Healthcare professionals are in the perfect position to inform and educate the public about mouth cancer - during the campaign and all year round.

What can dental professionals do?

Dental professionals probably see a bigger proportion of the general population than any other healthcare team.  And it is increasing.  Over 30 million patients have been seen and given a dental examination in the last two years – around 56 per cent of the population.  This means they are in the ideal position to share information about the risks and symptoms of mouth cancer.

In addition to preventative work, Dental teams can play a major role in detecting the 60,000 cases of mouth cancer likely to occur over the next decade. If oral examinations are performed on each patient at regular intervals, especially on high risk patients, this will make a major contribution to the early detection of the disease. Explaining your screening work to your patients will also improve awareness with their families and friends.

What can pharmacies do?

There are over 70,000 Pharmacy professionals in the UK helping and advising the public. They have a key role in the fight against mouth cancer, especially advising people seeking over the counter treatment for mouth ulcers or other oral problems. Asking the right questions and giving the right advice could help early diagnosis of mouth cancer.

The best advice that any Pharmacy professional can give is to any customer seeking help for a mouth condition, which has lasted longer than three weeks, is to make sure they know to visit their dentist or doctor as soon as possible. Pharmacies have a unique public facing position to promote awareness of the early warning signs and common risk factors to the public.

What can Doctors do?

Doctors are normally the first healthcare professionals that people turn to for advice, and will see many of the most at risk groups of people, especially the elderly. Making sure that your patients have access to information about the risks and symptoms of mouth cancer in the waiting room will encourage more people to seek advice before it is too late.  Remember, all Doctors can order free posters from the Foundation to help promote awareness.

What can Nurses do?
Oral heath can sometimes to be overlooked when people are ill, and especially during hospital stays. Encouraging people to maintain their oral health is important and taking a few minutes to enquire about the patient’s oral health could help to identify some of the symptoms of mouth cancer such as ulcers and red and white patches in the mouth.

What can Health Visitors do?

Mouth cancer is often the end result of poor lifestyles. Health Visitors are in the unique position of advising families with young children, schools, the elderly and their carers about how to stay healthy.  It’s worth remembering that mouth cancer kills more people than cervical and testicular cancer combined, so raising awareness of the disease with people most at risk is likely to save lives. Working in partnership with other healthcare professionals, such as oral health educators and Speech and Language Therapists, will help to increase coverage across the whole community.

What can Oral Health Educators do?

Oral health educators have a vital role to play.  Making other health professionals aware of the risks and symptoms, and providing them with key information will help to contribute to early diagnose of mouth cancer. There is lots of literature available from the Foundation to share with other health professionals, especially for patients who might be at risk of the condition or who are considering giving up smoking. The Foundation’s ‘Tell Me About...’ leaflets cover a range of topics including mouth cancer, diet and smoking. The information is broken down into an easy-to-understand format and covers all the facts patients will need to know.

When speaking with a patient complaining of an ulcer, use the opportunity to warn about the risks of mouth cancer, and explain the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Do not be afraid to refer a patient to a specialist if you are in any doubt – it is better for a specialist to see a suspect lesion which proves to be negative, than to be faced with a difficult case with poor prognosis.