Healthbolt

Your Dentist as Breast Cancer Detective?

by Liz on April 22nd, 2008

We think of dental offices as places to have teeth cleaned and fillings filled. We don’t usually think of them as a place to get tested for breast cancer.

But new research and studies have appeared that show the dentist chair might just be the place to go for early detection of breast  cancers.

Charles Streckfus, D.D.S., a professor of diagnostic services at the University of Texas in Houston, has come up with the simple idea of chewing gum to detect breast cancer.

Here’s how it works: You chew the gum for around 5 minutes and then spit it into a cup where it sits there for five minutes. The saliva from the gum is then applied to a gold plated chip which is lasered for immediate results.

The gum is only the tool. It’s the saliva, with it’s specific protein markers, that tells the tale. According to Dr Streckfus “When an individual has cancer, a lot of the proteins are altered in saliva, so it could be a good bell weather instrument for presence of disease.”

The test has not yet made it out of the laboratory but it’s a good possibility that in the near future your dentist will be able to not only look after your dental needs but also provide a non-invasive test for early breast cancer detection.

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POSTED IN: Cancer, Health, Healthcare, How To, Medicine, Misc., Morning News, Prevention