I must express my deep concern related to the March JADA letter to the editor by Dr. Tyler Potter and colleagues about the ADA’s oral cancer awareness campaign. The misinformation and opinions expressed may result in many general dentists in this country missing opportunities to save lives and improve the quality of life for anyone who may be unfortunate enough to develop oral cancer. The key to survival and, just as important, I think, to having a reasonable quality of life after the diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer is early detection.
I am using Oral CDx in my practice, and my patients are very pleased that I am. I have multitudes of patients presenting with leukoplakias and other benign-looking areas in the oral cavity. I have seen them every six months, some for even 25 years now. I did not recommend surgical biopsy of these areas at every recall appointment. First, after one or two biopsies, they would most surely have ignored my advice thereafter. Second, since the overwhelming majority of these lesions are benign, surgical excision of every one of these lesions is impractical and unwarranted.
A prudent course has been to watch them, dare I say, maybe even the standard of care. So why now is it not acceptable to monitor these lesions at the cellular level and properly guide patients for treatment at the appropriate time and in an accepting frame of mind to follow your instructions for their care?
My experience with this system and the company is such that I have volunteered to present information related to using this system to fellow dentists. I have made presentations to over 100 dentists in the central Pennsylvania area at my own expense—no honorariums, no travel expense reimbursement and with the provision of support materials only from OralScan Laboratories. I hope and am confident that every general dentist is wise enough to see for himself or herself that this system makes sense and, above all, that it’s the right thing to do!
OralCDx is an excellent tool for early cancer detection and its use must be encouraged often and openly by all dental professionals.
