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Oral Cancer

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Oral Cancer: The Quiet One

Imagine for a moment being silent. Imagine having the words to say, but no means to make them heard. Try to envision your life without being able to taste your favorite foods, or perhaps never being able to eat them at all, even though they might be readily available. Picture having all the water you could ever desire, but never being able to quench your thirst. It sounds something like hell, doesn’t it? This isn’t just some make believe version of hell; it is a harsh reality of our world. Each year, thousands of people will experience this nightmare for themselves. “Why?” you may ask. It is all caused by an easily detectable form of cancer: oral cancer. When identified early, the disease can be easily treated and rarely requires radiation or chemotherapy. However, very few people actually get checked for oral cancer, despite the fact that it could save hundreds if not thousands of lives each year. One of the least publicized forms of the disease, oral cancer has very few signs or symptoms in its early stages, can easily and rapidly spread to other areas of the body, and has an extremely high mortality rate.
In the early stages of oral cancer, there is often no initial pain. It is difficult to detect without a detailed familiarity with your own body or an experienced professional’s examination. Self examinations can be helpful, but since the mouth often has various bumps and lumps appearing and disappearing, the beginnings of oral cancer are almost always completely overlooked (Oral Cancer Foundation, n.d.). Symptoms of oral cancer include white or red patches inside the mouth or lips, sores on lips or in the mouth that don’t heal, bleeding, loose teeth, difficulty or pain when swallowing, a lump in the neck, earaches that don’t go away, and numbness of the lower lip and chin (What You Need to Know, 2009). Eventually, the

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