Mouth ulcers and oral cancer

It’s important to pay attention to what’s going on in your mouth. If you have an ulcer or sore spot in your mouth that won’t heal, you should call your dentist to get it looked at as soon as possible. Some mouth ulcers can be a sign of oral cancer – and oral cancer needs to be detected early so it can be treated.
If you have a sore or ulcer in your mouth that doesn’t go away on its own after 3 weeks, go see your dentist. Make sure to ask your dentist specifically about oral cancer – and if you’re not confident in your dentist’s ability to diagnose oral cancer, get a second opinion. If your dentist is concerned that the mouth ulcer may be a sign of oral cancer, you will need to get a biopsy of the affected area of your mouth.

I don’t mean to alarm anyone by writing this, but I can’t emphasize it enough: it is crucial to diagnose oral cancer in the early stages of the disease. If oral cancer is not caught early, it can lead to death. Oral cancer is one of the few types of cancer that have not had a decline in death rates during the past 20 years – it can be treated and cured, but if left undiagnosed it can be deadly.

Smokers, heavy drinkers and tobacco chewers are at the highest risk of getting oral cancer, but this type of cancer can occur in anyone. So be sure to pay attention to mouth ulcers when they happen – usually they’re nothing to worry about and will go away quickly, but if you have a bad mouth ulcer that has been around for awhile, it might be a sign of something much more serious.

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