![\"Mouth](\"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mouth-Cancer-Action-Month-200x113.png\")
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1 person is lost to mouth cancer every 3 hours, and more people die from it in the UK than from cervical and testicular cancer combined (source: Mouth Cancer Foundation).<\/p>\n
November is Mouth Cancer Action month, something we\u2019re strong supporters of here at Parbold Dental which is why we include some simple checks at every hygiene or check up appointment you have with us.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re concerned about your oral health then please talk to us, and read on for more information about symptoms of mouth cancer and how you can check and maintain your oral health at home.<\/p>\n
Also known as oral cancer, mouth cancer can present in various ways inside your mouth.<\/p>\n
Tumours may develop on the surface of your tongue, inside your cheeks, the roof of your mouth or your gums or lips. Less common areas include in your saliva glands, tonsils and windpipe.<\/p>\n
There are a number of symptoms to look out for and the most common of these include painful ulcers and unexplained lumps in the mouth or the lymph glands in your neck that don\u2019t go away after a few weeks.<\/p>\n
Symptoms aren\u2019t restricted to these few differences, and we strongly recommend seeing your dentist or GP if you notice any of these, particularly if you regularly drink alcohol or smoke:<\/p>\n
The prominent causes of mouth cancer is the regular consumption of tobacco and alcohol. If you frequently use both, then your risk of developing oral cancer increases even further.<\/p>\n
85% of all head and neck cancers are associated with tobacco; and it\u2019s not just smoking cigarettes or cigars that can place you in danger, chewing tobacco also contains carcinogens that can alter your DNA and lead to serious health issues.<\/p>\n
Pipe smoking is shown to cause issues predominantly where the pipe touches the lips and chewing tobacco is shown to affect the cheeks, where the tobacco has more contact.<\/p>\n
Secondhand smoke can also contribute to oral cancers.<\/p>\n
HPV – infection of human papillomavirus has been shown to be a contributing factor to oral cancer, with the tonsils and tongue becoming more prevalent.<\/p>\n
Spending too much time in the sun without protection is linked to cancer of the lip area.<\/p>\n
Men are more likely to develop these types of cancers than women and those with fair skin are linked to a higher risk of lip cancer.<\/p>\n
A lack of dental care, resulting in poor oral hygiene or persistent irritation from ill fitting dentures can cause cavity cancer, and this risk again increases if you regularly use tobacco or alcohol.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d also recommend having jagged, or broken teeth looked at as soon as possible so they don\u2019t cause persistent ulcers on your cheeks or tongue as cancer has been linked with long-standing wounds.<\/p>\n
There are some simple checks that you can carry out at home to look for changes that could indicate mouth cancer.<\/p>\n
Remember that some changes could be natural but if you\u2019re concerned or have lumps that haven\u2019t reduced or disappeared within 3 weeks then please make an appointment with your dentist or GP.<\/p>\n
Before checking, make sure you have clean fingers, a mirror and good light. If you\u2019re finding it difficult or have visual impairment then you may wish to have a friend or family member help you.<\/p>\n
Remember you\u2019re checking for any lumps, red or white patches, changes in texture or colour or anything else out of the ordinary for you.<\/p>\n
First of all, look at your whole face in the mirror. Take time to look for lumps that you haven\u2019t noticed before or if there are any changes to your skin such as moles that have started to bleed. If you slowly turn your head from side to side you will stretch the skin over your muscles and make lumps easier to see.<\/p>\n
Using the balls of your fingertips, run your fingers under your jawline and move along the large muscle that\u2019s located either side of your neck to see if there are lumps or changes that weren\u2019t there before.<\/p>\n
Feel around the inside of your mouth\u00a0 and pull your upper lip up and bottom lip downward to inspect inside. You\u2019re looking for any sores or changes in colour as well as any changes in texture. Also feel around the inside and outside of your gums to check for anything unusual.<\/p>\n
Again, you\u2019re looking for ulcers, lumps or change to texture on the inside of your cheeks. Run your finger along the inside of your cheek and also open your mouth and pull your cheek away, one side at a time, to have a look inside.<\/p>\n
Poke out your tongue and look at both sides as well as on the top and bottom. You can press gently on the floor of your mouth while your tongue is pressed to the roof of your mouth to feel for changes in texture.<\/p>\n
Tilt your head back and open your mouth as wide as you can to check the roof of your mouth for symptoms such as a change in colour or ulcers. Use your finger to check for texture changes that might not be noticeable by the eye.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t just check and forget, make a note of anything that is different even if you can attribute it to something like a bitten cheek or burn from a pizza. Burns, ulcers, swollen glands etc should all heal within 3 weeks.<\/p>\n
There are no proven ways to prevent mouth cancer completely however by reducing your exposure to the factors that can contribute to it, you can reduce your risk.<\/p>\n
This includes eliminating tobacco and alcohol from your diet. If you choose to drink alcohol then stick to the recommended guidelines (for healthy adults, that means up to one drink a day for women of all ages and men older than age 65, and up to two drinks a day for men age 65 and younger).<\/p>\n
Reducing your lips\u2019 exposure to the sun by wearing adequate sunscreen if you\u2019re out and about – a wide brimmed hat won\u2019t go amiss either.<\/p>\n
And, make sure you attend regular check ups with your dentist. As standard, we carry out a number of checks to make sure your oral hygiene is good and monitor any changes that we notice when you attend any check up or hygiene appointment.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re concerned about any changes in your mouth or you would like to know more about to reduce your risk of oral cancer then please contact one our team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1 person is lost to mouth cancer every 3 hours, and more people die from it in the UK than from cervical and testicular cancer combined (source: Mouth Cancer Foundation). November is Mouth Cancer Action month, something we\u2019re strong supporters of here at Parbold Dental which is why we include some simple checks at every … Continue reading November is Mouth Cancer Action Month<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[24,27,19,20,25,26,22,21,30,29,28,23,31],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oral-health","tag-cancer-symptoms","tag-hpv-virus","tag-mouth-cancer","tag-mouth-cancer-action-month","tag-mouth-cancer-causes","tag-mouth-cancer-risk","tag-oral-cancer","tag-oral-health","tag-parbold","tag-parbold-dental","tag-prevent-mouth-cancer","tag-tumours","tag-wigan-dentist"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":542,"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions\/542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.parbolddental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}