Although periodontal disease and oral cancers are each positioned within the mouth, until recently, there was never regarded as a connection between the 2. Recent evidence is coming to light to point out that those with periodontal disease increase their risk to tongue cancer.
There are a lot of causes of oral cancer – unhealthy diets wealthy in sugars, poor diets, large consumption of tobacco, heavy alcohol consumption and heredity. As well as, there are several types of oral cancers – lip, tongue and really anywhere within the mouth. Tongue cancer is essentially the most common and essentially the most dangerous. The prospect of this disease is high in men who over age 60, less in those below 40 years of age and fewer in women.
In the first stages of tongue cancer, a small lump or thick white patch appears on the tongue and later is converted into an ulcer. If it is just not treated properly, the cancer spreads to other places within the mouth, reminiscent of gums, lower jaw, lymph nodes and neck. When the tumor enlarges the tongue also becomes more rigid and the power for the movement of the tongue is reduced. The tumor might also affect speech and swallowing.
The common symptoms of oral cancer are patches contained in the mouth, lips which might be white, lips which might be each red and white, a sore on lip or within the mouth that will not heal, bleeding within the mouth, difficulty in swallowing, a lump within the neck, or loose teeth.
The treatment methods for oral cancers are surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. The mix of treatments may vary depending on the patient’s stage. A pain relieving treatment is beneficial for patients to diminish the unwanted effects.
Surgery is used to remove the tumor within the mouth. That is the usual treatment for oral cancer. Radiation therapy can be a vital approach to treatment. That is given only within the affected area. This treatment is given for many who have small tumors and surgery is just not indicated. Radiation could also be used before or after surgery to kill the cancer cells.
There are two forms of radiation therapy used to treat oral cancer – external radiation and internal radiation. In external radiation the radiation comes from a machine. In internal radiation the radiation comes from radioactive material placed in seeds, needles or thin plastic tubes put directly within the tissue. Chemotherapy is one other approach to treatment. On this method, anticancer drugs are used to kill cancer cells.
Periodontal disease is a chronic infectious inflammation across the tooth and gums. Signs of periodontal disease are: bad breath that will not go away, red or swollen gums, tender or bleeding gums, painful chewing, loose teeth or sensitive teeth. Although late stages of periodontal disease show signs, early stages don’t, so regular six month visits to the dentist are beneficial. Causes of periodontal disease are poor oral hygiene, smoking, some medications, some illnesses and genetic susceptibility.
In a recent study, the gum disease periodontitis was related to an increased risk of developing tongue cancer. Dr. Mine Terzal, from the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine in Recent York, and colleagues compared 51 white men with newly diagnosed cancer of the tongue to 54 cancer-free “controls” who were seen in the course of the same period. The study excluded people younger than 21 years, those that lacked teeth, had any previous malignancy, and people with a weaken immune system.
The Archives of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery reported that every millimeter reduction in bone was related to a 5-fold rise in the chance of tongue cancer.
“Periodontitis is a chronic disease that progresses very slowly,” Dr. Terzal noted. “Seeing alveolar bone loss on X-rays indicates the infection has existed for many years, making it clear that periodontitis preceded the cancer diagnosis, and never vice-versa.”
Periodic self-examination of your mouth is the most effective strategy to detect the early signs of oral and throat cancer. Cleansing your teeth at the least 2 times a day and visiting the dentist 2-3 time a yr are beneficial for good oral hygiene and decreasing the chance of periodontal disease. Because the studies concluded that there’s a strong relationship between periodontal diseases and oral cancer, decreasing the chance of periodontal disease may also decrease the chance of tongue cancer.
