Velscope Screening Near You
Oral cancer can affect your lips, tongue, throat, cheeks, sinuses, palate, and the floor of your mouth. With early diagnosis, the overall five-year survival rate for patients experiencing oral cavity and pharynx cancer is 84%. If oral cancer is not detected before spreading to other tissues, lymph nodes, or organs, that survival rate falls to 65%. We provide VELscope screenings near Cranston to identify abnormal tissues and lesions that might indicate oral cancer.
Receiving Velscope Screening in Seton
The VELscope Oral Cancer Screening system is a non-invasive and painless system for screening for oral cancer. The VELscope does not use either dyes or rinses and causes no side effects. VELscope is a handheld device that shines a blue light into your mouth. That blue light highlights abnormal tissues in the oral mucosa — the soft tissues inside your mouth — that may indicate oral cancer using fluorescence.
The blue light used by the VELscope excites the epithelial tissue and underlying stroma, which causes them to fluoresce. When “excited,” abnormal tissues appear distinctly (very dark due to decreased fluorescence) from healthy tissue (which glows bright green). An examination under white fluorescent light, alone, will not reveal abnormal tissue, since it will not appear distinct from healthy tissue.
Receiving a VELscope screening in Calgary, AB takes as little as two minutes to complete. In addition to identifying potential cancer concerns, the VELscope highlights fungal infections and bacterial growth that may indicate oral hygiene issues to be addressed by your dentist and improved oral hygiene.
Early Detection
Our office offers VELscope screenings near you to detect abnormal tissues before any obvious physical signs of oral cancer have developed. That early detection permits earlier intervention and significantly increases patients’ five-year survival rate.
Key Points About Velscope Screening
- VELscope screening can be performed as part of your regular dental checkups.
- VELscope screening is performed in mere minutes without any invasive procedure or the use of any dyes.
- Oral cancers occur most commonly in patients over the age of 40 and are associated with smoking, significant consumption of alcohol, prolonged exposure to sunlight, and other sources of ultraviolet radiation.
If you are interested in receiving a VELscope screening near you, contact our dental office today. We provide VELscope screenings in Calgary, AB.