PUTTING off going to the dentist could mean that oral cancer goes unnoticed, the British Dental Association warned patients yesterday. Early diagnosis can increase a patient's chance of surviving the disease for another five years from 50% to 80%.
Dentists are able to detect tumours, which can start as whitish or reddish patches or ulcers in the mouth that fail to heal. Treatment of the cancer is more effective if lesions are detected before they have a chance to spread. Oral cancer kills about 16,000 people in the UK each year, the same number as are killed by cervical cancer.
Another survey yesterday revealed that 90% of men know nothing about a blood test which can reveal a risk of prostate cancer. Only one in five of the 968 questioned in the Mori survey for the Institute of Cancer Research said they knew ''a great deal or a fair amount'' about either prostate or testicular cancer.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article