April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month. Monterey Dentist Offers Free Screenings to Save Lives

April 5, 2012 - PRLog -- PUBLICITY CONTACT:
Wendy Brickman
(831) 633-4444
brickman@brickmanmarketing.com

April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month. Monterey Dentist Offers Free Screenings to Save Lives

[MONTEREY, CA] - On Sunday, April 22, Dr. Jeanette Kern and her dental care team are offering free community oral cancer screenings from 11am – 2pm at MY Museum at 425 Washington Street, Monterey.

Unfortunately, deaths from oral cancer are on the rise in the United States. This year, according to the Oral Cancer Foundation (*see more information below), approximately 36,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral cancer, and nearly 8,000 will die from the disease.

Oral cancer treatment success rates are up to 90 percent when the disease is detected early. Screening for oral cancer is fast, easy and painless in your dentist’s office. Dentists are required by the state to screen patients annually, for free.  However, those who do not visit the dentist on a regular basis are not being screened often enough.  

“We know that not everyone visits the dentist as often as they should,” says Jeanette Kern, D.D.S.  “Oral cancer can be easily treated if detected early, or it can kill you.  We want to help protect people in our community from this horrible disease with a simple screening test that takes a couple of minutes and does not hurt at all.”

Dr. Kern and her dental team can screen a patient in less than five minutes using an oral cancer detection technology called VELscope.  VELscope is an incandescent light device that helps dental professionals detect oral tissue abnormalities.

Dr. Jeanette Kern is an award-winning dentist who is recognized by the Monterey County Commission on the Status of Women as an Outstanding Woman in Monterey.  Dr. Kern has trained with world-renowned dental instructors at the Rosenthal Institute in New York and the Pacific Aesthetic Continuum at University of the Pacific. Prior to becoming a dentist, Dr. Kern worked for 10 years as a dental hygienist and taught Hygiene at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. She graduated at the top of her class from the School of Dentistry at UCLA and went on to teach other dentists at UCLA from 1989 - 1995. Dr. Kern is committed to continuing education and always utilizes the latest techniques to make treatment comfortable.

To schedule an interview with Dr. Jeanette Kern, please call Wendy Brickman at (831) 633-4444 or email Brickman@brickmanmarketing.com. For more information, check out www.jkerndds.com. Dr. Jeanette Kern can be reached at (831) 372-8011.


Oral Cancer Statistics*

o        Oral cancer diagnoses are on the rise.  Nearly 36,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer this year. It will cause 8,000 deaths.

o        Men are 250% more likely to have oral cancer than women.

o        Oral cancer has touched the lives of many people, including numerous celebrities:

Michael Douglas                   Bruce Paltrow
George Harrison                   Rod Stewart
Aaron Spelling               Eddie Van Halen
Sammy Davis Jr.                   Babe Ruth
Lana Turner                  Mary Wells

o        The death rate for oral cancer is higher than that of other cancers such as cervical cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma, laryngeal cancer, cancer of the testes, endocrine system cancers such as thyroid, or skin cancer (malignant melanoma).

o        The fastest growing population group of oral cancer diagnoses is nonsmokers under 50.

o        Consumption of tobacco products (including smokeless tobacco) and alcohol increase the risk for oral cancers, but recent findings also implicate the HPV 16 virus as a leading factor in diagnoses in younger populations.

*Sources:  http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts  | www.4orca.org

To schedule an interview with Dr. Jeanette Kern, please call Wendy Brickman at
(831) 633-4444 or email Brickman@brickmanmarketing.com. Dr. Jeanette Kern can be reached at (831) 372-8011; her web site is www.jkerndds.com

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The multi-award-winning firm, Brickman Marketing, owned by Wendy Brickman, MA, MBA, successfully markets and publicizes a wide array of for profit and non-profit organizations.