Shelby Twp Dentist Discusses HPV and Oral Cancer
Hi I’m Dr. Heather Pranzarone Stratton. Head HPS of Advanced Dental Care located at 24 Mile Road in Shelby Township, Michigan. Today I want to talk about HPV or The Human Papillomavirus, which some of you may or may not have heard of. The reason why we’re concerned about HPV and dentistry is because HPV is directly linked now with some forms of oral cancer. We know that about 25 percent of oral cancer is associated with HPV. We don’t know if HPV was the actual cause of the cancer but we do know that, in 25 percent of those cancers that, HPV is associated with it. The good news is with HPV related cancer they are usually the easiest types of cancer to treat. We now are able, in dentistry, to perform a test to determine if you have HPV or Human Papillomavirus. It’s a quick non-invasive test. You basically spit in a cup and we send it to the lab, and about a week later, the lab is able to tell us whether or not you have HPV, and which form, which strains of HPV you may have.
We know right now that there are two strains of HPV that are directly linked with oral cancer. There are other strains but we’re not quite sure what they do. They haven’t been studied yet, and there are some strains that are not at all associated with oral cancer. So,we know that if you have one of the types of strains that is directly associated with oral cancer, we’re going to perhaps refer you to an ENT so that they can more closely keep an eye and make sure, because you’re going to be at a higher risk for developing oral cancer at that point.
A lot of people say well I thought that oral cancer was caused by smoking and drinking. Traditionally yeah that’s true. That is why oral cancer was usually started. I mean some people don’t smoke and drink and they get oral cancer, but now HPV is also another huge risk factor for it. We actually know that the age group of 18 to 40 is one of the biggest growing risk groups for developing oral cancer because of this HPV.
We want to make sure that everybody is screened for it, and if you have HPV we’re going to put you on a more rigorous screening protocol, to make sure that if you do develop any type of oral cancer, that it’s caught early and treated early and that you’re going to be just fine and live to see your grandchildren.
Shelby Twp Dentist Discusses HPV and Oral Cancer
So if you have any questions about Human Papillomavirus, or HPV, please call our office and we can give you more information at 248-652-0024.
