April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month, and dentistrytoday.com will be celebrating the event with blogs, news stories, and other features all spotlighting the disease. #OralCancerAwareness 

Think back to the “dark days” of dental school. Somewhere buried in the curriculum of prosthodontics, restorative, orthodontics, and periodontics, there was some mention of oral pathology. Apparently, since you would be spending your career looking into the mouths of your patients, you needed some instruction on the inspection and diagnosis of a variety of lesions of the oral cavity.

During your coursework you undoubtedly learned about leukoplakia and erythroplakia, as well as the possibility that some of these lesions might progress to oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC). You were taught that any ulcer that did not heal, erythroplakia, or suspicious appearing leukoplakia warranted a biopsy to rule out an early cancer.

– via There’s More to Oral Cancer Risks Than Alcohol and Tobacco | Dentistry Today