What is VELscope - Oral Cancer

Featuring Dr. Leslie Gallon, BSc, DMD

Duration: 1 minute, 6 seconds

The VELscope is a machine that's been developed by the BC Cancer Agency, and this is a scope that we look at the oral tissue with, and theres'a blue light that shines on the tissue.

For every patient there's a little extra cap that we screw on and we just shine the light and it illuminates the oral tissues, any areas that are suspicious will show up as a dark area, and then we have to look at that area more closely.

When they're going in to do cancer surgery, they can use this light and see the whole area that they might not have seen otherwise.

Because oral cancer hasn't, the diagnosis of oral cancer hasn't really improved in the last 30 years, there's a real push on to increase early diagnosis of oral cancer. Oral cancer occurs two times more than cervical cancer, and also three times the number of people die from oral cancer. So ask your dentist about the oral cancer exam and the VELscope.

Presenter: Dr. Leslie Gallon, General Dentist, North Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: General Dentist