Hundreds Benefit from Oral Cancer Screening

Faculty and students volunteered at RSDM's oral cancer screening event.

More than 200 Essex County area residents were examined at a free oral screening and health fair held at RSDM last month.

RSDM collaborated with University Hospital, the Essex-Passaic Wellness Coalition and other organizations for the event, held for many residents with high risk factors for oral cancer and limited access to care.

The health fair also helps raise awareness of the disease among the public and visiting patients. More than 30,000 Americans are diagnosed annually with oral cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Many don't are unaware of the risk factors, such as smoking and heavy drinking.

Students at RSDM receive extensive training on signs, symptoms and risk factors for the disease. As dentists, they can detect oral mucosal abnormalities, which can be evidence of pre-cancer symptoms, according to Dr. Mahnaz Fatahzadeh, director of RSDM’s pre- and postdoctoral oral medicine training and the Oral Mucosal Diseases Clinic. The key to improving survival is early detection, she said.

For many who come to the screening, it is their only contact with an oral healthcare provider in a year or more and can alert them to decay and other dental problems, according to Fatahzadeh.