A Little Information Can Be Frightening
June 19, 2008 – 8:30 pmI went to have my teeth cleaned. After the cleaning the dental hygenist did a pre-cancer screening. She looked a bit alarmed and warned me that I had red spots in my mouth and that that meant danger. I was alarmend and went to the internet to research the subject and learned about erythroplakia, the red areas or lesions in the mouth. Here is a short exerpt: "Severe epithelial dysplasia is a well-established precancer and has been shown to proceed to malignant transformation in at least one-third of all oral cases and carcinoma in situ is considered by many to already be a cancer, one which has been fortuitously diagnosed during its preinvasive stage. There is no information relative to the length of time an untreated oral carcinoma in situ typically exists before it begins to invade into underlying connective tissues, or the proportion which will actually invade if left untreated. ...