Smoking is bad for you. We’ve known for a long time that smoking cigarettes causes cancer and other health problems. The use of  smokeless tobacco is no safer — using chewing tobacco or snuff also causes cancer. The big news is that scientists have isolated a chemical from smokeless tobacco that caused oral and esophageal tumors in every animal exposed to it in a laboratory.

This study give us the first conclusive link between a specific cancer causing chemical in smokeless tobacco and oral cancers.

Since April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month it is the perfect time to quit using all forms of tobacco and make an appointment for your oral cancer screening. When oral cancers are diagnosed early they are treatable and survival rates are high. Unfortunately, most cases are not diagnosed until they are more advanced. New research is also showing that oral cancers are among the most expensive cancers to treat.

Risk factors for oral cancer include smoking, alcohol use and HPV infection. Oral cancer patients used to be older men with a history of smoking and alcohol use, but today we are seeing a spike in younger people with cancers of the mouth and throat due to HPV infection.

If you experience any mouth sore that doesn’t heal within a couple of weeks or a persistent sore throat please contact us immediately at our Columbus, OH office. Call StoneRidge Dental Care at 614-476-6696 today to schedule your appointment.