Câncer bucal: autoexame e detecção precoce

Abstract

Cancer of the mouth is a malignant neoplasm that is part of the set of tumors that affect the head and neck. The aim of the study is to identify the prevalence of oral lesions with potential for malignancy in dental patients and their possible association with risk habits and sociodemographic variables; in addition to comparing oral cancer knowledge among dental surgeons who participate in dentistry specialization and academic courses at a public university and to identify their knowledge about oral self-examination. A cros-sectional study was conducted in 1140 patients, 187 dentistry students and 230 dentists. The patients were submitted to a physical examination and to find a questionnaire with the openings on oral cancer and oral self-examination; as well as dental surgeons and dentistry students also responded. The data were stored in the program of the statistical package IBM SPSS 20; the Fischer Exact test was applied to verify the association between the independent variables and oral cancer, the analysis was by means of absolute and relative frequencies. A total of 363 patients (70.2%), aged 30-39 years (23.1%) and 50-59 years (23.1%) were examined, belong to economic class "C" (61.4%), do not smoke (71.3%), do not drink alcohol (60.9%), the prevalence of potentially malignant disorders was 2.5% (09); the majority of dental surgeons were females (78.7%), were between 20-29 years of age (61%) and up to 5 years of age (68.8%), investigated suspected lesions in their patients (87.2%) and did not inform them how to perform the self-examination of the mouth (45, 4%); the majority of dental academics were female (73.5%), were between 21-24 years of age (66.7%), and investigate suspicious lesions in their patients (90.9%) and does not inform them how to perform self-examination (70.5%). It was concluded that there was a prevalence of 2.5% of oral lesions with potential for malignancy, there was no statistically significant association between these oral lesions with socioedemographic variables and risk habits for oral câncer.Dentists know little about oral cancer, their clinical behavior is unsatisfactory. Dentistry Academics presented better knowledge regarding this disease when compared to the knowledge of dentists