Stop Smoking – It Causes Oral Cancer

At this point, everyone in the world knows that smoking is incredibly bad for your health. Not only does it kill your lungs and shorten your lifespan – it drastically increases your risk for cancer.

Smoking does more than that, though. One of the aspects of smoking that’s often overlooked is the role it plays in causing oral cancer. While it’s likely smokers want to quit, we hope that this information can help push them over that edge.

What types of cancer?
Broadly speaking, oral cancer is any kind of cancer that develops in the mouth area. A dentist treats oral cancer, though they’ll work in conjunction with your oncologist.

Dr. Rafael A. Perez and Dr. Sarah Fritzsch have seen many different types of oral cancer. Most every case has long-term side effects, sadly.

What does it cause?
Oral cancer isn’t necessarily fatal if treated early. However, it still presents a huge infection risk to the rest of your body. Often, we’ll see oral cancer eat away at your gums and teeth. Once those are gone, the only thing left is a bunch of bacteria where your teeth once were.

And where will all that infection travel? You’re right – everywhere else in your body.

Prevention
Even if you don’t smoke, you can still get oral cancer. Luckily, every appointment here at Stone Lake Dental in Wichita Falls, Texas, includes an oral cancer screening. It’s not 100% foolproof, but it’s a big step to making sure your mouth is healthy.

Of course, the best thing you can do to avoid oral cancer is to avoid smoking tobacco at all. If you have more questions, or want to know more, call us today at 940-692-2851.