How do dental disparities fit into the picture in the United States?
Very prominently. It’s well established that oral cancer adversely affects low-income Americans, particularly African Americans. This is due primarily to two factors. The first, as mentioned, is lack of awareness. Your average American tends not to know much, if anything, about oral cancer. The second pertains to access to healthcare. Low-income Americans often don’t have health insurance, and they are reluctant to take on medical bills, unless they’re considered absolutely necessary. These factors create a common scenario in which low-income Americans with oral cancer tend to get diagnosed when their tumors are fairly advanced. Because treatment comes late, they are more likely to have a disfiguring and/or fatal outcome. So that takes us back to the awareness issue? That’s right. We must increase public awareness of oral cancer and encourage people to seek help earlier. Our NIDCR disparities center allows us to more vigorously tackle the problem here in Florida over the next several y
