However, smoking cessation counselling is highlighted as a means of preventing oral cancer and the recommendation to provide smoking cessation counselling is consistent with that made in Chapter 43 which deals more generally with the prevention of tobacco-caused disease.
Oral cancers account for significant mortality but their prevalence is relatively low.
This may affect the feasibility of large scale screening with the adverse implications of the false positive and false negative diagnoses generated by such a screening program. End Results' TNM Stage I. Consequently, there is major morbidity attributable both to the disease and to the various forms of treatment and all health status domains are affected. There is psychosocial disability in terms of appearance, self-esteem and withdrawal from familial and other social interactions. There are physical and functional disabilities in terms of personal hygiene, swallowing and maintenance of nutritional status, speaking and therapy-specific morbidities related to radical neck dissection and irradiation, thyroid and parathyroid dysfunction, mouth dryness from lack of normal secretion, osteonecrosis of facial bones and the adverse effects of chemotherapy. Alcohol and tobacco are major risk factors for tumours of the mouth, tongue and pharynx with a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables acting as a protective factor.