Oral Cancer

1249 Words3 Pages

Oral cancer is a devastating disease. Over eight thousand American lives are taken by oral cancer and only a fourth of these patients do not excessively drink alcohol or smoke tobacco, which are the two main causes of oral cancer (The Oral Cancer Foundation). Survival rates for oral cancer could be much higher if the population would take precautionary measures to reduce their chances of being diagnosed with oral cancer. When the use of alcohol and tobacco are decreased, the chances of acquiring oral cancer are also decreased. By visiting the dentist at least once every year, new lesions could be found. Unfortunately, only seven percent of the population, who visits the dentist regularly, receives a thorough oral cancer exam(The Oral Cancer Foundation). Therefore it is important for the patient to request an oral cancer screen if it not done. Many resources are available to those patients diagnosed with oral cancer. Once the cancer has been treated, many varied specialists will help in the transition back to daily life.

Prevention is a key component to a healthy cancer-free mouth. Males between the ages of twenty five and forty four make up the largest percentage of oral cancer patients. In 2009 the percentage of adults ,who smoked, by gender, was 23.5% of adult men to 17.9% adult women (Adult Cigarette Smoking). Tobacco chewing first became popular during the seventeenth century, when the Spaniards brought tobacco back from exploring the New World. Today it has become a worldwide epidemic (Silverman 16). Tobacco accounts for one of every five deaths in the United States yearly(Adult Cigarette Smoking). David Silverman and colleagues estimated that by the year 2020,8.4 million people will die annually from tobacco relate...

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