Starting this August, Sorocaba City Hall, through the Department of Health (SES), will begin the Biennial Oral Cancer Prevention Campaign 2022/23. The procedure will be carried out continuously in all health units in the municipality’s network that have dental care.
During this period, actions and educational activities will be carried out on this topic, to warn about the main risk factors and ways to prevent oral cancer.
In addition, all patients over the age of 40, who are the main risk group, who have been treated at an elective consultation and, if possible, also in emergency care at the Dental Services of Sorocaba Municipality, will receive guidance on cervical cancer prevention. Oral, with assessment of the oral cavity.
Oral cancer is a serious public health problem, due to high rates of late diagnosis, and therefore significant morbidity and mortality. According to the National Cancer Institute, the expected number of new cases of oral cavity cancer in Brazil, for each of the three years 2020-2022, is 11,200 in men and 4010 in women. These values are consistent with an estimated risk of 10 new cases per 100,000 men, and it ranks as the fifth most common cancer in the population. For women, it corresponds to three per 100 thousand, and is the 13th most common of all cancers. In Sorocaba, between 2015 and 2021, 116 cases of oral cancer were diagnosed, roughly three cases per 100,000 population.
Among the reasons that contributed significantly to the development of this disease, we can mention social, environmental and behavioral factors, among which are the consumption of substances harmful to the body, such as tobacco and alcohol, nutritional deficiencies, and human papillomavirus (HPV). Infections, immunodeficiency and solar radiation.
Cancer is an aggressive disease and its late diagnosis leads to a treatment considered ‘distorting’ and lower survival rates. It is important to educate and educate the population about the main risk factors for the development of oral cancer, its signs and symptoms, and preventive self-examination.
Oral health teams play a key role among health professionals in advising patients on early detection of this disease. The role of these professionals is important because they are more likely to identify asymptomatic lesions through routine examinations and diagnose the disease before it develops,” highlights the SES Oral Health Coordinator, Dr. Diego Garcia Dínez.
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