Hello everyone. I am Maria Mohammed.
She her pronouns with Becker's Hospital Review.
Thank you so much for tuning in to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
Today I am pleased to be joined by Misty Ling,
senior Vice President and Chief Dental Hygiene Officer at Sage Dental. Misty,
thank you so much for joining us today. How are you?
Doing good. Doing good. Excited.
Yes. Yes. Um, and with that we can dive right into our discussion today.
Um, Misty first,
could you please tell us a bit about your dental background and also what your
job entails with Sage Dental?
Yeah, well, I think I have the coolest job ever.
I get to lead an amazing team of hygienists,
dental professionals, um,
at Sage and really get to impact, you know,
the care of patients across over a hundred locations and really,
you know, create the education. Um, all of, you know,
our training, uh, product selection, mentoring.
Um, I really get to do a lot of, um, different things.
And then also I get to lead a team of regional hygiene trainers, uh,
as well, and they get out and they work with the hygienists, um,
individually in their locations and help them with anything.
It's just a really cool concept that we have here at sage. You know,
we really help support everybody in the field and really want them to be
successful and provide the best care to our patients,
and that's what I get to do. I get to lead that department here at Sage.
So it's an honor and really proud of what we,
we have done and created here at Sage,
and I'm really proud of the care that our patients get.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That all sounds amazing,
and with all your experience,
the first question I wanted to ask you is what current trends have you been
seeing in the dental industry that focus on oral cancer?
Well, you know, lots of things are happening in the dental industry,
especially with artificial intelligence and things like that,
just really being more focused on preventative care, right?
I think all of us in the healthcare model, right,
we're really trying to prevent disease.
And so what we've really seen is really these different technologies that are
coming out that help identify oral lesions at
their earliest sites, right? Because traditionally as a clinician,
I don't really see oral cancer until it's an actual lesion, usually,
right? Um, when it's a carcinoma,
because that's when you see it, catch it with the eye.
But what things like bell scope do or oral id,
um, you know, you know,
what they allow you to do is identify those lesions before the clinician can
see it and or even the patient because it's really identifies those cell
changes.
And it does it a really cool way that's even very simple for you, a patient,
um,
a clinician to see is it identifies it out as dark underneath the light.
And so it really lets you know that those cells are rapidly reproducing faster
than normal. And so that goes, Hey, that's something we need to get checked out.
And the good thing is not all of 'em turn to be like real big time cancer
situations. Some of them are just, maybe they have a,
a tissue issue or, um, you know, lichen plans or,
you know, they, maybe they're cheek biters. So having that evaluation orally,
um, at least yearly is very important. And then, you know,
really that trend is really been seeing the technology
to be able to find it earlier, um,
because that's a real thing with oral cancer is in order to really be
successful. And I'm,
I'm excited to talk about some of the stats that have changed in this area. Um,
but to really be successful, you have to catch it early,
and that's to save lives. I mean,
it's really saving lives here because the thing with oral cancer is
used to, you had a 50% chance of being alive in five years once they saw it.
And it's a staggering statistic.
Yes. Yes, it absolutely is.
And I'm glad that you mentioned that you have to catch it early with this type
of cancer. And,
because the next thing I wanted to ask you is for me and for our listeners,
do you have any helpful advice on preventing oral cancer?
Well, yeah. There's things like, um, you know, stop using tobacco, you know,
or I say, don't even start, right. That's the best thing. You know,
drink alcohol and moderation. I'm one of those. Anything in excess is bad,
right? So alcohol really irritates the cells and the mouth. Um,
it makes them more vulnerable to, you know, mouth cancer. Um,
avoid excessive sun exposure, you know, especially for the lips.
That's definitely an area or another area that I often see in the dental chair
that people don't even ever realize is the tops of the years. Um,
I myself clinically had a basal cell carcinoma that I found on a patient
that I literally was just, you know, doing my head neck assessment,
um, which I traditionally do part of my dental exam. Um,
and so I literally was just checking out his ears and kind of filling his
nodule, you know, around his glands,
and I was like, wow, like we need to get that checked out. And sure enough it,
it didn't turn into something. So it's really even that as well.
Make sure you see your dentist regularly, um,
at least once a year you should have,
even if you're not using advanced technology, dental professionals, um,
and patients should be doing an exam. You know, patients should do self-exams.
That I think those are,
there are really some key things as far as helping prevent
oral cancer. And then the other thing that a lot of people forget about, and,
and it really, it has to do with, um, hpv,
HPV V now is the leading cause of oral cancer. So used to,
we used to think, oh, you know, it's all about risk factors, right? Um,
you know, they either drink or they use tobacco and things like that.
But what we're seeing really with oral cancer now is that it's not
just that, you know, that person who's been a smoker and a drinker for 30 years,
right? We're seeing it in young individuals and that has to do with,
you know, the HPV virus, um,
which there's lots of things out there where you can get vaccinated now for
the H P V, but the issue is,
is that there's so many strains of HPV that, you know,
that's the bigger issue. So when you vaccinate, vaccinate for all 300,
so they're, they just kind of do for the main ones. So, you know,
the main thing is being mindful and being sure that you're getting evaluated and
checked out by your dentist because with HPV it is viral.
And so then that virus causes oral cancer.
It's one of the leading causes of oral cancer today and 18 to
35 year olds. So, and I honestly, we had a, uh,
I used to work at another dental office, another practice, um,
and we had a patient that was 18 years old that ended up with, uh,
leash just past where they had their wisdom teeth extracted. Um,
that was an oral cancer and she had to have that removed.
So really honestly and truly anybody 18 and older,
we should be looking and checking to make sure.
And because of HPV and how common it is,
they now say like 80 to 85% of the population
has, um, an HPV virus, especially in our older,
like in my age group, um, and older baby boomers,
we all, they say that we, a lot of us are carriers of it.
We don't even realize it. Um,
and so that's really something that we wanna make sure that, you know,
your senior dentists regularly,
your hygienists and dentists are checking you out to make sure that
you don't have any lesion there. And like I said,
and I would hope too that they're using advanced technology, um,
as well to help them identify those lesions earlier.
Yes. While you gave some amazing advice and amazing tips Justin, then, um,
I definitely learned a lot because my expertise on oral cancer is not alive,
but thank you so much for that . Um, and also,
do you have any tips you can provide that practices should utilize in their
screenings?
Well, I mean, I think utilizing advanced technology,
first off talking with your patients because so many patients don't even
realize we've done a really good job in the community to
educate women on, you know,
getting their annual pap smears and things like that. Um,
prostate exams for men. But we, as a dental community,
I think one of the things we have not done as well, um,
and that educate our patients about oral cancer and the statistics around it
to ensure and use that advanced technology in the offices.
Because right now, you know,
the estimated new cases in the United States this year
is 54,540 is what they anticipate, um,
will be new with oral cancer cases.
And they an estimate that there'll be 11,580 deaths,
uh, just from oral cancer this year. When you put that in perspective,
that's one person dies every hour from oral cancer in the United States and
that's really crazy. And then at that a five year survival rate,
and this is what I wanna say, that I am proud because the use,
and I wanna say kudos to the dental offices out there that are doing oral cancer
screenings, you know, at least once a year on your patients,
because this is so impressive.
I'm so proud to say that we've increased this.
The five year survival rate for oral cancer used to be, um,
I would say two years ago,
50% chance of being alive in five years, right?
50% chance of being alive in five years if you're diagnosed with oral cancer.
But we've done a great job and we've increased that survival rate to 68.5,
right? And I'm very proud of that.
And so thank you to everybody who does oral cancer screenings with your patients
and educate them on this deadly disease because I mean,
68.5, 18.5% increase.
It's not like a hundred percent, it's not, you know, where I want it to be,
but I know that we can,
if we all focus in on it and talk with our patients and educate them on because
it's a big impact, you know, um, that we can make. And like I say,
I tell my team all the time, guys,
what we do for our patients is bigger than us, um,
because our patients go out and they have loved ones and they have, you know,
um, others that look up to 'em, they're a family member. And so it's, for me,
it really is saving that life and it starts with that oral cancer
screening. So like kudos to all of you.
I think that's a big win for dentistry to see this increase and stick win for,
for medicine. Um, I think the other thing is that, you know,
because oral cancer has been one of those cancers that we haven't seen a
decrease in, um, for the last 20 years. So that being said,
I think more people have just been like, Hey, let's start looking for it.
And then there's been lots of key players out there and a and a lot of education
out there on educating patients on doing self-exams just like they did
for breast cancer. So now, you know,
we want patients to do a self-exam,
oral exam and that will also help.
So educating our patients as professionals, you know,
in our practices on why they need oral cancer screenings,
doing the exams, you know,
educating 'em on how to do self-exams and using the best tech advanced
technology would be the things that I would say that would really help a
practice, um, as far as getting more screens and doing that in the practices.
Yes. Thank you so much for that insight.
Those were staggering statistics that you shared. Uh, and before I let you go,
do you have any closing thoughts for our listeners?
Well, like I said, I just, I am
so proud to be at Sage where I can, you know,
we utilize advanced technology, we're saving lives,
we're looking for oral cancer, we wanna impact change in this industry.
You know,
a few years ago there was an article written that said only 25% of dental
professionals look for oral cancer.
So that's why I'm gonna tell you that that statistic,
I'm so proud of that increase.
And I just wanna say keep doing that to everybody who's listening. You know,
be sure that in your practices that you're looking for oral cancer, you know,
check out the different technologies that are out there that'll help this with
your patients. You know,
we have a real ability to impact change in our industry
to impact change in the healthcare of those that we serve, um,
and those that we love.
And so I think it's really important that we talk about oral cancer,
we talk about, you know, HPV virus, um,
we stay educated ourselves as professionals
and we raise that bar, you know,
as healthcare providers and continue to just push forward and
look for, continue to look for oral cancer cuz we can really have a big impact.
And it just really begins with looking and talking about it.
And I'm just so excited about Oral Cancer Month and what
we are doing at Sage. You know, we make it really fun for our patients. Um,
that's another thing that you could do as well. Um, we get stickers that says,
you know, I got screened. Um, you know,
you go get your old cancer screening, you know, kinda like when you go vote.
We do that. We take selfies with their patients.
We really just wanna really highlight it and make it fun. Um, so,
so people take the time and just stop for a second and ensure that their loved
ones are all getting oral cancer screenings. Cause um, we save one life. I mean,
I tell you what, it changes my perspective on life. And so I'm just really,
really proud of what we're doing and the impact that all of our providers are
doing and all of you out there. So that's really it for me. Like I said,
I'm super excited about Oral Cancer Month and the new stats that are coming out
and about it because more people are looking and so I'm just so proud that I
get to, to lead,
be a leader in this industry and help encourage more to do so.
Yes, absolutely.
That all sounds so amazing and thank you so much for your final thoughts.
Um, and thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
It has been a pleasure speaking with you.
And I'd also like to thank our podcast sponsor Sage Dental.
You can tune into more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our
podcastPage@beckerpodcast.com. Thank you again, Misty.
Thank you.