Yesterday I saw a patient in the hospital. He told me that he hadn’t seen a dentist, until recently, for 15 years. This patient does not smoke.
He decided a few months ago to go to a dentist. The dentist immediately noticed a lump in the roof of his mouth. Consequently he correctly referred the patient to our department at the hospital (Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery). The lump was removed a week ago. Today the result from the lab came back and it was a slow growing cancer. This cancer must have been in his mouth for years and had been growing slowly, hence the patient didn’t notice it.
Now if he had been to his dentist regularly, this would have been picked up much sooner. The likelihood of his survival would have been much higher than it is today.
Again here one can see how important it is to visit your dentist regularly. There is a lot that one can’t detect in him/herself in the dark hole of the mouth.