Pay a visit to dentist for mouth cancer check-up

Public health experts at NHS Leicestershire County and Rutland are urging people to get themselves checked for mouth cancer as part of a national campaign launched this week.

The Mouth Cancer Foundation's campaign is aimed at raising awareness of the disease, which kills three people in the UK every day. Detection can be as simple as visiting a dentist for a regular check-up.

Dr Tim Davies, public health consultant at NHS Leicestershire County and Rutland, said: "Like most cancers, the earlier mouth cancer is detected, the more successfully it can be treated. Many people don't know that one of the main ways of spotting mouth cancer in its early stages is by regularly visiting your dentist.

"A dentist will do checks of the soft tissue of the mouth, looking for signs of disease, such as white patches, sometimes called lesions, inside the mouth or on the tongue."

For more information, go to:

www.rdoc.org.uk