Pennine Trust Backing Mouth Cancer Campaign
The Pennine Acute Hospital Trust is supporting the annual Mouth Cancer Action Month campaign, by hosting a series of screening sessions throughout November.
The sessions will take place at hospitals across the area and are available free of charge to everyone. The aim of the drop-in clinics is to check for signs of mouth cancer and raise awareness of the disease.
The campaign, which is organised by the British Dental Health Foundation, runs throughout November and will be celebrated across the country to try and raise awareness of mouth cancer and encourage as many people as possible to attend a screening test. Tests are very quick, completely painless and could make the difference between life and death.
The trust provides treatment and care for patients diagnosed with oral cancer and doctors and health bosses are eager to support the campaign and encourage people to keep a eye on their mouths, to increase the number of people who are diagnosed at an early stage. At the moment public awareness of the disease is low and people are putting off regular dental check-ups. These factors mean that most cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when treatment is much less likely to be successful.
More than 6,000 people are diagnosed with mouth cancer every year in the UK and the number of cases has doubled in the last decade alone and dentists are eager to spread the message about the importance of regular dental visits. Symptoms to look out for include red or white patches in the mouth, lumps or swellings in the mouth or throat and ulcers that take a long time to heal.
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