Abstract
Early detection and early treatment are considered most important approaches to improving cancer cure rates.
The Dental Association of Chiba City, in the belief that conducting mass screening for oral cancer would improve its cure rate, has held “Healthy Come-Come” educational sessions on oral health since 1992, and it includes an oral cancer screening booth.
In this paper we repoet on the methods used to implement the screening, the results, the problems encountered in implementing it, etc.
Methods; The subjects of the screening were persons who applied to participate in response to the appeal in the city's official bulletin.
The screening centered on an interview, inspection, and palpation, and whenever a thorough examination was required, the subject was referred to the appropiate secondary facility.
Even when no abnormal findings were detected, thorough oral health consultation, guidance, counselling, etc, were provided.
Results and Discussion; The number of subjects has been tending to increased year by year, from 52 in 1992, to 207 in 1993, and 262 in 1994.
As a result of screening an abnormality was confirmed in a total of 137 lesions over the 3-year period. All of the patients were referred to appropriate secondary institutions, but no malignancies were found in any of them.
Discussion In order to conduct early detection and early treatment of oral cancer it seems advisable to increase awareness among local residents concerning the oral cavity and to continue to conduct screening in cooperation with loacal organizations.
These oral screnings need to be widely and generally recognized, and implemented on a nationwide scale.
