Mouth Cancer

[Snowbaby]

Mouth cancer can affect the lips, tongue, cheeks and throat.

There are 4,400 new cases and 1,700 deaths every year in the UK, and those figures are increasing each year.

Survival chances are much improved with early detection, so the number of deaths could be greatly reduced if people were more aware of the symptoms.

The first sign of mouth cancer is often a non-healing mouth ulcer or a red or white patch in the mouth. It is important that you examine your own mouth on a regular basis. If you have a mouth ulcer that hasn’t healed after three weeks, or you notice any unusual changes in your mouth you should visit your dentist as soon as possible for an examination.

Mouth cancer is most common in people over 40 who smoke or drink alcohol. It is also twice as likely to strike men as women.

However, the number of young people and women developing the condition has been increasing in recent years.

You can cut your risk of developing mouth cancer by living a healthy lifestyle. Visit our How can I prevent it? section for more information.

If mouth cancer is diagnosed in its early stages it can respond well to treatment and the chances of a complete cure are good. This is why regular dental check-ups are so important.

Source & More Information

[echoseddy]

wow , thanks snowbaby, you helped me by perovivding this good information.
I was just checked for mouthcancer, but i need to go back for more tests and to a doctor reffered to by my dentist,.

[Tiddlyjen]

My great Aunt had mouth cancer, she didnt tell anybody what she was going through and it went into such a stage that she had to have her entire palette removed, she is still able to speak, but if you can imagine, not having the palette there to be able to properly form the words makes it hard for her. Shes such a lovely person too but is so shy now because of what happened.

[colemancol]

Types of mouth cancer

The most common type of mouth cancer is squamous cell carcinoma. It develops from squamous cells - the flat, skin-like cells that cover the lining of the mouth. At least nine out of 10 mouth cancers are squamous cell carcinomas.

Rarer types of mouth cancer include:

* salivary gland cancer - this type of cancer starts in the salivary gland cells, which are in the lining of the mouth and throat
* lymphoma - this type of cancer starts in lymph tissue, which is around the base of the tongue and tonsils
* melanoma - this is a type of skin cancer that starts in skin pigment cells around the mouth or on the lips