Oral cancer can happen within the soft and hard tissue around the oral cavity. It is benefitial to detect oral cancer in its early stage because early detection allows for early treatment and it can save lives. Dental professional is one of the front line in mankind’s combat against oral cancer because dental professional works around the oral cavity and can help see if there are any changes to the patient’s oral health. This does not only include detection of cavity and restoring missing teeth. But in addition, dental professional can perform intraoral and extraoral examination to detect any abnormality in the soft tissue and the bony ridge through visual, tactile and also clinical xray imaging methods.
Some ulcers in the mouth may heal over time. However, if there is a lesion that does not heal itself and persist or may even enlarge over time, biopsy can be done to verify the type of lesion. Usually, this procedure only requires local anesthetics. The dentist would use a scalpel to incise a tissue sample, and then put it into a jaw containing formalin. The dentist would send this tissue sample to the pathology lab for evaluation. A report will show whether the suspect lesion is cancerous or not. If it is cancerous, a followup referral to specialist is given to patient.
An early detected cancerous lesion can be treated with excisional biopsy because the affected area is often self-contained and can be readily cut out from the surrounding healthy tissue.
