Mouth rehabilitation following oral cancer treatment

What is oral cancer?

Oral cancer refers to malignant growths in any part of the mouth, including the lips, tongue, cheeks, floor of the mouth, hard and soft palate, sinuses and throat. It can be invasive and spread to other parts of the mouth, head and neck, depending on the stage at which it is diagnosed. As with all cancers, the early the detection the better.

Treatment for oral cancer

Oral cancer can be treated with surgery to remove any tumours and affected tissue, followed by radiation, chemotherapy, drug-based targeted therapy and immunotherapy or a combination of these. Any of these treatments can affect appearance, speech, teeth, jaws and swallowing. Mouth rehabilitation following surgery and treatment is usually needed to restore function and aesthetics, and this requires a different approach to standard dentistry.

Functional and cosmetic rehabilitation

Oral cancer can be devastating in how it affects both appearance and oral function. It’s important to get patients looking as good as possible post-surgery as well as recovering the use of their mouths for all functions, including speech. The rehabilitation work needed can involve dental reconstruction, implants, prostheses for inside the mouth and for the face, veneers, surgery to rebuild lost tissue and teeth realignment. And that’s not an exhaustive list – each patient has their own needs.

Mouth rehabilitation after oral cancer at Holland Park Dental Centre

Holland Park Dental Centre has a mouth cancer specialist on the team, Dr Aroob Essa Karjikar. Her specialisms are functional and cosmetic rehabilitation and she mainly focuses on patients who’ve had mouth cancer. This area of dentistry is highly specialised and there are not many specialists who are comfortable with related and complicated bone implant and transplant – from tibia to jaw, for example.

So we count ourselves fortunate to have Dr Essa available for our patients who’ve undergone oral cancer treatment. She also works closely with renowned award-winning surgeon, Dr Alastair Fry, who has the highest success rate of any head and neck surgeon in the world. At Holland Park Dental Centre, Dr Essa sees patients from across the UK who require specialist treatment and want to be cared for by the best.

Of course, the very best treatment for oral cancer is early diagnosis – or even better, good dental hygiene for prevention and regular dentist appointments and self-checks to make sure your mouth is healthy. If you have any concerns about your dental or mouth health, it is vital to get these checked out as soon as possible. Mouth cancers can affect anyone, not just those who smoke or drink excessively.

You can contact us for more information about oral cancer treatment or any of our dentistry services. We’ll be delighted to talk you through how we can help.