Your dental check-up at Coulthard Sullivan Dental Practice includes screening for oral cancer with a comprehensive examination of the soft tissue of your mouth as well as your teeth.
Around 8,300 people are diagnosed with mouth cancer each year in the UK. But with by spotting mouth cancer early, a complete cure is often possible in up to 9 in 10 cases using surgery alone.
It is thought that that there are common mechanisms in the development of oral cancer, and cancer of the skin, oesophagus, cervix, lung and bladder. Professor Paul Coulthard, together with a dermatology colleague, established the ‘Barts Centre for Squamous Cancer’ in 2021 with £2.6M from the Barts Charity.
This unique Centre of Excellence is undertaking Research into these cancers and especially mouth cancer.
Three outstanding senior researchers have been appointed, and a tissue bank, laboratory support and bioinformatics core support have been established. Coulthard Sullivan Dental Practice is proud of its association with the Centre. The job of the dentist is to look out for tooth decay (caries) and gum disease (periodontitis), but also to screen for mouth cancer, so as you can imagine, we take that role particularly seriously!
For more details, please check here – https://www.qmul.ac.uk/bcsc/