Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2015 | Page 79

FASHION HEALTH & BEAUTY

How
to
reduce your risk
James Spence and Colleagues
Dental Surgeons, Ryde,
discuss mouth cancer and
diabetes:
Reduce your risk of diabetes.
There is a growing body of evidence
that the same processed food and drinks
bulked out with corn syrup etc, which are
your major variable contributors in tooth
decay, are also linked to higher cholesterol
levels and increasing diabetes, as is the
case with other refined carbohydrates.
Recent research suggests that 28g a day
of plain or greek yoghurt will reduce
that risk of diabetes by 20 per cent. Such
yoghurt might have around three to four
per cent sugar compared with around 16
per cent sugar in fruit flavoured yoghurt.

Risk factors of oral cancer
and why are dentists good at
spotting it?
There are around 7,000 cases per year
in the UK or 15 on the Isle of Wight each
year, so that’s about a one in 10,000
chance. Some 95 per cent of these are

Squamous Cell Carcinoma, which
really need to be caught early. Men
are slightly more affected than
women, but women are catching
up year on year. Dentists can spot
these lesions early on regular
patients because dentistry is a
preventive model where we see you when
you are healthy, so any change is easy to
see.

Why we need to catch these
early?
With regular patients on a six-monthly
recall with the dentist or a four-monthly
recall with the hygienist we will usually
catch the lesion at stage one when
there is an 80 per cent rate of successful
treatment but the longer it progresses the
lower the success rate.

Know your risk factors.
Known risk factors include smoking
or chewing tobacco, alcoholic drinks,
poor diet, betel nut, HPV virus,
sunlight and your genes. Patients on
immunosuppressants need more regular
exams. Tobacco use is linked with 3/4 of
all mouth cancer in men.

Reduce your risks in other ways.
If you eat five to seven portions of
mixed colour fruit/veg a day you will
reduce your risk by at least 50 per cent.
Brushing your teeth in an effective way
twice a day also reduces your risk.
We carry out this check for regular
patients at every visit to the dentist/
hygienist at no additional charge. For
those without a dentist, before May 2015
we will offer you a cancer check for £25 or
a full dental exam with X-rays for £50.
Current research and future
developments include exciting new
treatments being explored which are not
yet available in the UK. These treatments
are non invasive and access to them may
already be available in Germany, so do call
us if you want to know more. Tel: (01983)
615108, 7.40am - 2pm for a cancer check
appointment.

It's Red noses
for Specsavers
S

pecsavers in Newport will again be
showing their support for Comic
Relief’s Red Nose Day 2015, which
takes place on Friday, March 13.
So far 14 Red Nose Days have raised a
staggering £700million, and Specsavers
hope to add to that total with their quirky
red glasses with black eyebrows. They will
be priced at £3, with £1 of that going to
Comic Relief. Nationally Specsavers has
pledged to raise a minimum of £250,000,
but hope to exceed that figure.

Comic Relief was launched