OralCDx Cancer Screening
Spots on the tongue or the cheeks are not uncommon. Red or white spots from cheek biting or eating hot food is a rather frequent occurrence. It is when those spots don't go away or there is no clear cause of the spot that some testing, collecting, and analyzing the cells should occur.
In order to do this, Dr. Flynn-Nyktas uses The BrushTest from OralCDx Labs. In this procedure, The BrushTest will be pressed against the spot in your mouth and turned, which collects a sample of thousands of cells. This is necessary because it can be very hard even for the most skilled physician to just look at a spot and not what caused it, or if it has deeper implications. The specimen will be sent to a lab for analysis.
OralCDx Labs has a special process for analyzing each specimen which makes it very accurate. Their imaging system acts as a "spell checker" for cells that may bring a high count of abnormal cells to the attention of their expert pathologist staff. The pathologists will then analyze the specimen and issue a report.
This report will then be sent to Dr. Flynn-Nyktas with information that will help determine the cause of the spot, so it can be treated thoroughly and properly. Just like a pap smear, the expectation is that the result of the BrushTest will be “negative” for precancer or cancer. Even if unhealthy cells are found, the spot can typically be removed before it can become harmful.
