CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Diseases of the oral soft tissues has been a serious concern by experts, especially with the rising cases of deaths caused by cancer in the oral cavity particularly in countries that are developing.
Oral cavity cancer is approximately 5% of all malignancies occurring in men and 2% in women (Lynch, 1994). It has been reported that oral cancer is the leading cancers in India especially in Kerala where the incident was reported at an average height, about 20% of all cancers (Balaram and Meenattoor, 1996).
Although there are developments in the diagnosis and therapy, abnormalities and mortality resulting from oral cancer is still high and has long been a problem in the world. Several reasons are put forward for this is mainly due to the lack of early detection and identification of high risk groups, as well as failure to control the primary lesion and cervical lymph node metastasis (Lynch, 1994; and Meenattoor Balaram, 1996).
To overcome the problems caused by oral cancer, WHO has made instructions to control oral cancer, especially for countries that are developing. Control is based on primary prevention measures where the main principle to reduce and prevent exposure to substances that are carcinogens. The second approach is through the implementation of secondary prevention, ie early detection of cancerous lesions and precancerous oral cavity (Subita, 1997). Folson et al, 1972, estimates that 80% of all cases of oral cancer deaths can be prevented with early detection of malignancies in the mouth (Folson et al, 1972).
In general, for the early detection of malignancies in the mouth can be done through anamnese, clinical examination and confirmed by additional tests in the laboratory. In this paper will put forward measures that can be done by the dentist to detect early malignant processes in the mouth. It is expected to find a dentist suspected lesions as malignant process early so that the prognosis of oral cancer is better.
CHAPTER II
Oral cavity cancer
II.1 DEFINITIONS
A. Restriction
Oral cavity cancer is cancer that originates in either coming from the mucosal epithelium or the salivary glands in the oral cavity wall and organs in the mouth.
