The Dental Defense Society recently released new Information pertaining to how Covid-19 impacted oral cancer detection.  The pandemic caused oral cancer referrals to decline as dental practices became disrupted.  This directly impacted the ability of Dentists to detect oral cancer early on and many patients may not catch it until It presents in a later stage of the disease.
Catching Oral Cancer cases in the later stages will result in complex treatments that'll impact the patient's mental health and quality of life.  If oral cancer spreads to nearby tissues, organs, or lymph nodes the 5-year survival rate is only 65% which is not good at all.  Whereas catching oral cancer in the early stages of the disease raises the 5-year survival rate by 50-90% to an expected 84% chance of surviving oral cancer.