Oral Cancer Screening

Oral cancer screening is an examination we perform to look for signs of cancer or precancerous conditions in your mouth.

We perform a soft tissue examination of your mouth during your routine dental examination to screen for oral cancer. We will check for anything that looks out of the ordinary, and tell you about it. There are lots of other causes of abnormal colours, patches, or lumps in the mouth. The rarest is cancer.

Why it’s done

Our goal with oral cancer screening is to detect mouth cancer or pre cancer lesions that may lead to mouth cancer at an early stage — when cancer or lesions are easiest to remove and most likely to be cured.

Factors that can increase the risk of oral cancer include:

  • Tobacco use of any kind, including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco and snuff, among others
  • Heavy alcohol use
  • Previous oral cancer diagnosis
  • History of significant sun exposure, which increases the risk of lip cancer

If you have any specific concerns about something you think is different in your mouth, please book and appointment to discuss this with us. We are here to help.