Oral Cancer Screening in Minneapolis

Oral cancer is a deadly form of cancer, but the good news is that detecting oral cancer early through oral cancer screening is now easier than ever, and that if caught early on, the successful treatment of oral cancer is very good.

Early detection is critical

People who use tobacco products and consume alcohol are more likely to develop oral cancer. 25% of people who do develop the disease, however, are not associated with any of the known risk factors. So, regardless of lifestyle, oral cancer screening is very important indeed.

Consequently, we take oral cancer screening very seriously in our office.

Oral cancer screening, therefore, is an essential, routine procedure, meaning we do an oral cancer check at each hygiene appointment and at any dental exam. We carefully check the mouth looking for any white or red spot, which is usually how oral cancer starts. Any such spot detected is taken seriously.

Pre-visual / early detection of abnormalities

In addition to our routine, visual oral cancer screening, the dentist and hygienist can offer patients a more rigorous exam using an abnormality identification product called VizLite. This product helps to identify abnormalities in the mouth even when they are not yet visible.

Read more about how VizLite works

Peace of mind

Because early detection of oral cancer is critical to its successful treatment, the regular six month visit to our office — which always includes oral cancer screening — is a great step to early detection, and gives our patients the peace of mind that we are looking after them.

Read more from the ADA about oral cancer and oral cancer screening

We request our patients to fill out the oral cancer screening form with each exam.