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SmileCare Family Dentistry Offering ViziLite(R) Plus Oral Cancer Exams Throughout California & Nevada

SANTA ANA, Calif., April 9 -- One person in the United States dies of oral cancer every hour, a death rate that has changed little over decades. SmileCare Family Dentistry, operator of more than 60 multi-specialty dental centers in California and Nevada, announced that all of its offices are now offering state-of-the-art oral cancer exams using the quick and painless ViziLite(R) Plus with TBlue630 illumination and marking technology.

In less than five minutes, a SmileCare dentist will conduct a thorough oral cavity exam. Following a conventional exam, the dentist will use the FDA-approved ViziLite Plus "glow stick" or "light wand" technology to help detect pre-malignant abnormalities and oral cancer. As with most cancers, the key to improving outcomes is early detection. The average 5-year survival rate for all cases of oral cancer is only 57%; detection at late-stage causes survival rates to drop to 18-21%. With early detection, survival rates soar above 80%. "Patients don't often think of their dentist as being a potential life-saver, but the reality is they are," says Ivan Berger, DDS, MAGD, SmileCare's Chief Dental Director.

There area many risk factors for someone that may develop oral cancer, especially those over 40 who are excessive users of tobacco or alcohol. Today, medical researchers are noticing in the last two years a significant increase in both females and males in oral cancer due to sexual transmitted  Human Papillomavirus, or HPV -- the same virus that's behind most cases of cervical cancer.

Researchers are concerned with 6,000 cases per year and an annual increase of up to 10 percent in men younger than 60, some researchers say the HPV-linked throat cancers could overtake cervical cancer in the next decade. "It's almost a new disease, in a sense," said Dr. Ezra Cohen, an oncologist at the University of Chicago Medical Center. "It's now becoming a dominant sub-type of the disease that we see in our clinic." The HPV infections likely took root decades ago as the Baby Boomers were reaching adulthood, and only now are spurring a rise in throat cancer cases, mostly among men and women in their 50s. The virus targets a specific portion of the upper throat called the oropharynx, which includes the tonsils and base of the tongue. Just a decade ago, doctors believed nearly all such cancers were linked with smoking or extremely heavy drinking.

Early oral cancer detection remains one of the most important ways to treat this rapidly expanding cancer. Make certain that you schedule your annual cancer screening examination at one of our SmileCare offices.