Mark’s Patient Story

“I would have known nothing if not for my dental check-up”

Mark has been our patient since 2019 and wants to share his story about mouth cancer and why it is so important to see a dentist.
In November 2022 Mark came in for a tooth problem and he said there was an ulcer on his tonsil. The dentist, Furqan, had a look and noticed it as swollen and a pink mass had formed.

We asked Mark to come back in 10 days to check on his throat again, now December, he said that his throat his healing and it did look better but still had redness. He came back for dental treatment in January and that’s when the dentist noticed a severe swelling to this area now so did a referral straight away.

Mark said that he went to QMC as a patient under cancer pathway and they were amazing. He was told it was already stage 3 as it has spread from his throat to his neck. This shows how fast and aggressive oral cancers are. Mark had been for his oral health exam only a month before symptoms appeared!

Mark, although an awful story, was one of the lucky ones as we caught this so early. He has been able to have operations to remove the masses and the hospital has said it’s a 95% cure path.

We are so happy Mark got the treatment he needed in order to save his life and Mark is so grateful to Bottesford Dental for recognising those early signs.

Having a check-up is not just about checking the health of your teeth. It is so much more than that including oral cancer screening. So please even if you don’t have any pain come in to check that your health is okay. Mark didn’t have any pain and there were cancerous cells lurking in the background unnoticed.

If you think you could benefit from our dentist’s quality of care and attention to detail, please give our friendly team a call on 01949 844463.