The British Dental Association (BDA) has welcomed the Government’s new National Cancer Plan, but warns that ‘without the political will to restore access to routine dental services there will be little material progress to end the growth in oral cancers’.
Head and neck cancers are the eighth-most-common cancer group in the UK, and the incidence and mortality rates are increasing in England with nearly 12,000 new cases recorded in 2023.
This growth is largely due to an increase in oropharyngeal cancers, which are associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and alcohol consumption.
However, HPV does not follow the traditional risk factors of higher-needs patients, so the lack of priority in restoring access to routine NHS care for the ‘dentally fit’ will inevitably lead to late detection and poorer prognoses, says the BDA.
It states: “Early detection results in a roughly 90% survival rate, compared with 50% following delayed diagnoses.
“The Government has been prioritising urgent care, rather than rebuilding routine services.”
And, while it welcomed Health Secretary, Wes Streeting’s comments that ‘cancer survival shouldn’t come down to who won the lottery of life’, BDA chair, Eddie Crouch, adds: “Clearly cancer survival shouldn’t be a postcode lottery, but as long as access to NHS dentistry remains a game of chance that is exactly where we will be.
“Dentists are on the frontline in the battle against oral cancers, where early detection is so key.
“It’s no overstatement to say that failure to restore access to care will cost lives.
“It’s one thing to have a cancer plan, it’s quite another to invest in the workforce and tools to boost detection and improve survivability.”
Last year members of the BDA joined Tony Page, an oral cancer survivor from Folkestone, in a visit to Downing Street to deliver a message from over a quarter of a million people: that ‘deeds need to match words when it comes to saving this service’.
He was referred to hospital in 2014 after his dentist spotted an abnormality in his mouth.
Within six weeks, cancerous parts of his tongue and jaw had been removed.
That check-up saved his life.
Crouch said: “We continue to fight for reform and funding that can deliver for patients like Tony.”