The Oral Health Foundation organised Blue Wednesday as part of  Mouth Cancer Awareness Month to raise awareness of mouth cancer. The first ever event in relation to mouth cancer was in 2000 and nearly £2million has been invested by the Oral Health Foundation to improve awareness and education around mouth cancer.

Statistics show that 8,864 people in the UK were diagnosed with mouth cancer last year and 3,034 lost heir lives to mouth cancer. It is more common for those over 55 years to get mouth cancer with 78% of the cases being in this age group but it can affect people of any age. Cases of mouth cancer have increased by 103% in the last 20 years and increased 34% in the last 10 years. Mouth Cancer Facts and Figures | Mouth Cancer Foundation

Blue Wednesday is taking place on 13th November 2024 with the simple message to undertake a self-check for mouth cancer. The Oral Health Organisation have advised this check can take only 45 seconds and can save your life.

Signs and Symptoms

Mouth cancer can affect any part of the mouth including your tongue, inside the cheeks, tonsils, roof/floor of the mouth, gums, lips, head and neck.

What to look for when completing your own mouth check include:

• A white or red patch
• An ulcer that doesn’t heal
• Unusual lumps and swelling.

What are the mains causes of mouth cancer?

Most cases of mouth cancer are linked to tobacco (including cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking) and alcohol consumption.

Over exposure to sunlight can also increase the risk of cancer of the lips and more recently, reports have linked mouth cancer to the human papillomavirus (HPV) which many people will recognise as the main cause of cervical cancer.

How to be diagnosed:

It is important, should you find any unusual signs and symptoms in or around the mouth to contact your dentist or doctor, who will be able to undertake an examination of your mouth, jaw and neck. Even if you are unsure whether anything in your mouth looks unusual, you can always go for a check up just to be sure!

If your doctor or dentist considers something is not right, a referral should be made to the hospital for further examination and biopsies can be taken for cells to be viewed, and any diagnoses can be made.

Blue Wednesday is taking place on 13th November and they are asking you to #BakeSomethingBlue and share on social media to raise awareness.

We have assisted a number of clients in respect of medical negligence relating to a delay in mouth cancer diagnosis, which has led to life changing events. Such cases have included tongue cancer and cheek cancer. The clients had attended their dentists and doctors on a number of occasions seeking advice and treatment in relation to symptoms they were experiencing. Unfortunately, they were not referred appropriately and required more extensive treatment than initially would have been required, had earlier diagnosis been made. We have been able to secure substantial sums of compensation to help with their futures.

If you or a loved one have suffered from mouth cancer, and you feel that there was a delay in diagnosis or that the treatment was not conducted to an appropriate standard, please contact our Medical Negligence team on 01482 323697 to discuss how we can help.