Your dental professional may screen you for oral cancer even if you do not have symptoms. Screening tests are useful as they can help detect oral cancers early, decreasing the chance of fatality due to these cancers. For most types of cancers, odds of survival are greatly increased if diagnosed at an early stage.
Your dentist may examine you for lesions in the mouth, lips, hard palate, gums, tongue and mucous membranes. If lesions are detected, a variety of screening methods may be used to further investigate such as:
- Biopsy: a small excision is made of the suspicious tissue and sent to a lab for examination.
- Exfoliative cytology: cells are obtained by means of scraping or smearing, and then the cells are sent to a lab to be examined.
- Imaging tests such as x-ray, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are other, and possibly less invasive, methods of detecting oral cancer, which involve using radio wave energy to view possible subsurface masses and lesions.
- Toluidine blue (vital staining): This procedure involves wiping the suspicious mucosal area and applying Toluidine blue solution, which is a type of stain that colors abnormal cellular surfaces.
It is important to keep in mind that if your dentist has sent you to get oral cancer screening it is usually a precautionary measure and does not mean that you have cancer.
