EP #5: Unveiling the Truth About Oral Cancer Risks and Prevention
Apr 12, 2024Season 1Episode 5
Alex Semidey
Uncover life-saving knowledge in our urgent discussion with Dr. Alex Semide about oral cancer, a disease with a mortality rate that's both shocking and preventable. By the end of our talk, you'll understand why your dental check-up could be the frontline defense against a silent killer. Dr. Semide joins us to shed light on the pivotal role dentists play in catching early signs of oral cancer, a task often overlooked but critical in bridging the gap between dentistry and general medicine. We delve into not just the statistics, but also the human stories behind the numbers, examining how this cancer affects the very essence of our daily lives - eating, speaking, and smiling - and why early detection is synonymous with hope.
Our conversation takes a turn to the darker side of lifestyle choices, examining how the unholy trinity of smoking, heavy drinking, and HPV dramatically increases cancer risk. Dr. Semide and I scrutinize the importance of the HPV vaccine, not as an optional extra, but as a necessary shield in the fight against cancer. Understanding these risks and recognizing the early warning signs - persistent sores or throat discomfort that just won't quit - could make all the difference. We stress the importance of prompt medical attention for any suspicions, reinforcing the episode's crucial theme: proactive steps in oral health are not just advisable, they're lifesaving. Join us for a conversation that's not only informative but could very well alter the course of your health journey.
Uncover life-saving knowledge in our urgent discussion with Dr. Alex Semide about oral cancer, a disease with a mortality rate that's both shocking and preventable. By the end of our talk, you'll understand why your dental check-up could be the frontline defense against a silent killer. Dr. Semide joins us to shed light on the pivotal role dentists play in catching early signs of oral cancer, a task often overlooked but critical in bridging the gap between dentistry and general medicine. We delve into not just the statistics, but also the human stories behind the numbers, examining how this cancer affects the very essence of our daily lives - eating, speaking, and smiling - and why early detection is synonymous with hope.
Our conversation takes a turn to the darker side of lifestyle choices, examining how the unholy trinity of smoking, heavy drinking, and HPV dramatically increases cancer risk. Dr. Semide and I scrutinize the importance of the HPV vaccine, not as an optional extra, but as a necessary shield in the fight against cancer. Understanding these risks and recognizing the early warning signs - persistent sores or throat discomfort that just won't quit - could make all the difference. We stress the importance of prompt medical attention for any suspicions, reinforcing the episode's crucial theme: proactive steps in oral health are not just advisable, they're lifesaving. Join us for a conversation that's not only informative but could very well alter the course of your health journey.
Jeremy :
Hello everyone, and we are back for another episode of Word of Mouth. I'm your co-host, Jeremy Wolf, joined by your host, of course, dr Alex Semide. Dr Alex.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
How's it going, brother?
Jeremy :
Doing well, man Doing well. Excited to get into this topic today because I think obviously there's a lot of people out there that suffer from cancer, and I thought it would be a good time for you to talk a little bit about mouth cancer. So why don't you set the stage for the conversation today.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
Yeah, so you're absolutely right. Cancer is a topic that we discuss a lot in general in society, right, like, everybody knows someone who's been touched by the disease right by the process. So as dentists, you know it kind of rests on us to bring knowledge and awareness about oral cancer. Rests on us to bring knowledge and awareness about oral cancer, which I cannot begin to tell you, man, how frequently once, when we're doing someone's comprehensive initial checkup and we're doing their oral cancer screening, they tell me no one's ever done this before, which is crazy to me because, honestly, like historically, there's been kind of like a divide between medicine and dentistry. It's like it's like it's two different bodies somehow. And you know, my wife's a physician, so we talk about this all the time, how there's that, that gap in between. Doctors get like like half a day's worth of, hey, this is a mouth, all right, and now onto the circulatory system, you know, and basically that's, that's it, right. So no one is looking inside patients' mouths other than their dentists.
Jeremy :
Yeah, there's a disconnect there and that's one of the one of the reasons why we're doing the show is to really gap and really explore the connection between your oral health and your overall wellbeing. And I must say myself I've never had anybody not that I know of screen me for mouth cancer, right. So, like you just said, that's not doesn't seem to be a common practice when I go to the dentist, because they never told me anything about it, and they say, hey, we're going to go in and do a screening for mouth cancer. Never heard that before, so it's interesting.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
Now how would you feel if I tell you that oral cancer kills one American an hour? Wow, yeah, right, exactly, and you know oral cancer like. No one wants any cancer. Right, all cancers are bad, but in the pantheon of struggling and having your quality of life affected by a cancer, oral cancer ranks pretty high.
Jeremy :
One of the worst ones I can imagine. Yeah, because it's affecting where you eat. Where you eat, talk smile.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
Yes, everything Like your ability to live your life right is so profoundly affected, even if it doesn't kill you right is so profoundly affected. Even if it doesn't kill you right, the treatment and the impact that it has on the mouth is is can be devastating. I've had the, the, the opportunity, the, the the responsibility to treat a handful of patients with, um, you know, oral cancer that have been dealing actively with the process of managing the disease. Uh, in my practice and, man, I gotta tell you it is, it is, it is so, so, so hard on people. Um, that's why I'm such a strong advocate of screening regularly. Um, all of our new patients get screened. We screen at your yearly checkups when you come in for your hygiene visits because, like with cancers and all disease in general, the sooner we catch this, the less of an impact it's going to have on on on your life, right, not only is your survival rate going to increase dramatically, but the process by which you get healthy is going to be so much easier to tolerate.
Jeremy :
So what is mouth cancer as it compares to other cancers, and how does it typically develop in patients? Why would somebody end up getting mouth cancer as opposed to lung cancer or some other type of cancer? And once they get mouth cancer, that's something obviously, as with many other cancers, that can metastasize and spread to other areas, right, exactly.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
So there are several risk factors for oral cancer, right? The fact of the matter is that we don't know why some people with risk factors develop it, why some people without risk factors develop it. And this people without risk factors develop it and this goes for all cancers, right? Like how many of us know people that have been like the shining light and example of healthy living, you know, fitness, nutrition, never smoke, never drank and they end up, you know, getting like a stage three diagnosis of cancer, right? And oh my God, like I never would have thought this person would have been the one that developed the disease, right? So, at the end of the day, we're not quite sure why, but there are several risk factors that we know contribute to it. Let's go down the list.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
Number one smoking. Smoking is number one. I do not harp on smoking. I smoked for years. I quit several years ago but I still struggle with it. So I am not a get on my soapbox and tell you how naughty you are for smoking. I get it Right and it's a really tough habit to quit and it's a really tough habit to quit, but there's no arguing the fact that it is a very high risk factor for developing all sorts of cancers.
Jeremy :
So many people speaking of smoking. So many people now have turned to vaping and I guess the jury is still out on that, right, like it's so new. Have you seen any impact from people that come in in the mouth that say they're now? Oh, I stopped smoking, but now I'm vaping instead? What are you seeing in the mouth?
Dr. Alex Semidey :
Yeah, great, great question. Um, I will say I think the vaping thing has died down a little bit from where it was, I don't know, two, three years ago. I felt like, you know, babies were vaping years ago. So I haven't seen any good research on the impact of vaping Right, what we do know is is that one of the key contributors of smoking to the oral cancer is the heat that you get from the constant drags of the cigarette in the mouth. And I would guess it would depend on the type of vape pen whether it generated a lot of heat or not as to whether you would get that component. Obviously, with vaping you're not getting all of the other carcinogens that are in cigarettes. So I don't have a concrete answer on that, that the jury's still kind of out on the whole vaping thing as far as cancer goes.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
Okay, but in addition to smoking we have dipping. Right, we live in the South and dipping is I mean, I had buddies in dental school that would not go to a single class without a dip in their mouth Right, like this is it's, it's it's it's not just the public out there, right, like we're all guilty of things like these. But yeah, dipping is definitely parking that, that tobacco pouch in the same spot. I mean, it doesn't take a long time to visibly see changes in the tissue where that, where that tobacco is resting Like, the tissue gets gets firm and callous and you can almost see it starting to transform into something unhealthy.
Jeremy :
Yeah, I can see how dipping would be one of the top underlying causes or risk factors associated with this for sure.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
It's big. Another big one is excess alcohol consumption Right, and there's a lot of back and forth as to what excess means Right, and there's a lot of back and forth as to what excess means Right. But if it's more than a drink or two every single day, then then we're getting into that territory where your risk starts to increase. And with tobacco and alcohol we have this synergistic effect synergies, my office manager's favorite word. So we have this synergistic effect where one plus one equals three. Okay, so smoking alone is a risk factor, drinking alone is a risk factor. When you put them together, it they are, it's, it's a deadly combination.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
And people people typically that drink they kind of go hand in hand, you know like. You know like have a drink and have a smoke.
Jeremy :
Alcohol is one of those. That's just when. I mean, it's one thing to have a couple of drinks here and there, but when you drink a large at least for me now when I drink a large I feel like I've been poisoned. If I drink more than a certain amount of drinks, I'm sick, for not just the day but the day afterwards. I feel absolutely disgusting. One of the reasons I don't really drink anymore. I'll have a beer, maybe two beers, maybe once in a while when I go out. I'll go out, but then it reminds me again how bad it is.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
And it's but I mean and poison's the perfect word, right Like alcohol is a poison that our body has to to to work out okay, and that comes at a cost. And it comes at a cost for several things right for disease, for longevity, for quality of life, for quality of relationships. Um. So yeah, tread with care with the alcohol.
Jeremy :
Yeah, what other risk factors are we talking about here?
Dr. Alex Semidey :
So those are the big two. You also have HPV, right. A lot of people have heard of HPV, the human papillomavirus. There's a vaccine for it, ok, hpv is an STD sexually transmitted disease and most adults will at some point be carriers of HPV. All right, now there are specific strains of this HPV that, if they colonize the throat, the mouth and throat, they can lead to mouth cancer. So HPV is the number one cause for cervical cancer, and the same kinds of tissues that women have in the cervix we have in our mouth and throat, right. So this, this, this virus can actually inoculate their set up shop and devolve into what we call dysplasia, which is cells kind of breaking bad and then ultimately cancer.
Jeremy :
Fascinating.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
It's all connected, it's all now with the HPV. There is a vaccine that you know. Conversations should be had with uh, with uh teenagers, teenagers' physicians as to whether or not they feel it's a good idea to get that vaccine. But that is available out there and it is very protective.
Jeremy :
All right. So I go to your office and I get a screening for mouth cancer and you get the results back and I have mouth cancer. What do we do then? What are the treatment options? What does that look like for somebody?
Dr. Alex Semidey :
So that really depends on the stage. Yeah, um, ideally we're finding something that is minute, right, and it can be excised or removed, and sometimes that's it no-transcript. The radiation is is particularly tough in the mouth, just based on what we've talked about before, right, the quality of life, your ability to talk and chew and just exist. Yeah, obviously, things like you, you know dental health take a profound hit. Generally, several, if not all, teeth end up needing to be removed. Um, and then prosthetics made in order to regain function and somehow maintain aesthetics. But, um, yeah, absolutely.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
The sooner, the sooner people get screened and things are identified, the better. The screening process takes two minutes. It literally is super quick. It is a visual and tactile evaluation, so there are no samples that need to be sent out to a lab or anything like that. We're not taking biopsies of anything, but we feel, right, like our hands are very powerful tools, right? We feel all of the lymph nodes associated with the head and neck, all of the tissue inside the mouth, the tongue, the floor of the mouth, to make sure there's no lumps, bumps, masses, anything that shouldn't be there, right, and that's frequently their very first indication.
Jeremy :
So what should I look for? Let's just say I haven't been to the dentist and I haven't had a screening for this, and what are some signs I could look for? Like, let's say, I feel something lumpy over here, like what can I do on my own to determine if there might be an issue? So then I then can go to my dentist and say, hey, can you do a screening?
Dr. Alex Semidey :
So if you feel a lump there, I would say seek an evaluation, right, go go to either an ENT, go to your primary, go to your dentist and say, hey, I noticed this. Any idea what this could be? Other things, other early signs that folks should keep in mind, are any sort of sore in the mouth that doesn't heal in a week or two. May want to get that checked out. We all get sores in the mouth. You can get canker sores. Some of us get cold sores. You can, you know, eat a Tostito and cut the roof of your mouth and it'll be sore for a few days but that heals. Now, if those things kind of persist more than a week, getting to two weeks, get it checked out.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
Another big one is any like a sore throat or any hoarseness that doesn't seem to improve. I actually diagnosed my insurance guy. He came in to talk about my life insurance policy and he was like clearing his throat a lot and I was like, dude, what's going on? He's like I don't know, sore throat for a couple of weeks. I feel like I just can't clear it out. I'm like man, like we're going to get you into an ENT tomorrow. And sure enough, he had throat cancer and thankfully he made it. He did great. He's returned to a full, healthy life, but it was, it was a rough patch for a long time. So, um yeah, those things, sometimes little innocuous things right that you just sort of like brush off as nothing. Like if things linger, guys go see someone get it checked out yeah, makes a lot of sense.
Jeremy :
So you're, you're generally when you do these checkups and you're determining whether or not there's a warning sign associated, something that could potentially be throat cancer or mouth cancer and then obviously you have somebody you could refer them to or they can go to their preferred doctor to get that investigated.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
Yes, yeah, yeah, we have, yeah, we have. You know, if, if, if that were to happen, obviously there's a, there's an escalation in a, in a team building process of oral surgeons and oncologists and you know that come together to to provide the right care.
Jeremy :
All right, good deal. Any anything else you wanted to touch on?
Dr. Alex Semidey :
Yes, so April is actually oral cancer awareness month, all right. So I feel like this episode is very apropos. We are actually offering complimentary oral cancer screenings all month at the office, and so you can give us a call 954-581-0120. 954-581-0120. Check us out semidaydentalcom, all the socials and get in touch with us. We do have some limited availability throughout the month, but we are offering those complimentary exams and we'll be actually going out into the community and doing some free screenings too.
Jeremy :
Very cool. We will of put a link in the description to all of the contact information, so if anybody does want to come in for a free screening, they can do so. Alex, dr Alex, always a pleasure, jeremy, my pleasure. You're the man. No, you're the man. You're the man. All right, thanks to our listeners for tuning in. We will catch everyone next time. Stay healthy out there and keep smiling.
Dr. Alex Semidey :
Bye, everybody, thank you for joining us on.
Jeremy :
Word of Mouth. Remember a healthy smile is a reflection of your well-being. Until next time, keep smiling and caring for your dental health. We'll be back soon with more dental insights.