Milwaukee VA offers free oral cancer screenings April 3 for all Veterans

No appointments are needed for the screenings, which will take place 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Room 3435 of the medical center, 5000 W. National Ave., Milwaukee. Veterans do not need to qualify for VA health care or VA dental care in order to be screened. Milwaukee VA employees can also be screened.

The screenings will take about 15 minutes and will include examination inside the mouth as well as the outside the head and neck. Dietary and nutrition experts will be on hand, along with tobacco cessation counselors.

“We’ll be looking for any signs of oral cancer, skin cancer or anything out of the ordinary,” said Dr. Kandice Klepper, periodontist with the Milwaukee VA Medical Center. “We’re teaming up with other departments to help enhance identifying risk factors and just giving more information out to participants.”

Not all Veterans who receive VA health care qualify for dental care. “So this is a good way for us as a service to give back to the Veteran community who may be ineligible,” Klepper said, noting that April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month.

“It’s a quick visit, and we can give recommendations (after the screening) if dental treatment is needed, or give them peace of mind for clearance,” she said.

If dentists discover problems during the screenings for Veterans not eligible for VA dental care, they will be referred to dental specialists in the community.

During the screenings, dentists will be looking for areas of redness, white patches, dark-colored areas and lumps or bumps that have persisted more than two weeks, Klepper said.

“We’re specifically trained to look for areas of concern as there are certain areas of the mouth where oral cancer presents more frequently,” Klepper said, noting dentists will be looking behind the tongue, at the base of the tongue, behind the soft palate and all the areas between the teeth.

Veterans tend to be at higher risk of oral cancer than the general population, Klepper said, mostly due to higher use of tobacco and alcohol, which are the biggest risk factors for oral cancer. Other infectious diseases, like HPV, can also contribute to oral cancer as can excessive sun exposure.

And the effects of oral cancer are not pretty, Klepper said.

“We see a high number of patients with oral cancer, and it is devastating to see,” Klepper said. “It really impacts the quality of life … and can lead to many, or all, of a patient’s teeth being removed.”

Oral cancer can also affect eating, swallowing and speech as well as a person’s appearance. In addition, oral cancer has a high risk of metastasizing to other organs if it’s not detected early, Klepper said.

“So it’s important that we identify it early and get it treated,” she said, noting that warning signs of oral cancer could be a lump, bump or sore in the mouth that doesn’t go away after a couple of weeks or continues to get larger.

“Anything out of the ordinary warrants a dental visit,” she said.

According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, 54,600 cases of oral cancer are diagnosed each year. Of those individuals, 43% will not survive longer than five years. One person dies every hour due to oral cancer, according to the foundation. The death rate is high because the cancer is often discovered late in development.

So how do we prevent oral cancer or catch it early? By using proper oral hygiene and cutting down on risk factors, Klepper said.

“We really want to stress the importance of not only conducting regular checkups, but also awareness of the risk factors,” she said. “Decreasing smoking, decreasing alcohol use and regular brushing and flossing are really important to preventing oral cancer, along with maintaining a healthy diet.”

Klepper said the April 3 event will be well staffed with a goal of helping as many people as possible.

“We have a great team, and we’re all very enthusiastic,” she said. “Our main goal is not only to provide care to our Veterans and employees, but to broaden the access for care for everybody and raise awareness of oral cancer.

“We want to do whatever we can do to have an earlier diagnosis, which leads to better treatment outcomes.”