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So, the reason that I'm so committed to educating and screening and looking for those oral cancers
or for the precursors or even high risks is because first of all, it's kind of an unknown.
It's kind of shocking to me to hear people come into our practice for the first time
and A. first of all say, they've never had or known to have had an oral cancer screening,
and that's something that I just don't really understand, and I mean, who else is looking
in someone's mouth? And, unfortunately, you know, cancer is now the leading cause of death
instead of heart disease. Now it's cancer, and what we've seen is that mortality rates
for all the other cancers are actually declining. You know, people are living longer, and the
only reason is because of early detection, but oral cancers are the only ones that haven't
changed. It's like that just continues to be the same, and if we're catching it at a
stage where you can see it with your eyes or feel it with your hands, it's usually at
stage 3 or 4, and you have a 50% chance less survival rate for 5 years. Now, with the links
of HPV and that being a hugely sexually transmitted virus, I think it's important for people to
know, and therefor, I've really, you know, thought this out and feel that it's not just
about looking for something that's already there. You know, there are people that are
gonna be committed to their health at all costs, and they want to know up front, so
I, you know, there's technology out there. We can do salivary tests that are quick and
easy for people to know if they've been exposed to the HPV virus and have it and if it's active,
and if so, then those people need to be screened more often. You know, why wouldn't you? It's
kind of like going in for a mamogram. It's not normal. You're gonna go in more often.
If it's not normal, you're gonna go in for a PSA test. You're gonna go in for your prostate
checks. That's why people are surviving from those cancers. Whereas with oral cancers,
they're not, and one of the areas that I really feel strongly about is that we educate parents,
and we educate young people. Because at this point, you know, getting them vaccinated with
guardasil or one of the two vaccines against HPV can save their lives. You know, doing
that before they're sexually active and educating why it is that abstaining from practices that
will actually cause them to end up in high risks. It's important. We've developed a protocol
to be more proactive than reactive, and that's really important to me. I really think that's
the way to go, and, you know, we're working on putting some programs together to outreach
to the public and to young people and to schools and anyone who will be willing to listen on
how we can save lives because I unfortunately have had a few patients in my career that
have come into my practice for the first time, and I caught something way too late, and losing
a patient is not something that I'm willing to do ever again. I did not become a physician
because I don't have it in my heart to deal with life and death, so that's one of the
reasons that I'm kinda crazy about it. I think that it needs to be brought to the forefront.