I am writing to express my disappointment about the critical comments made by Dr. Potter and colleagues in March JADA regarding the ADA oral cancer campaign and the brush biopsy. The ADA campaign was criticized because the authors did not approve of the ad with the young attractive woman pictured with a precancerous lesion. According to the ADA News,1 extensive planning and final testing by the ADA and professional public relations firms incorporated focus groups that were conducted nationwide among both dentists and patients. Why would academic oral pathologists think they know how to inform and appeal to the public any better?
As editor of DentalTown with approximately 8,000 subscribers, I can report that the adaptation of the brush biopsy by practicing general dentists has been overwhelmingly positive. Numerous anecdotes from many of my colleagues and readership indicate that oral cancer examinations are increasing, and oral precancers and early oral cancers are being detected in greater numbers as a direct result of utilizing the brush biopsy. Why wouldn’t academicians focus on the reduced numbers of disfiguring facial surgeries, improved quality of life and lives saved as a result of early diagnosis of oral cancer? Clearly, the statistics prove that, until now, our profession has been helpless to impact the morbidity and mortality of this disease.
Given the national publicity surrounding the ADA campaign in the press and media, oral cancer awareness by the public certainly has increased. If publicity about "painless testing" encourages patients to visit their dentists for oral examinations, then I believe this campaign is a resounding success! The brush biopsy is a breakthrough in early cancer detection because it allows dentists to painlessly evaluate oral lesions they routinely encounter in practice. Despite trivial and seemingly self-interested criticisms by some, the only essential fact is that the ADA campaign and the brush biopsy are beneficial to our patients and their health.
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