Dentaltown June 2015 - (Page 10)

howard speaks column Let's Band Together to Improve Public Health Oral-Cancer Facts When the average person hears "dentist," the word "activism" doesn't usually come to mind. However, there are many dentists who stand up for the changes they want to see. For instance, dentists changed oral health forever when they rallied to fluoridate water. They took action and won, case by case, community by community. We need that same kind of dedication for a different matter now: oral cancer. In the United States, a person dies every hour from oral cancer, and many of those people could have been saved if they'd had a screening or an earlier screening for oral cancer.1 Let's face it-actually getting reimbursed for a screening would help. We have 150,000 dentists in this country and we don't even get paid by the largest dental insurance companies in the world for an oral-cancer exam? Another lifesaver: the vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV). If more people got the HPV vaccine, fewer people would get oral cancer. It's that simple, but dentists aren't even allowed to administer the vaccine. It's worse than that, though: most of us don't give HPV advice or talk about HPV at all. How many people have to die before the physicians of the mouth start asking parents, "Has your child been vaccinated for HPV?" The fact that HPV is linked to cervical cancer is becoming well known, but the average person is not aware that HPV is also linked to oral cancers. Dentists could be an amazing ally in spreading this information, and I believe we should be able to give the vaccine. I would like to, but as a dentist I'm not allowed to, and even if I did give it, by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine 10 JUNE 2015 // dentaltown.com * Nearly 45,750 Americans will be diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer this year. * It will cause more than 8,650 deaths, killing roughly one person per hour, 24 hours per day. * Historically, the death rate associated with this cancer is particularly high not because the cancer is hard to discover or diagnose, but because the cancer is routinely discovered late in its development. * Of those 45,750 newly diagnosed individuals, only slightly more than half-approximately 57 percent-will be alive in five years. * One of the real dangers of this cancer is that in its early stages, it can go unnoticed. The good news is that in many cases, a physician or dentist can see or feel the precursor tissue changes, or the actual cancer while it is still very small or in its earliest stages. * Worldwide the problem is much greater, with more than 450,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Note that the world incidence numbers from the World Health Organization, while the best available, are estimates that users should consider with caveats. * The human papilloma virus (HPV) is now confirmed to cause oral cancer in a younger age group. Transmitted via sexual contact, HPV (particularly version 16) is conclusively implicated in the increasing incidence of young, non-smoking oral-cancer patients. This is the same virus that-along with its other versions-causes more than 90 percent of all cervical cancers in women. The foundation believes, based on recent peerreviewed published data, that HPV16 may be replacing tobacco as the primary causative agent in the initiation of the disease process in people under the age of 50. Information from Oralcancerfoundation.org I wouldn't get reimbursed for it. A registered nurse can give the vaccine, but I can't. After almost a decade of advanced education I don't have the legal right to give a vaccine, yet I go to Walgreens or CVS and I can get a flu shot. Continued on p. 12 http://www.Oralcancerfoundation.org http://www.dentaltown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown June 2015

On Dentaltown.com
Howard Speaks: Dentists: Let's Band Together to Improve Public Health
Professional Courtesy: The Appointment is Broken and You Can't Fix It
Continuing Education Update
Poll
Forensic Odontology: Solving Crimes One Tooth at a Time
Routine Equipment Maintenance and Checklist
Minimally Invasive Approach: Implant Prosthetics and Aesthetics of a Lateral Incisor
Electric Toothbrushes: The Benefits of Tech
OFFICE VISIT: The Ninja Dentist Reveals Her Training Ground
The Best 401(k) Plan: Pooled or Participant-Directed?
The State of Little Teeth: Answers About the ACA and Access to Care for Children
How to Successfully Administer Insurance in Your Practice
Continuing Education: Slow-Growing Nodule of the Hard Palat: Differential Diagnosis and Management
Corporate Profile: DentalMarketing.net: Maximizing the ROI of Your Practice
Products in Practice: Ivoclar Vivadent
Disney for Dentists: How Walt’s Principles Can Improve Your Cash Flow
Burnout: The Dental Pain No One Mentions
New Products
Ad Index
Improve Care, Increase Revenue: The Case for Midlevel Providers
How to Calculate Maximum Dosages of Lidocaine and Articaine Anesthetic
Not Your Everyday Oral Pathology Lesion
Overcoming the Entrepreneurial Conundrum
Dentally Incorrect

Dentaltown June 2015