Starting today, the 1st, and continuing until the 7th, the 'National Oral Cancer Week' aims to prevent oral cancer. The idea of the national campaign is to raise awareness about risk factors and symptoms that may diagnose the disease.
According to dentist Marlei Bonella, oral cancer is a disease that affects the tissues of the mouth, such as lips, gums, tongue, cheeks, and the palate (roof of the mouth). Symptoms include lesions (wounds) in the oral cavity or on the lips that take a long time to heal, bleeding, red or whitish spots/plaques on the tongue, gums, roof of the mouth, or cheeks, lumps (nodules) in the neck, and persistent hoarseness,” warns the dentist.
Some factors can increase the risk of developing cancer, such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, sun exposure without proper lip protection, and infection by the HPV virus. “It is very important to maintain oral hygiene to avoid any type of infection and especially to prevent oral cancer,” says Marlei.
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