"About 30,000 to 35,000 Americans will get oral cancer this year. Recent studies have shown that about 25 percent under the age of 40 have no risk factors," said Dr. Rob Nelson.
Traditionally oral cancer screening has been done simply by looking into the mouth.
"It's by visual inspection where we actually touch the tissue, check for lumps, rough areas," said Nelson.
Unfortunately the tissue cancer that leads to oral cancer actually start below the surface at the basal cell membrane. These changes may not be visible to the naked eye until the disease progresses to the surface in a more advanced stage.
"Incidence of cancer in women has actually been increasing. It is becoming more common than cervical cancer so that is pretty alarming," Dr. Nelson said.
It's not uncommon to bite your cheek or have a cold sore and most heal pretty quickly but if it doesn't heal within two weeks, it could be something more serious. Marcie Frasier has more.
Smoking and alcohol are major risk factors. Oral cancer ranks sixth when it comes to cancer diagnoses in this country. Each year there are over 350,000 new cases of oral cancer worldwide. In fact, over the past 30 years, there has been a 60 percent increase in oral cancer in adults under the age of 40.
Thanks to new screening tools , like the Velscope, more people getting treatment early. Velscope is a device that emits a safe, blue fluorescent light which detects abnormal tissue in the deeper basement membranes. Here is healthy tissue, no dark shadows, now look where there is cancer, you can see the obvious darker color.
According to the experts, 50 percent of the patients who are diagnosed with oral cancer will die within five years but if caught early, 90 percent of the cases are curable.
Prevention starts at home.
"Constantly looks at your lips, tongue, gums, cheek. Check for changes check for white patches, check for ulcers that don't heal," Dr. Nelson said.