Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the early detection of mouth cancer in the North East.

Every dental check-up constitutes as an oral cancer screening. Dentists and other dental professionals, including hygienists, routinely check the soft tissues of a patient’s mouth for signs of cancer during dental visits, and as part of the check-up, will make an assessment and record an individual’s oral cancer risk. Dentists will prioritise patients at a higher risk of cancer for more frequent recall and review, in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance.

In November 2022, the Government introduced a new package of measures across England, including the North East, to improve patient access to dental care. The measures include fairer pay for all National Health Service dentists to provide more complex dental care to those who need it most, and a requirement on dentists to update the NHS website regularly to make it clear which practices are taking on new patients and the services available, improving access.

To improve early detection of cancer, including oral cancer, we are implementing NHS England’s comprehensive early diagnosis strategy, which is based on six core strands of activity, from raising awareness of cancer symptoms and encouraging people to come forward, to implementing targeted interventions for particular cancer types that we know have previously experienced later stages of diagnosis, including oral cancers. NHS England has published an NHS mouth cancer awareness leaflet for dental teams, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mouth-cancer/