Is opportunistic oral cancer screening by dentists feasible? An analysis of the patterns of dental attendance of a nationally representative sample over 10 years.
OBJECTIVE
To assess whether or not opportunistic oral cancer screening by dentists to detect pre-malignant or early cancer lesions is feasible. The objective was to analyse the patterns of dental attendance of a national representative sample over a period of 10 years to ascertain whether individuals at high-risk of oral cancer would be accessible for opportunistic oral cancer screening.


METHODS
Secondary analysis of data extracted from the British Household Panel Survey, a national longitudinal survey (n=5547). Analysis to ascertain whether patterns of attendance for dental check-ups for a period of 10 years (1991-2001) were associated with risk factors for oral cancer such as age, sex, education, social class, smoking status and smoking intensity.


RESULTS
Males, aged over 40 years, less educated manual workers and smokers were significantly less likely to attend for dental check-ups compared with females and younger, higher educated, higher socio-economic class non-smokers (p < 0.05). Throughout the 10-year period, young people, more than older people, had progressively lower odds ratios of attending. Those with more education used dental services more. Heavy smokers were infrequent attendees.


CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that opportunistic oral cancer screening by dentists is not feasible to include high-risk groups as they are not regular attendees over 10 years. Those who would be screened would be the low-risk groups. However, dentists should continue screening all patients as oral precancers are also found in regular attendees. More should be done to encourage the high-risk groups to visit their dentists.
Yusof
Z Y Mohd
ZY
Department of General Dental Practice and Oral and Maxillofacial Imaging, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. zamros@um.edu.my
Netuveli
G
G
Ramli
A S
AS
Sheiham
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003729:Dental Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors