Team Training Requirements
The General Dental Council (GDC) recommends keeping your CPD skills up to date by doing training in ‘Oral Cancer: Early Detection‘.
Dental team members need to be alert for the early signs of mouth cancer. The team must be able to recognise potentially suspect structures and refer them as appropriate. The signs and symptoms of mouth cancer are poorly understood by the public, with the result that few people self-examine, making it essential for the early detection of mouth cancer by the dental team.
Mouth Cancer Statistics
In 2020, 2702 people lost their lives to mouth cancer in the UK. Mouth cancer accounts for about 3% of all cancers in the UK. One UK citizen dies about every 4 hours from the disease.
Unlike most other major forms of cancer, the incidence of mouth cancer continues to increase year on year. The latest statistics (Oral Health Foundation 2020-2021) showed the number of new annual cases to be 8772, reflecting an increase of 58% in the last 10 years.
Reference: Mouth Cancer Foundation website: www.mouthcancerfoundation.org.
Do you have an ‘Early Detection Protocol’?
Dental teams have a pivotal role to play in discovering mouth cancer early because they see patient’s regularly unlike doctors and investigate mouths. They already know normal anatomy and oral medicine and are familiar with early diagnostic techniques, for example, x-ray examination, periodontal probing and measurement and saliva diagnostics.
Clinical dental technicians have special importance as they see patients who would otherwise rarely have their mouths examined.
All dental team members, including non-clinical team members, have a vital role to play.
Your practice should have an ‘Early Detection Protocol’ with clear referral pathways.
Team Training Requirements
The General Dental Council (GDC) recommends keeping your CPD skills up to date by doing training in ‘Oral Cancer: Early Detection.
The Apolline ‘Early Detection of Mouth Cancer’ CPD course written by Dr Philip Lewis. Dr Philip Lewis has won the Independent Dentistry Postgraduate Commitment Prize, been selected as a finalist in The Probe’ national Dentist of the Year Awards and most recently was voted no 7 in Dentistry Magazine’s Top 50 Most Influential People in the Profession. Philip is the President of the UK charity, Mouth Cancer Foundation, and clinical lead of its Mouth Cancer Screening Scheme.
Early Detection of Mouth Cancer CPD will provide you with 60 minutes of CPD and is suitable for the whole dental team.
