Beverley Dental Practice Manager Joins Forces With Mouth Cancer Foundation
A dental practice manager from Beverley has been appointed as a consultant for the Mouth Cancer Foundation in recognition of her work to raise awareness of mouth cancer.
Nicki Rowland, practice manager at Perfect 32 in Beverley, will work with the foundation to develop a new initiative to reward dentists and dental teams for their efforts in raising awareness of mouth cancer and providing screening sessions to facilitate early detection. The initiative is called the Mouth Cancer Screening Accreditation Scheme.
Mouth cancer has become increasingly prevalent in the UK over the last five years and it is now three times more common than cervical cancer. Every hour three people die from mouth cancer in the UK.
The Mouth Cancer Foundation is asking all delegates who are attending the Dentistry Show at the NEC this weekend if they can make two minutes available to save lives. Representatives from the foundation will talk to dentists about the screening scheme and explain how it works. Nicki, the new Charity Consultant, will be speaking at the Nurses Forum as part of the show.
The scheme will reward practices actively promoting oral cancer screenings and raise public awareness of the disease. Despite the alarming growth in figures many people are still unaware of the causes and symptoms of the condition. This is one of the reasons why many case are diagnosed at an advanced stage when treatment is often less successful.
The Mouth Cancer Foundation will officially launch the pilot scheme at the British Dental Association conference on the 27th April. Pilot practices will try out the scheme to check how well it works and identify any issues that need to be addressed.
Nicki Rowland said Perfect 32 trialled the programme last year and that it was a great success. She added that the scheme is about screening, but that educating people is equally important to ensure they are aware of the causes and the symptoms related to oral cancer.
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