| Canker Sores - Ouch! |
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Canker sores, those irritating and painful lesions that occur in the mouth, are typically found under your tongue, on the internal cheek walls, and inner lips of your mouth. They are not very big, can be white and sometimes yellow, and are round shaped; and they hurt!
Canker sores are fairly common, with one in five suffering from canker sores at some time in the life. They are usually harmless and heal within two weeks of developing. Canker sores often accompany allergies, hormonal changes or stress and fatigue. Many sufferers report an outbreak of these irritating mouth sores following a stressful life event.
You should know that canker sores aren't contagious and are not even harmful to your overall health. Preventing them can be as easy as reducing your stress levels, managing anxiety and getting the rest your body needs.
How Should You Treat A Canker Sore?
If you find yourself in the midst of a canker sore outbreak, you can manage the discomfort with over the counter products like Orajel and Anbesol, which numb the area. Avoiding spicy foods and applying ice chips can also help with the discomfort.
If your canker sores persist for more than two weeks, you should contact our office for advice. No one should be forced to live with pain, especially when a solution is easily at hand! If you are concerned about a canker sore you have, give our office a call for the answers you need. |
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| Oral Cancer Screening Saves Lives
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About 40,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer (OC) this year. OC will kill over 8,000. That's roughly 1 person every hour, all year long. Of those 40K, only 57% will be alive in 5 years. Frustratingly, this number has not significantly improved in decades! The death rate for OC is higher than that of better-known cancers: cervical, Hodgkin's lymphoma, laryngeal, testicular, thyroid, and skin cancers. If you expand the definition of OC to include cancer of the larynx (risk factors are the same) the number of diagnosed cases grows to approximately 54,000 with 13,500 deaths per year in the US alone. Worldwide, the problem is much greater.
The death rate from OC is high, not because it is hard to diagnose, rather because it is usually discovered late in its development. Another obstacle to early discovery is the proliferation of HPV16 virus. HPV16 tends to cause OC in posterior parts of the mouth (the oropharynx, the tonsils, the base of tongue). Much of the time, small OC lesions in these areas are not readily visible to the patient. The posterior of one's own mouth is just plain hard to see!
OC is often first discovered when it metastasizes to another location, usually the lymph nodes of the neck. Prognosis at this stage is significantly worse than when caught in a localized intra-oral area. At this later stage, the primary tumor has had time to invade deep into local structures. OC is also particularly dangerous because the incidence of secondary tumors is high. Thus patients who survive a first encounter have up to a 20x greater risk of developing a second cancer 5-10 years after the first occurrence.
We recommend annual screening.
- Jake Layer, DMD |
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| The Most Common Childhood Disease |
You are going down the list aren't you? Strep throat, Asthma, Chicken Pox...no, no, and no... the most common childhood disease is dental disease. That's right, cavities and gum disease are the most common. Surprised? Consider these statistics - according to the CDC, nearly 20% of children in the United States have untreated cavities. On top of that, 52 million hours of school are missed annually because of dental disease, which is not surprising when you consider that 50 percent of children under the age of 11 have experienced tooth decay. The fact is dental disease, though common, is generally preventable with proper oral hygiene - regular brushing and flossing, and regular visits to our office. If it's time to schedule your little one's appointment; don't delay - call us today!
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