Cancer is such a frightening word. Have you ever felt that you have to put much effort while brushing your teeth? And if it is accompanied by a thick white coat marring or spots in the mouth do get it checked, it could be oral cancer.

SMPTOMS
1. Painful tooth.
2. Burning sensation around the tongue and making it impossible to eat anything.
3. Color of the tongue turning angry red.
4. Swelled around the mouth.
5. Cleaning of the mouth is an agonizing chore.

It is not necessary that it is rumor but a check up with the dentist could clear your doubts. The patch usually is leukoplakia-malignant cells that may grow in the cheeks, gums or on the tongue as a result of chewing tobacco or using snuff orally. They could also arise from perfectly innocent causes, like inflammation as a result of tongue contact with jagged edges of teeth, or irregularities in dentures, fillings and crowns. An oral brush biopsy is done to root out the real position.

WHO IS AT RISK
Although oral cancer is more common in paan and gutka chewers but smokers don’t get a free pass. About one in thousand do end up developing oral cancer instead of the expected lung cancer. The risk rises to 6/1000 if alcohol enters the picture.

Oral cancer spreads to other areas of the body, so treatment is needed at an early stage. One might have to give up a part of the tongue to the scalpel in order to prevent the malignant cells from reaching the brain, lungs, liver, or bones, notably the nearby jaw. Your taste buds would also be drastically affected. Mouth feels, that is, individual textures of food that form a large part of the pleasure of eating, would be temporarily lost. A surgery is the feasible treatment. Your tongue will be hypersensitive after the surgery and it will burn whether the food is sweet, sour, bitter or salty; hot or cold and it may take long, long time before food bring any pleasure to your mouth.

Speech is another area of focus as one has to learning to speak all over again with reduced size of the tongue. Your speech, the diction will improve with time and with exercises.

Head for the doctor if you spot anyone of the following:
1. Swelling/thickening,
2. Lumps or bumps,
3. Rough spots/crusts/eroded areas on the lips,
4. Gums or other areas inside the mouth.
5. Velvety white, red, or speckled patches in the mouth.
6. Unexplained bleeding in the mouth.
7. Unexplained numbness,
8. Loss of feeling, or pain/tenderness in any area of the face, mouth, or neck.
9. Persistent sores on the face, neck, or mouth that bleed easily and do not heal within two weeks.
10. A soreness or sensation of something stuck in the back of your throat.
11. Difficulty chewing, swallowing, speaking, or moving the jaw or tongue.

Facing any problem with strength is an art. Strength training is primarily a discipline of the mind. So fight the oral cancer and don’t lose heart over it.