mile whenever possible!

Learn More About VELscope