Oral Health Disparities between Men and Women

Did you know men are more likely to get oral cancer than women? Men are also more likely to skip dentist and doctor visits. For Men’s Health Month happening now, let’s raise awareness about these and other disparities.

Overall, more than 10 adults out of every 100,000 will develop oral cancer.

Oral cancer incidence among men is more than twice as high as among women in the United States. The same holds true when broken out by race for those who identified as white, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Asian or Pacific Islander.

However, prevalence among black men is more than three times as high as among black women. The disparity is similar among Hispanic men and women, too.

What’s more, oral cancer rates increase with age among both women and men. The increase becomes more rapid after age 50 and peaks between ages 60 and 70.

But diagnosing oral cancer at an early stage significantly increases five-year survival rates. Today, we are more aware of the importance of oral health and how to prevent disease thanks in large part to better education, greater access and advances in technology.

These factors have helped oral cancer survival rates steadily improve since 1975, though the disparity among white and black men has remained largely unchanged.

So what more can be done to reduce oral health disparities?

To start, efforts like those funded by the DentaQuest Foundation are designed to target prevention and collaboration in hyper-local ways.

One investment supports the Chicago Community Oral Health Forum to develop and expand school-based oral health education to students in the Chicago Public School system and the development of dental homes for students with urgent needs.

Another investment is supporting the University of Alabama as it implements a framework for interprofessional training that will produce health care practitioners in Alabama with a greater understanding of oral health and the ability to work in health teams to provide optimal care to their patients – from geriatrics to pediatrics.

These types of programs happening across the country target long-term improvements and sustainable changes for a variety of communities – from predominantly black public schools in Chicago to the elderly in Alabama.

The DentaQuest Institute, meanwhile, is expanding oral health care to rural parts of the country. Experts are working closely with local teams, helping providers develop evidence-based and financially-sound practices that ensure a continuum of care for regions that largely have been without regular access to dental care.

With dedication and support, these projects can ultimately change the trajectory of oral health disparities in America.

 

Make This a Fall for Smiles!

By Steve Pollock, President, DentaQuest

Good dental health starts at home, and parents and caregivers are THE most important role models for their children. Oral Health America has a nice booklet, Fall for Smiles, on their website that can help families talk about good oral health. Also, from September 19-25, Trident gum is donating 5 cents to Smiles Across America® for every pack of Trident gum sold. Smiles Across America helps children who do not get regular dental visits because their families lack resources, insurance, transportation, or because of language barriers.

Make this a fall for Smiles! Brush and floss your teeth daily. Be careful about the sugars in your diet. Avoid tobacco products. And schedule a visit with your dentist.

Smokeless Tobacco – YOU’RE OUT!

Images of opening day should be of cheering fans, baseball diamonds, baseball caps and crisp new uniforms, and NOT containers of smokeless tobacco anywhere near the dugout. Smokeless tobacco in all its forms -- chewing, plug, twist, snus, snuff, dissolvable -- is a dangerous (and dirty) habit that I hope will no longer be glorified on baseball fields – professional or neighborhood. This year Congress is putting pressure on Commissioner Bud Selig and MLB players association chief Michael Weiner to ban smokeless tobacco all together this baseball season. I can’t agree more. We do not want impressionable children and teens to see their sports heroes using smokeless tobacco and get the wrong message about the dangers. Make no mistake about it, smokeless tobacco is dangerous.

• Smokeless tobacco contains higher quantities of nicotine than most cigarettes. And it increases the likelihood that the person using it will become a smoker.1


• It shocked me to learn that according to the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) 4% of boys in middle school and 20% of high school boys use smokeless tobacco. Half of them will likely develop pre-cancerous white patches in their mouths. ·


• Smokeless tobacco products, just like cigarettes, contain at least 28 cancer-causing chemicals. And the sugar that is often added to enhance the flavor increases the risk for tooth decay.2 ·


• Smokeless tobacco is known to cause cancers of the mouth, lip, tongue and pancreas. Users may also be at risk for cancer of the voice box, esophagus, colon and bladder, if they swallow toxins in the juice.2

April isn’t just the time that baseball comes back in full swing; it’s also Oral Cancer Awareness Month. That makes this a great time to remind you that oral cancer affects males and females, adults and kids. And even if you are not a smoker, make sure your dentist does an oral cancer exam [pulls and twists your tongue] at every visit.

Please share these facts with the teens and youth in your life. And I’d be curious to know what they think about smokeless tobacco and keeping it out of baseball? Check out the facts:

• University of Iowa
• CDC

Oral Cancer Facts

Since this is Oral Cancer Awareness month, I wanted to start and end the month with some thoughts on this collection of cancers. I was recently asked to talk about oral cancer on one of our local television stations and so I contacted the Oral Cancer Foundation for some information. I talked with their Director who is an oral cancer survivor of 11 years. He was a pleasant person to speak with and had lots of valuable information to share. Among his statistics:

1. 110 people every day are diagnosed with an oral cancer
2. 1 person dies every hour of every day from oral cancer
3. Anecdotally, on the oral cancer foundation survivor list, about 1/3 are under 30 years of age
4. There seems to be a correlation with the HPV virus and oral cancers
5. In 2007 oral cancers rose 11%
6. Survival rate is good if found early, but overall about a 55% survival after 5 years

The signs of possible oral cancer lesions inside your mouth include both “raised” and “sunken” lesions, changes in coloration, hardening lesions and lesions that bleed easily. These changes should have been present at least 14 days before you start to worry, and your dentist is a great place to start for a diagnosis.

Always feel free to talk to your dentist about what to watch for and ways to prevent oral cancer.