A chain of dental practices in South Florida is offering advanced oral cancer screening.
Gentle Dental Group has introduced the state of the art VELscope Oral Cancer Screening System into its practices; the innovative device allows dentists to screen for oral cancer in just two minutes and can identify symptoms and signs that are not visible with the naked eye. The screening system can also be used at the same time as a patient is having another treatment.
Rates of oral cancer are increasing rapidly every year; however, many people are still unaware of the signs they need to look out for and as a result of this, many cases are not caught until they reach an advanced stage. Oral cancer is treatable when it is caught early but if it is left to develop it can spread to other parts of the body and survival rates are much lower. Early detection can increase survival chances by up to 90 percent.
Dr Neil Ziegler, chief executive of the Gentle Dental Group, said that protecting patients and treating conditions as quickly as possible were priorities at the company and the introduction of Velscope technology will allow dentists to identify oral cancer during the early stages, when survival rates are much higher.