May 21, 2008 5:13 pm US/Central
New Dental Tool Screens Patients For Oral Cancer
BOSTON (CBS) ―
Every year 30,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer.
Like any cancer, the earlier it's detected the better chance of survival, and now there's a new device that may help detect the disease before it develops.
Alane Zsolnay visits the dentist for regular checkups but her dentist isn't just looking for cavities. He's shedding light on cancer with a new tool called Velscope.
The precancerous lesions screening is one Zsolnay is happy to have.
Oral cancer is just as serious as any of the other cancers you get.
That's something dentist Jerold Wilck knows first hand. He was diagnosed with the disease three years ago.
"I had a two-centimeter radius area of my tongue removed, and I had 30 lymph nodes removed from my neck," Wilck said.
Wilck said it is happening to more and more people partly do to the same virus which causes cervical cancer – HPV.
"The number of cases of HPV positive oral cancers is increasing," Wilck said.
The Velscope helps dentists detect suspicious changes deep under the surface that can't be seen or felt.
"The areas of change will show up as dark areas as opposed to the apple green color, which is what the fluorescent shows as normal," Wilck said.
It's good news for Zsolnay and she agrees the Velscope is an important weapon against cancer.
"I thought it was a great idea," Zsolnay said.
If the Velscope does find something suspicious it doesn't automatically mean it's cancer. A patient would be recommended for a biopsy.
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