April 8, 2025 • 30 mins
The silent killer lurking in your mouth could be taking your life without you even knowing it. One American dies every hour from oral cancer, yet this devastating disease remains largely under the radar compared to other forms of cancer. Why aren't we talking about this more?
Dr. Alex Semidey and Jeremy Wolf dive deep into the world of oral cancer, exploring the early warning signs that could save your life. That persistent sore in your mouth that won't heal after two weeks? That numbness or tingling that feels slightly off? These subtle signals might be your body's desperate attempt to alert you to something serious happening beneath the surface.
We explore the holy trinity of risk factors – tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and HPV – and how their combined effect creates a perfect storm for oral cancer development. With HPV now changing the demographic landscape of oral cancer patients, even non-smokers and younger adults need to pay attention. The conversation takes an important turn toward vaping, that seemingly innocuous alternative that might be causing cellular DNA changes we don't fully understand yet.
The power of early detection cannot be overstated. Learn about the comprehensive screenings that should be part of every dental visit, from physical examinations to cutting-edge fluorescence technology that can detect suspicious tissue changes before they're visible to the naked eye. We also explore the revolutionary world of salivary diagnostics – how a simple spit test might soon transform how we detect and treat oral cancers, potentially saving countless lives.
Whether you're a regular at your dental office or someone who avoids the dentist like the plague, this episode delivers critical information about a disease that could profoundly impact your quality of life. Give yourself the gift of awareness – your future self might thank you with many more healthy years of smiling, eating, and kissing the people you love.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Semi-Day Dental Podcast.
We're here to provide youexpert insights on how dentistry
can improve your quality oflife and extend your health span
.
I'm Alex Semi-Day and I'm apracticing dentist, and I'll be
your host, along with JeremyWolf.
Enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello, hello everyone , and welcome back to another
episode of the Semi-Day DentalPodcast.
And welcome back to anotherepisode of the Semiday Dental
Podcast.
One American dies every hourfrom oral cancer.
Just sit with that for a second, alex.
(00:39):
Why is it that oral cancer is?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
still flying so far under the radar today.
Yeah, it's crazy, right, it's asobering statistic.
You don't hear a lot about it,you don't, you don't, and
honestly, that's shame on us, onthe whole dental community, for
not raising more awarenessabout oral cancer and it's
detection, it's diagnosis, it'streatment.
It definitely doesn't get thesame amount of play as, like you
(01:02):
know, prostate and breastcancer get, which are important
for people to be aware of too.
But, man, when you hear thatstat that one American dies
every hour from oral cancer, itkind of like puts it in
perspective, right, and withoral cancer specifically, it's
like, even if the cancer doesn'ttake your life, it's
(01:25):
devastating on your quality oflife, right, which really
matters too.
So we'll talk a little bit moreabout that.
But, yeah, it's an incrediblestatistic and thankfully, we're
raising more and more awareness.
April is Oral Cancer AwarenessMonth, so hence why we're doing
the podcast in April to letpeople know about what they need
to be looking out for and howtheir dentist can help.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So, speaking of that, what are some of the early
warning signs, what are some redflags, what are some things
that you can notice that wouldbring to your attention that
there might be an issue thatneeds to get checked out?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
so definitely anything in the mouth that is
outside of the the norm for youright, any little, any
irritation, any tingling ornumbness or anything that
usually lasts more than a weekor two is probably something
that you may want to get checkedout.
I'll share an example with you.
I personally had I, um, I a bagof Doritos or something like
(02:26):
that, and kind of cut the insideof my cheek, down where my,
where my gums are, and uh,nothing of it, and that little
cut kind of persisted and itlingered and it was like a week
and then two weeks and it wasstill there and I was personally
getting a little, a littleconcerned at that point.
So I went and had a buddy ofmine take a biopsy and check it
(02:50):
out and see what it was, andthankfully it turned out to be
nothing but that one to twoweeks.
Generally the mouth heals very,very fast.
So if you have anything goingon that you've noticed, any red
or white patches, certainlyanything that's bleeding,
anything that feels outside ofthe norm for a couple of weeks,
is definitely something that wemight want to get checked out.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
So even if you had, let's say, just like a common
cold sore and it just didn't goaway, that would be something
that could potentially be anissue.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
So that's a really good question.
Right With cold sores.
People who get cold sores arevery familiar with that process,
right Like they're.
They're familiar with thetingling that happens in the lip
first and how it looks and howit presents and it generally,
like, follows a very predictablecourse.
Uh, so I wouldn't be tooconcerned if you have cold sores
.
If you get one, don't freak out.
(03:38):
If it lasts a week or two, youshould definitely see it
trending in the right direction,though, Like cold sores don't
generally last weeks and weeksand weeks.
So if you have one that doesn'tseem to be following the normal
progression, absolutely get itchecked out.
Because I will say, we're inSouth Florida and living in
sunny South Florida, you knowthe lower lip in particular gets
(04:00):
a lot of UV radiation whichpeople don't really think about.
So it is a common source, or acommon location rather, for oral
cancer your lower lip, wherethe sun rays are constantly
beating down on it.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You don't really think about that too much.
You don't think about skincancer, but not like on your lip
right, Exactly, Exactly andthat's all.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
it is right.
It's lip skin cancer and that'swhat oral cancer is right.
It's just skin inside yourmouth.
So the same way we get UVradiation on the shoulders and
can develop the skin cancersthere, that can happen in the
mouth as well.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
What about risk factors?
Right, obviously, I'd imagine,there's a genetic component, as
with most cancers, but obviouslylifestyle choices, like who's
most at risk for oral cancer?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, good question.
So the big two when it comes toany sort of cancer are smoking
and drinking.
They release a lot of freeradicals, a lot of oxidative
stress on the body, which canlead to cancerous changes.
Now, they are both individuallybad and when they're combined
(05:12):
it has a synergistic effect.
So it's one of those situationswhere one plus one equals three
.
And if you're a smoker and adrinker and actually not even
just smoker, right, it's likeany tobacco product.
So dipping, snuff, cigarettes,cigars, If you combine that with
(05:35):
excessive alcohol use, that islike super mega risk factors for
oral cancer.
The other big one is HPV.
Have you heard of HPV?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Isn't that the human pablovovirus, papillomavirus?
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Very good, see that.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
It was good.
I don't forget everything.
I read.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
So HPV is a sexually transmitted disease and it's a
very common STD.
Actually, most people whoacquire it will actually just
fight it off with their normalimmune system and really most
people will never even know theyhad it.
But for those that do get it,there are certain strains of
(06:16):
that HPV that can colonize themouth and the throat, and a lot
of the new cancers that we'reseeing, a lot of the oral
cancers that we're seeing now,are HPV related.
So clearly that opens up thepool of people that need to be
concerned about this to anyonewho's sexually active, right,
(06:38):
teens, right.
So there are vaccines for theHPV virus that are designed
because it's not only oralcancer that HPV leads to.
It's also cervical cancer,right, because it's the same
kind of tissues that we have inboth areas of the body.
So there's a vaccine out therefor teenagers.
It is recommended if they'regoing to be sexually active.
(07:00):
But yeah, smoking, drinking andHPV exposure are the big three
right now so I'd never heardabout that.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
So there's a vaccine now.
They're specifically forteenagers.
Surrounding that, because Ithat's something that was not on
my radar at all and I got youknow kids that are entering the
teen years soon.
Yeah, the vaccine you mean?
Yeah, never even really heardof that until now.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Good thing you're listening to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yes, yes, something else that caught my attention.
I was reading your blog on thesame topic and you talked a
little bit about vaping, andthat's something that's kind of
been on my mind lately because,as you know, my daughter about
to turn 13,.
She's not vaping, not vaping.
But, that being said, I'mhearing that, even for a year
(07:49):
now in school, middle schoolthere's kids nowadays vaping.
You see, a lot of you see a lotof people kind of ditching
cigarettes, which is greatbecause it seems objectively
you'd think that smoking isworse than vaping.
But I think the jury's out yetwith vaping we don't really know
what the harm is that.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
What's your take on vaping as it pertains to this
topic specifically?
That's the truth.
The jury is out.
We're not entirely sure yetwhat the outcome is going to be.
On all the research that'sbeing done because it's still
relatively new right, it seemslike it's less harmful than
cigarettes.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
See, it seems like it is, it seems that way right, it
just feels like intuitively itwould be.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
But who knows?
But even even beyond that, um,some studies suggest that the
amount of damage that vapingdoes like, if, if you, if you
are, you have your back againstthe wall and you are forced to
either smoke a cigarette or vape, go with the vape.
You're probably safer out ofthose two choices, right?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
But I can imagine though I don't smoke or vape,
but I can imagine that it wouldbe easier to vape a lot more
than smoke.
It's like most places you can'tsmoke, you got to go outside to
smoke.
It's not socially acceptable.
But vaping, you can just pullthe vape out all day long and
just keep puffing on it.
Uh like, imagine like theconcentration you'd get could be
potentially lethal.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
That's.
That's a really good point.
Right, the access to vaping umis is more ubiquitous than than
with smoking.
Right, with smoking, you gottatake a smoke break, you gotta go
outside generally have to, like, walk 50 feet away from the
building.
Right, there are so manyimpediments to lighting up that
cigarette compared to justpulling out your, your, your
vape pen.
Right, I think, and hopefullywe get wise to this and curtail
(09:36):
some of the the vaping in publicplaces too.
Right, because I don't want youpuffing a huge cloud of vape
smoke.
You know, smoke in my face asI'm walking through the lumber
aisle in Home Depot and it'shappening.
People are just like chiefingon these things like it's water
vapor and there are chemicalcompounds in the vapor that
(09:58):
you're ingesting, that you'reblowing out, that aren't
necessarily healthy.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, it's just not as noxious as cigarette smoke,
so it's more socially acceptable.
It's like flavor.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Oh, it smells sweet, right, so it's like oh, this
can't be bad.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Meanwhile it's entering your body.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Let me inhale your smoke Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
But there is research that cameout of USC that shows that
there's like at the cellularlevel of your mouth, changes in
the DNA composition in responseto vaping.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
So it is having a profound effect on the cells in
the mouth and we just don't havestudies that link one thing to
oral cancer yet.
Right, but I think in the nextcouple of years that that
research is definitely going tobe coming out.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Sure, I mean, if you do it like anything else,
anything in moderation, withinreason, but if you're puffing on
that thing day in, day out, itcan't be great man.
Yeah, it's got to have somelong-term bad effects on you,
man.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, no such thing as a free lunch right, yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
This next thing this should seem fairly obvious, but
it's important to shine a lighton it thing this should seem
fairly obvious, but it'simportant to shine a light on it
and like why are regular dentalvisits so critical in all of
this?
It should seem obvious, but Ithink, I think there's a lot of
people, myself included, that weavoid the dentist, right, we,
you know, as long as I can putit off, I mean, I don't sorry to
(11:34):
say I don't love going to thedentist.
I think there's a lot of peopleout there that just kind of
they don't see anything wrong,there's nothing on the surface
that shows there's an issue, andthey just put it off until it
becomes a problem.
So, like, talk a little bitabout I am routinely surprised
by how surprised patients are,routinely surprised by how
(12:07):
surprised, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
But when we do our oral cancer screenings as part
of our initial consultation, ourinitial visit with every single
patient is to do an oral cancerscreening, and we do it once a
year thereafter when they comein for their normal hygiene
visits.
Now it's crazy to me how manytimes people are like I've never
had this done.
No one's ever talked to meabout oral cancer or what we
(12:31):
need to be looking for or thingslike that.
So let me just kind of run youthrough what an oral cancer
screening looks like, right?
So it's a very simple process,takes less than a couple of
minutes, and there's twocomponents to it, three
components, right.
So number one we feel we'regoing to feel all the lymph
nodes associated with the mouth,from the neck to behind the
(12:53):
ears, around the side, hereunderneath the jaw.
We're going to feel all ofthese areas to make sure there's
no lumps, bumps, masses, right,that everything feels normal.
Okay, then we're going to dothe same thing feel inside the
mouth, all of the tissue insidethe mouth, the floor of the
mouth, the sides of the tongue.
We're going to look and feel it, all of that, to make sure that
(13:15):
there's nothing, nothing thatshouldn't be there, right?
And then at the office we alsohave a special technology called
fluorescence.
It's it looks like a little maglight on steroids, right, and
it shines a very powerful lightthat, when it's when it's shined
inside the mouth, healthy cellsin the mouth will reflect this
(13:36):
light in a certain way.
Healthy cells in the mouth willreflect this light in a certain
way, and precancerous andcancerous cells won't reflect
the light.
So we'll see dark, shadowyoutlines in areas where the
tissue is a little suspicious,right, and that's not
necessarily a diagnostic right.
Like we're not saying, okay,this tissue looks suspicious
under the light, it's cancer,but it gives us a target to
(14:02):
evaluate further, right, andwith this light we'd be able to
catch things that way beforewe'd see it with the naked eye,
right.
So catching something earlywith the naked eye is huge.
If you can catch it beforeyou'd be able to even see it,
that's amazing, right.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
That will dramatically transform your,
your experience having to dealwith with whatever it is, with
the oral cancer yeah, thatprobably speaks to the fact that
and I could be mistaken, I'mjust kind of speaking out loud
here.
When it comes to something likeoral cancer or, I guess, skin
cancer or at least I don't heara lot about oral cancer, but I
(14:39):
hear a lot about skin cancerit's something that is generally
caught earlier than somethingthat lives internally, so I
guess there's less lethalityfrom it.
And is that accurate?
Because there's more likepresentable warning signs where
you wouldn't necessarilyInternalized.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yes and no.
Okay, so really, what makescancer a problem, right?
Well, a lot of things makecancer a problem, but what's
really insidious about it isthat it's generally painless,
right, so you don't really feelanything happening until it's
(15:18):
very, very advanced, and at thatpoint it's.
It's a huge problem, right?
So little things in the mouth,like a little cut or a little
swelling or a little tingling,that this thing is advancing and
it's just easy to sort of youknow, discount and like, oh,
(15:44):
it's probably something else,it's nothing, right?
Honestly, especially folks inour demographic right
Middle-aged men we love to buryour head in the sand for
everything.
Women take a much more proactiveapproach, generally speaking,
right, if they notice something,they want to get checked out,
they want, they want answers,they want to.
We tend to be the opposite.
We tend to oh, it's nothing, Igot a million other things, I
can't be bothered with that.
(16:04):
And, man, we end up paying theprice, right, because we end up
going to get things checked outwhen it's just further down the
road and had we gone six monthsearlier, it would have been a
totally different ball game.
Yep, yeah, are you guilty ofthat, mr Wolfe?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
because I sure am you know I am brother, I uh, it is
guilty as charged, guilty ascharged.
Another thing that stood outfor me in in the blog you wrote
was this this maybe I'mpronouncing it wrong Salivary
diagnostics.
Yeah, perfect, look at you go,there you go, so like, like, how
(16:44):
is that changing the game foryou guys?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, no, this.
The game's changing a lot andit's changing fast.
And with the incorporation ofAI too, I feel like medicine and
diagnostics in general aregoing to be revolutionized in
the next.
You know, two, three, four orfive years.
But as it pertains to the mouth, specifically with salivary
diagnostics, you literally spitin a cup and now we're able to
(17:12):
put it under a microscope andanalyze and see a whole new
world Right, like we canactually see things that you
know might mean that you havecancer.
Right, just just from simplyanalyzing this library.
We don't need to take biopsiesanymore.
Let me rephrase that we won'tneed to take biopsies anymore.
(17:33):
We're not quite there yet, asexcited as I may be, but
currently in the market todayfor HPV related cancers, there
is a diagnostic salivary testalready.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
What sorts of things are you seeing in that test that
would lead you to believe thatthere is an issue?
Speaker 1 (17:55):
So different markers, different cancer markers and
DNA changes that would be aresult of having oral cancer and
, as I said, right now it isjust it's FDA cleared only for
HPV related cancers, but Ibelieve next year they're being
cleared for non-HPV relatedcancers and cancer screening and
(18:19):
down that line.
We're just going to be able tojust very simply spit in a cup
and test for a multitude ofdifferent conditions and
pathologies and be able to catchthings way earlier than we were
in the past with a fraction ofthe invasiveness and cost.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, man, that's absolutely huge.
I'm curious about treatmentoptions.
This is something that's beenon my mind for a while now with
cancer generally speaking, andit's why is it that it's so
difficult to treat?
Why is medicine unable to finda way to fight this that's not
(18:58):
as messy as it is right now withchemotherapy and everything
like?
What types of treatments areavailable for oral cancer?
And also why, like moregenerally speaking, why do you
feel it is that, um, it's justso difficult to find a cure for
cancer well that I feel likethat, that is.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That's a huge rabbit hole question, right, um, but on
the very surface level, what wehave available to us right now,
right, and we'll talk aboutright now things are evolving
quite a bit, but as of two,three years ago, we had, you
know, surgery cut it out.
We had radiation and chemo, youknow, blasted out.
(19:35):
Radiation was a little moretargeted, chemo was basically
full body right, just justnuclear war, right, and
hopefully we kill more of thecancer than we do of the of the
patient and they can live tofight another day.
But now things are evolving alot and again, ai is going to
(19:57):
have a huge hand in this andhelping us sort out and figure
out and do modeling withouthaving to do human trials that
were unthinkable in the past.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, there's going to be some huge breakthroughs
coming in every field as AIadvances.
It's advancing exponentiallyand you can see it in real time,
really is.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Diagnostics are going to be unrecognizable in a few
years.
But today we actually haveimmune modulating medications,
immunotherapies that basicallyteach the body how to fight your
specific cancer Right, which isholy smokes.
(20:35):
What a thought, right Like,let's not introduce anything
foreign in here, but let's justtrain the body to be more
effective at fighting off thiscancer, the same way it would
fight off, you know, a coldright or a cold sore.
So, giving the body tools itneeds to be more effective in
that fight.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
That's the trick right.
Regenerative healing,regenerative medicine that's
really like stimulating thebody's natural ability to heal
itself 100%.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
And the other big one that's coming out is specific
cancer vaccines, right?
So these aren't preventive,these are treatment vaccines,
right?
So it's literally this vaccinewould kind of like put a most
wanted poster out for your bodyon that cancer and tell it okay,
(21:28):
this is the bad guy, go get him.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Ah, which is which is incredible right Like it's.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
It's really.
I get goosebumps talking aboutit.
It's so exciting that we'regoing to see this new generation
in medicine happen in ourlifetime it's good stuff, man,
can't wait to see what's on thehorizon.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
So you alluded to something earlier, um, about how
how oral cancer changes lives,even even if it doesn't kill you
.
Right?
Talk a little bit about whatcan happen to someone if they
get oral cancer and, you know,maybe they survive it, but it
creates some damages to them.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yes, yeah, for sure.
I mean, I always say dentistryis the quality of life branch of
medicine.
Right, because everythingthat's fun to do starts with the
mouth, whether it's eating,kissing, laughing, smiling,
talking, right, like it's.
It's, it's super important.
(22:29):
Yeah, and you know we talkedabout it killing one American an
hour and I have personallydiagnosed in my career six cases
of oral cancer.
Two of those individuals havepassed.
One didn't really have a wholelot, he actually had to have
(22:49):
part of his tongue removed buthe did pretty good.
He adapted fairly quickly.
The others have had significantissues with their quality of
life.
Right, because if you arehaving a big portion of your
mouth removed because of theoral cancer, right, like some
(23:10):
people have to have the majorityof their tongue or their entire
tongue removed, uh, half oftheir jaw right, upper or lower,
Like it is.
It's disfiguring.
So it goes beyond the impactthat it has on you being able to
, you know, eat what you wantand and just have a normal life.
That impacts how you look andand you know you have to have,
(23:32):
like facial prosthetics to toreplace that part of your face
that's gone.
I mean it's, it's reallydevastating, it's.
It's incredibly hard to to seeand deal with and, and you know,
unfortunately for so many ofthose, it could have been a
totally different story, right,had they just had regular
(23:54):
checkups, caught this thingearly, right it?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
so.
So then then why?
Why, alex?
Why?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
do we wait right?
Why do?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
people wait, like I'm guilty of this too.
I know we all are maybe not fororal cancer screenings, but
like everything, like why whatstops someone from just doing
the things required, like inthis case, just go see your
dentist, get a cleaning everysix months.
Just do the thing and do theroutines and you're probably
going to be okay.
And if you, just why do peoplewait?
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, I mean, why do we wait, jeremy?
Right, like dentistry all areasof human health, and dentistry
in particular it's almostentirely preventable.
Right, like losing teeth andhaving to have a lot of, you
know, crowns and bridges andthings like that could have been
avoided had we caught thecavity sooner.
(24:47):
Right Like had we intervenedwhen the problem was small.
If we wait for the problem tobe big, it's, it's a it's a it's
a bigger issue.
Right, and why do we wait?
Why do we wait?
Right, have fear of bad news?
Uh, priorities, life gets inthe way we don't like going to
the dentist and yeah, well, sure, we don't like the dentist,
(25:10):
right?
Nothing hurts, right.
So nothing on the surface level.
Nothing has gotten advancedenough to interfere with my
quality of life now, soeverything's okay, and I just
don't even want to hear thateverything's not okay because I
ain't nobody got time for thatright.
But you know, announce aprevention.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
It's worth a pound to cure.
That's right.
You took the words right out ofmy mouth.
What can we do today from apreventative standpoint?
What can our listeners do today, right now, to lower the risk?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
So, right off the top , quit smoking, and I make this
caveat with every one of mypatients that I have this
conversation with.
I was a smoker for years.
I smoked my way through dentalschool.
I smoked for a handful of yearswhen I was in practice.
I am not a holier than thoupreach from the ivory tower.
(26:09):
Smoking is bad, I get it, andit's a super hard habit to break
, but it's worth it.
All right.
So minimizing tobacco smoking,dipping all of that stuff as
much as possible.
Minimizing your alcohol intakeAll right.
Spf right For that lower lipcancer that we were talking
about being here in SouthFlorida.
(26:30):
So, wearing SPF, usingchapstick with with SPF on it to
protect your lips as far as HPVgoes, either the vaccine or
safe sex no sex Right.
And absolutely getting those,like you said earlier, getting
those checkups.
(26:51):
I mean every six months, once ayear, whatever it is.
Go to your dentist regularlybecause really honestly, your
physician doesn't really look inyour mouth.
They're not looking for signsof oral cancer or anything like
that.
So go to your dentist, getchecked out.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Catch things early, do general lifestyle wellbeing
practices play into this, Likein terms of like a good diet
right.
Obviously that's good for youroverall health, but is that
something that will alsocontribute to preventing
potentially, oral cancer?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, absolutely, the healthier your body, the more,
the better equipped it is tofight off.
The healthier your body, themore the better equipped it is
to fight off, you know, any, anyassault.
So, having a healthy lifestyle,yeah, eat well, sleep well.
Right, we don't talk enoughabout the importance of sleep
with, with maintaining a healthy, a healthy body.
So important, so important.
Don't discount the theimportance of of a regular sleep
(27:46):
pattern, good sleep hygiene, um, good nutrition, as you said
before, working out, staying,staying active, right, giving
your body, giving your body whatit needs to function the way it
wants to yeah, making sure ithas all the tools available to
heal itself from within.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
What would be your finalmessage to someone out there
that's listening that you know?
Not dissimilar to myself hasbeen putting off a visit to the
dentist for whatever reason, youknow.
Again, maybe they've had badexperiences like I've had.
Maybe they just you know theydon't see a problem, but they've
been putting it off and theyknow they've been putting it
(28:27):
off's in the back of their head.
What do you say to that person?
Speaker 1 (28:30):
you're not alone.
You know there's a bigcontingent um, ourselves
included, right, like we again,this isn't.
We're not here to judge, we'rehere to support.
Uh, everyone is guilty of thatin some area of their lives,
right?
if it's not your mouth it'swhatever it could be, yeah, um,
(28:51):
so we can all relate to whatthat, that avoidance out of fear
of potentially bad news, whatthat's about.
All right, but you know, Iguess, at the end of the day, go
get a checkup.
You know, um, coming in willeither give you peace of mind or
help you catch things as earlyas possible.
(29:11):
And you know, if you don't havea dentist, find one that offers
oral cancer screenings andprioritizes that as part of a of
a healthy mouth and a healthybody.
Right, cause we're not justhere to fix teeth, folks, we're
here to improve your quality oflife, help you live a more
fulfilling life and, uh, behealthier well said, well said
(29:34):
well.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Everyone, thank you so much for joining us on this
journey today.
If you found this contentuseful, don't forget to like,
subscribe all that fun stuff.
And if you've had your ownpersonal experience yourself
somebody close to you thatstruggled through oral cancer
Let us know about it in thecomments.
We're interested to hear yourthoughts and your feedback.
Again, we appreciate everyonefor joining and we wish you all
(29:58):
a wonderful day and stay smiling.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Take it easy, Tooth Tribe.
We'll see you in the next one.
All right, Take care, guys.
Thanks for tuning in to thisepisode of the Somebody Done
With Podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
Don't forget to subscribe,leave a review and follow us on
social media for the latestepisodes.
You can find us at SeminaryDental.
If you have any questions, feelfree to reach out.
We're always happy to help.
(30:22):
Until then, keep smiling andstay curious.
Welcome to the Semi-Day Dental Podcast.
We're here to provide youexpert insights on how dentistry
can improve your quality oflife and extend your health span
.
I'm Alex Semi-Day and I'm apracticing dentist, and I'll be
your host, along with JeremyWolf.
Enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello, hello everyone , and welcome back to another
episode of the Semi-Day DentalPodcast.
And welcome back to anotherepisode of the Semiday Dental
Podcast.
One American dies every hourfrom oral cancer.
Just sit with that for a second, alex.
(00:39):
Why is it that oral cancer is?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
still flying so far under the radar today.
Yeah, it's crazy, right, it's asobering statistic.
You don't hear a lot about it,you don't, you don't, and
honestly, that's shame on us, onthe whole dental community, for
not raising more awarenessabout oral cancer and it's
detection, it's diagnosis, it'streatment.
It definitely doesn't get thesame amount of play as, like you
(01:02):
know, prostate and breastcancer get, which are important
for people to be aware of too.
But, man, when you hear thatstat that one American dies
every hour from oral cancer, itkind of like puts it in
perspective, right, and withoral cancer specifically, it's
like, even if the cancer doesn'ttake your life, it's
(01:25):
devastating on your quality oflife, right, which really
matters too.
So we'll talk a little bit moreabout that.
But, yeah, it's an incrediblestatistic and thankfully, we're
raising more and more awareness.
April is Oral Cancer AwarenessMonth, so hence why we're doing
the podcast in April to letpeople know about what they need
to be looking out for and howtheir dentist can help.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So, speaking of that, what are some of the early
warning signs, what are some redflags, what are some things
that you can notice that wouldbring to your attention that
there might be an issue thatneeds to get checked out?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
so definitely anything in the mouth that is
outside of the the norm for youright, any little, any
irritation, any tingling ornumbness or anything that
usually lasts more than a weekor two is probably something
that you may want to get checkedout.
I'll share an example with you.
I personally had I, um, I a bagof Doritos or something like
(02:26):
that, and kind of cut the insideof my cheek, down where my,
where my gums are, and uh,nothing of it, and that little
cut kind of persisted and itlingered and it was like a week
and then two weeks and it wasstill there and I was personally
getting a little, a littleconcerned at that point.
So I went and had a buddy ofmine take a biopsy and check it
(02:50):
out and see what it was, andthankfully it turned out to be
nothing but that one to twoweeks.
Generally the mouth heals very,very fast.
So if you have anything goingon that you've noticed, any red
or white patches, certainlyanything that's bleeding,
anything that feels outside ofthe norm for a couple of weeks,
is definitely something that wemight want to get checked out.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
So even if you had, let's say, just like a common
cold sore and it just didn't goaway, that would be something
that could potentially be anissue.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
So that's a really good question.
Right With cold sores.
People who get cold sores arevery familiar with that process,
right Like they're.
They're familiar with thetingling that happens in the lip
first and how it looks and howit presents and it generally,
like, follows a very predictablecourse.
Uh, so I wouldn't be tooconcerned if you have cold sores
.
If you get one, don't freak out.
(03:38):
If it lasts a week or two, youshould definitely see it
trending in the right direction,though, Like cold sores don't
generally last weeks and weeksand weeks.
So if you have one that doesn'tseem to be following the normal
progression, absolutely get itchecked out.
Because I will say, we're inSouth Florida and living in
sunny South Florida, you knowthe lower lip in particular gets
(04:00):
a lot of UV radiation whichpeople don't really think about.
So it is a common source, or acommon location rather, for oral
cancer your lower lip, wherethe sun rays are constantly
beating down on it.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You don't really think about that too much.
You don't think about skincancer, but not like on your lip
right, Exactly, Exactly andthat's all.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
it is right.
It's lip skin cancer and that'swhat oral cancer is right.
It's just skin inside yourmouth.
So the same way we get UVradiation on the shoulders and
can develop the skin cancersthere, that can happen in the
mouth as well.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
What about risk factors?
Right, obviously, I'd imagine,there's a genetic component, as
with most cancers, but obviouslylifestyle choices, like who's
most at risk for oral cancer?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, good question.
So the big two when it comes toany sort of cancer are smoking
and drinking.
They release a lot of freeradicals, a lot of oxidative
stress on the body, which canlead to cancerous changes.
Now, they are both individuallybad and when they're combined
(05:12):
it has a synergistic effect.
So it's one of those situationswhere one plus one equals three
.
And if you're a smoker and adrinker and actually not even
just smoker, right, it's likeany tobacco product.
So dipping, snuff, cigarettes,cigars, If you combine that with
(05:35):
excessive alcohol use, that islike super mega risk factors for
oral cancer.
The other big one is HPV.
Have you heard of HPV?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Isn't that the human pablovovirus, papillomavirus?
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Very good, see that.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
It was good.
I don't forget everything.
I read.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
So HPV is a sexually transmitted disease and it's a
very common STD.
Actually, most people whoacquire it will actually just
fight it off with their normalimmune system and really most
people will never even know theyhad it.
But for those that do get it,there are certain strains of
(06:16):
that HPV that can colonize themouth and the throat, and a lot
of the new cancers that we'reseeing, a lot of the oral
cancers that we're seeing now,are HPV related.
So clearly that opens up thepool of people that need to be
concerned about this to anyonewho's sexually active, right,
(06:38):
teens, right.
So there are vaccines for theHPV virus that are designed
because it's not only oralcancer that HPV leads to.
It's also cervical cancer,right, because it's the same
kind of tissues that we have inboth areas of the body.
So there's a vaccine out therefor teenagers.
It is recommended if they'regoing to be sexually active.
(07:00):
But yeah, smoking, drinking andHPV exposure are the big three
right now so I'd never heardabout that.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
So there's a vaccine now.
They're specifically forteenagers.
Surrounding that, because Ithat's something that was not on
my radar at all and I got youknow kids that are entering the
teen years soon.
Yeah, the vaccine you mean?
Yeah, never even really heardof that until now.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Good thing you're listening to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yes, yes, something else that caught my attention.
I was reading your blog on thesame topic and you talked a
little bit about vaping, andthat's something that's kind of
been on my mind lately because,as you know, my daughter about
to turn 13,.
She's not vaping, not vaping.
But, that being said, I'mhearing that, even for a year
(07:49):
now in school, middle schoolthere's kids nowadays vaping.
You see, a lot of you see a lotof people kind of ditching
cigarettes, which is greatbecause it seems objectively
you'd think that smoking isworse than vaping.
But I think the jury's out yetwith vaping we don't really know
what the harm is that.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
What's your take on vaping as it pertains to this
topic specifically?
That's the truth.
The jury is out.
We're not entirely sure yetwhat the outcome is going to be.
On all the research that'sbeing done because it's still
relatively new right, it seemslike it's less harmful than
cigarettes.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
See, it seems like it is, it seems that way right, it
just feels like intuitively itwould be.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
But who knows?
But even even beyond that, um,some studies suggest that the
amount of damage that vapingdoes like, if, if you, if you
are, you have your back againstthe wall and you are forced to
either smoke a cigarette or vape, go with the vape.
You're probably safer out ofthose two choices, right?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
But I can imagine though I don't smoke or vape,
but I can imagine that it wouldbe easier to vape a lot more
than smoke.
It's like most places you can'tsmoke, you got to go outside to
smoke.
It's not socially acceptable.
But vaping, you can just pullthe vape out all day long and
just keep puffing on it.
Uh like, imagine like theconcentration you'd get could be
potentially lethal.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
That's.
That's a really good point.
Right, the access to vaping umis is more ubiquitous than than
with smoking.
Right, with smoking, you gottatake a smoke break, you gotta go
outside generally have to, like, walk 50 feet away from the
building.
Right, there are so manyimpediments to lighting up that
cigarette compared to justpulling out your, your, your
vape pen.
Right, I think, and hopefullywe get wise to this and curtail
(09:36):
some of the the vaping in publicplaces too.
Right, because I don't want youpuffing a huge cloud of vape
smoke.
You know, smoke in my face asI'm walking through the lumber
aisle in Home Depot and it'shappening.
People are just like chiefingon these things like it's water
vapor and there are chemicalcompounds in the vapor that
(09:58):
you're ingesting, that you'reblowing out, that aren't
necessarily healthy.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, it's just not as noxious as cigarette smoke,
so it's more socially acceptable.
It's like flavor.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Oh, it smells sweet, right, so it's like oh, this
can't be bad.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Meanwhile it's entering your body.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Let me inhale your smoke Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
But there is research that cameout of USC that shows that
there's like at the cellularlevel of your mouth, changes in
the DNA composition in responseto vaping.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
So it is having a profound effect on the cells in
the mouth and we just don't havestudies that link one thing to
oral cancer yet.
Right, but I think in the nextcouple of years that that
research is definitely going tobe coming out.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Sure, I mean, if you do it like anything else,
anything in moderation, withinreason, but if you're puffing on
that thing day in, day out, itcan't be great man.
Yeah, it's got to have somelong-term bad effects on you,
man.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, no such thing as a free lunch right, yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
This next thing this should seem fairly obvious, but
it's important to shine a lighton it thing this should seem
fairly obvious, but it'simportant to shine a light on it
and like why are regular dentalvisits so critical in all of
this?
It should seem obvious, but Ithink, I think there's a lot of
people, myself included, that weavoid the dentist, right, we,
you know, as long as I can putit off, I mean, I don't sorry to
(11:34):
say I don't love going to thedentist.
I think there's a lot of peopleout there that just kind of
they don't see anything wrong,there's nothing on the surface
that shows there's an issue, andthey just put it off until it
becomes a problem.
So, like, talk a little bitabout I am routinely surprised
by how surprised patients are,routinely surprised by how
(12:07):
surprised, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
But when we do our oral cancer screenings as part
of our initial consultation, ourinitial visit with every single
patient is to do an oral cancerscreening, and we do it once a
year thereafter when they comein for their normal hygiene
visits.
Now it's crazy to me how manytimes people are like I've never
had this done.
No one's ever talked to meabout oral cancer or what we
(12:31):
need to be looking for or thingslike that.
So let me just kind of run youthrough what an oral cancer
screening looks like, right?
So it's a very simple process,takes less than a couple of
minutes, and there's twocomponents to it, three
components, right.
So number one we feel we'regoing to feel all the lymph
nodes associated with the mouth,from the neck to behind the
(12:53):
ears, around the side, hereunderneath the jaw.
We're going to feel all ofthese areas to make sure there's
no lumps, bumps, masses, right,that everything feels normal.
Okay, then we're going to dothe same thing feel inside the
mouth, all of the tissue insidethe mouth, the floor of the
mouth, the sides of the tongue.
We're going to look and feel it, all of that, to make sure that
(13:15):
there's nothing, nothing thatshouldn't be there, right?
And then at the office we alsohave a special technology called
fluorescence.
It's it looks like a little maglight on steroids, right, and
it shines a very powerful lightthat, when it's when it's shined
inside the mouth, healthy cellsin the mouth will reflect this
(13:36):
light in a certain way.
Healthy cells in the mouth willreflect this light in a certain
way, and precancerous andcancerous cells won't reflect
the light.
So we'll see dark, shadowyoutlines in areas where the
tissue is a little suspicious,right, and that's not
necessarily a diagnostic right.
Like we're not saying, okay,this tissue looks suspicious
under the light, it's cancer,but it gives us a target to
(14:02):
evaluate further, right, andwith this light we'd be able to
catch things that way beforewe'd see it with the naked eye,
right.
So catching something earlywith the naked eye is huge.
If you can catch it beforeyou'd be able to even see it,
that's amazing, right.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
That will dramatically transform your,
your experience having to dealwith with whatever it is, with
the oral cancer yeah, thatprobably speaks to the fact that
and I could be mistaken, I'mjust kind of speaking out loud
here.
When it comes to something likeoral cancer or, I guess, skin
cancer or at least I don't heara lot about oral cancer, but I
(14:39):
hear a lot about skin cancerit's something that is generally
caught earlier than somethingthat lives internally, so I
guess there's less lethalityfrom it.
And is that accurate?
Because there's more likepresentable warning signs where
you wouldn't necessarilyInternalized.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yes and no.
Okay, so really, what makescancer a problem, right?
Well, a lot of things makecancer a problem, but what's
really insidious about it isthat it's generally painless,
right, so you don't really feelanything happening until it's
(15:18):
very, very advanced, and at thatpoint it's.
It's a huge problem, right?
So little things in the mouth,like a little cut or a little
swelling or a little tingling,that this thing is advancing and
it's just easy to sort of youknow, discount and like, oh,
(15:44):
it's probably something else,it's nothing, right?
Honestly, especially folks inour demographic right
Middle-aged men we love to buryour head in the sand for
everything.
Women take a much more proactiveapproach, generally speaking,
right, if they notice something,they want to get checked out,
they want, they want answers,they want to.
We tend to be the opposite.
We tend to oh, it's nothing, Igot a million other things, I
can't be bothered with that.
(16:04):
And, man, we end up paying theprice, right, because we end up
going to get things checked outwhen it's just further down the
road and had we gone six monthsearlier, it would have been a
totally different ball game.
Yep, yeah, are you guilty ofthat, mr Wolfe?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
because I sure am you know I am brother, I uh, it is
guilty as charged, guilty ascharged.
Another thing that stood outfor me in in the blog you wrote
was this this maybe I'mpronouncing it wrong Salivary
diagnostics.
Yeah, perfect, look at you go,there you go, so like, like, how
(16:44):
is that changing the game foryou guys?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, no, this.
The game's changing a lot andit's changing fast.
And with the incorporation ofAI too, I feel like medicine and
diagnostics in general aregoing to be revolutionized in
the next.
You know, two, three, four orfive years.
But as it pertains to the mouth, specifically with salivary
diagnostics, you literally spitin a cup and now we're able to
(17:12):
put it under a microscope andanalyze and see a whole new
world Right, like we canactually see things that you
know might mean that you havecancer.
Right, just just from simplyanalyzing this library.
We don't need to take biopsiesanymore.
Let me rephrase that we won'tneed to take biopsies anymore.
(17:33):
We're not quite there yet, asexcited as I may be, but
currently in the market todayfor HPV related cancers, there
is a diagnostic salivary testalready.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
What sorts of things are you seeing in that test that
would lead you to believe thatthere is an issue?
Speaker 1 (17:55):
So different markers, different cancer markers and
DNA changes that would be aresult of having oral cancer and
, as I said, right now it isjust it's FDA cleared only for
HPV related cancers, but Ibelieve next year they're being
cleared for non-HPV relatedcancers and cancer screening and
(18:19):
down that line.
We're just going to be able tojust very simply spit in a cup
and test for a multitude ofdifferent conditions and
pathologies and be able to catchthings way earlier than we were
in the past with a fraction ofthe invasiveness and cost.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, man, that's absolutely huge.
I'm curious about treatmentoptions.
This is something that's beenon my mind for a while now with
cancer generally speaking, andit's why is it that it's so
difficult to treat?
Why is medicine unable to finda way to fight this that's not
(18:58):
as messy as it is right now withchemotherapy and everything
like?
What types of treatments areavailable for oral cancer?
And also why, like moregenerally speaking, why do you
feel it is that, um, it's justso difficult to find a cure for
cancer well that I feel likethat, that is.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That's a huge rabbit hole question, right, um, but on
the very surface level, what wehave available to us right now,
right, and we'll talk aboutright now things are evolving
quite a bit, but as of two,three years ago, we had, you
know, surgery cut it out.
We had radiation and chemo, youknow, blasted out.
(19:35):
Radiation was a little moretargeted, chemo was basically
full body right, just justnuclear war, right, and
hopefully we kill more of thecancer than we do of the of the
patient and they can live tofight another day.
But now things are evolving alot and again, ai is going to
(19:57):
have a huge hand in this andhelping us sort out and figure
out and do modeling withouthaving to do human trials that
were unthinkable in the past.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, there's going to be some huge breakthroughs
coming in every field as AIadvances.
It's advancing exponentiallyand you can see it in real time,
really is.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Diagnostics are going to be unrecognizable in a few
years.
But today we actually haveimmune modulating medications,
immunotherapies that basicallyteach the body how to fight your
specific cancer Right, which isholy smokes.
(20:35):
What a thought, right Like,let's not introduce anything
foreign in here, but let's justtrain the body to be more
effective at fighting off thiscancer, the same way it would
fight off, you know, a coldright or a cold sore.
So, giving the body tools itneeds to be more effective in
that fight.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
That's the trick right.
Regenerative healing,regenerative medicine that's
really like stimulating thebody's natural ability to heal
itself 100%.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
And the other big one that's coming out is specific
cancer vaccines, right?
So these aren't preventive,these are treatment vaccines,
right?
So it's literally this vaccinewould kind of like put a most
wanted poster out for your bodyon that cancer and tell it okay,
(21:28):
this is the bad guy, go get him.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Ah, which is which is incredible right Like it's.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
It's really.
I get goosebumps talking aboutit.
It's so exciting that we'regoing to see this new generation
in medicine happen in ourlifetime it's good stuff, man,
can't wait to see what's on thehorizon.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
So you alluded to something earlier, um, about how
how oral cancer changes lives,even even if it doesn't kill you
.
Right?
Talk a little bit about whatcan happen to someone if they
get oral cancer and, you know,maybe they survive it, but it
creates some damages to them.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yes, yeah, for sure.
I mean, I always say dentistryis the quality of life branch of
medicine.
Right, because everythingthat's fun to do starts with the
mouth, whether it's eating,kissing, laughing, smiling,
talking, right, like it's.
It's, it's super important.
(22:29):
Yeah, and you know we talkedabout it killing one American an
hour and I have personallydiagnosed in my career six cases
of oral cancer.
Two of those individuals havepassed.
One didn't really have a wholelot, he actually had to have
(22:49):
part of his tongue removed buthe did pretty good.
He adapted fairly quickly.
The others have had significantissues with their quality of
life.
Right, because if you arehaving a big portion of your
mouth removed because of theoral cancer, right, like some
(23:10):
people have to have the majorityof their tongue or their entire
tongue removed, uh, half oftheir jaw right, upper or lower,
Like it is.
It's disfiguring.
So it goes beyond the impactthat it has on you being able to
, you know, eat what you wantand and just have a normal life.
That impacts how you look andand you know you have to have,
(23:32):
like facial prosthetics to toreplace that part of your face
that's gone.
I mean it's, it's reallydevastating, it's.
It's incredibly hard to to seeand deal with and, and you know,
unfortunately for so many ofthose, it could have been a
totally different story, right,had they just had regular
(23:54):
checkups, caught this thingearly, right it?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
so.
So then then why?
Why, alex?
Why?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
do we wait right?
Why do?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
people wait, like I'm guilty of this too.
I know we all are maybe not fororal cancer screenings, but
like everything, like why whatstops someone from just doing
the things required, like inthis case, just go see your
dentist, get a cleaning everysix months.
Just do the thing and do theroutines and you're probably
going to be okay.
And if you, just why do peoplewait?
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, I mean, why do we wait, jeremy?
Right, like dentistry all areasof human health, and dentistry
in particular it's almostentirely preventable.
Right, like losing teeth andhaving to have a lot of, you
know, crowns and bridges andthings like that could have been
avoided had we caught thecavity sooner.
(24:47):
Right Like had we intervenedwhen the problem was small.
If we wait for the problem tobe big, it's, it's a it's a it's
a bigger issue.
Right, and why do we wait?
Why do we wait?
Right, have fear of bad news?
Uh, priorities, life gets inthe way we don't like going to
the dentist and yeah, well, sure, we don't like the dentist,
(25:10):
right?
Nothing hurts, right.
So nothing on the surface level.
Nothing has gotten advancedenough to interfere with my
quality of life now, soeverything's okay, and I just
don't even want to hear thateverything's not okay because I
ain't nobody got time for thatright.
But you know, announce aprevention.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
It's worth a pound to cure.
That's right.
You took the words right out ofmy mouth.
What can we do today from apreventative standpoint?
What can our listeners do today, right now, to lower the risk?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
So, right off the top , quit smoking, and I make this
caveat with every one of mypatients that I have this
conversation with.
I was a smoker for years.
I smoked my way through dentalschool.
I smoked for a handful of yearswhen I was in practice.
I am not a holier than thoupreach from the ivory tower.
(26:09):
Smoking is bad, I get it, andit's a super hard habit to break
, but it's worth it.
All right.
So minimizing tobacco smoking,dipping all of that stuff as
much as possible.
Minimizing your alcohol intakeAll right.
Spf right For that lower lipcancer that we were talking
about being here in SouthFlorida.
(26:30):
So, wearing SPF, usingchapstick with with SPF on it to
protect your lips as far as HPVgoes, either the vaccine or
safe sex no sex Right.
And absolutely getting those,like you said earlier, getting
those checkups.
(26:51):
I mean every six months, once ayear, whatever it is.
Go to your dentist regularlybecause really honestly, your
physician doesn't really look inyour mouth.
They're not looking for signsof oral cancer or anything like
that.
So go to your dentist, getchecked out.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Catch things early, do general lifestyle wellbeing
practices play into this, Likein terms of like a good diet
right.
Obviously that's good for youroverall health, but is that
something that will alsocontribute to preventing
potentially, oral cancer?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, absolutely, the healthier your body, the more,
the better equipped it is tofight off.
The healthier your body, themore the better equipped it is
to fight off, you know, any, anyassault.
So, having a healthy lifestyle,yeah, eat well, sleep well.
Right, we don't talk enoughabout the importance of sleep
with, with maintaining a healthy, a healthy body.
So important, so important.
Don't discount the theimportance of of a regular sleep
(27:46):
pattern, good sleep hygiene, um, good nutrition, as you said
before, working out, staying,staying active, right, giving
your body, giving your body whatit needs to function the way it
wants to yeah, making sure ithas all the tools available to
heal itself from within.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
What would be your finalmessage to someone out there
that's listening that you know?
Not dissimilar to myself hasbeen putting off a visit to the
dentist for whatever reason, youknow.
Again, maybe they've had badexperiences like I've had.
Maybe they just you know theydon't see a problem, but they've
been putting it off and theyknow they've been putting it
(28:27):
off's in the back of their head.
What do you say to that person?
Speaker 1 (28:30):
you're not alone.
You know there's a bigcontingent um, ourselves
included, right, like we again,this isn't.
We're not here to judge, we'rehere to support.
Uh, everyone is guilty of thatin some area of their lives,
right?
if it's not your mouth it'swhatever it could be, yeah, um,
(28:51):
so we can all relate to whatthat, that avoidance out of fear
of potentially bad news, whatthat's about.
All right, but you know, Iguess, at the end of the day, go
get a checkup.
You know, um, coming in willeither give you peace of mind or
help you catch things as earlyas possible.
(29:11):
And you know, if you don't havea dentist, find one that offers
oral cancer screenings andprioritizes that as part of a of
a healthy mouth and a healthybody.
Right, cause we're not justhere to fix teeth, folks, we're
here to improve your quality oflife, help you live a more
fulfilling life and, uh, behealthier well said, well said
(29:34):
well.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Everyone, thank you so much for joining us on this
journey today.
If you found this contentuseful, don't forget to like,
subscribe all that fun stuff.
And if you've had your ownpersonal experience yourself
somebody close to you thatstruggled through oral cancer
Let us know about it in thecomments.
We're interested to hear yourthoughts and your feedback.
Again, we appreciate everyonefor joining and we wish you all
(29:58):
a wonderful day and stay smiling.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Take it easy, Tooth Tribe.
We'll see you in the next one.
All right, Take care, guys.
Thanks for tuning in to thisepisode of the Somebody Done
With Podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
Don't forget to subscribe,leave a review and follow us on
social media for the latestepisodes.
You can find us at SeminaryDental.
If you have any questions, feelfree to reach out.
We're always happy to help.
(30:22):
Until then, keep smiling andstay curious.
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