Oral cancer - are the dentists doing enough for its prevention and early diagnosis? - a study

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to determine whether and to what extent the dental profession is helping in the prevention and early diagnosis of oral cancers. Data were collected by distributing self administered questionnaires among two hundred randomly selected dentists of Rawalpindi and Islamabad to know what role they play in the prevention and early diagnosis of this deadly disease. More than half [52%] of the dentists did not ask or asked rarely about the use of tobacco, alcohol and other risk factors and only about a third [34%] advised and helped their patients to quit these habits. Only 22% of the dentists regularly examined the entire oral mucosa of all their patients and even fewer [12%] considered the possibility and then searched for a coincidental oral cancer. Only about 06% took biopsies of suspicious lesions regularly. The findings of this study indicate that the dentists of this region need to do a lot more for the prevention and early diagnosis of oral cancer