International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | January 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 1 Page 367 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Agrawal S et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2020 Jan;7(1):367-376 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Review Article Early detection and prevention of oral cancer: an appraisal Swati Agrawal 1 *, Vrinda Saxena 2 , Swapnil Jain 1 , Vijayta Sharva 1 , Shibani Sarangi 3 , Chandrahas Thakur 4 INTRODUCTION Oral cancers (OC) represent the majority of head and neck cancers with more than half million patients being affected each year worldwide. 1 Oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the sixth commonest cancer worldwide, accounting for approximately 4% of all cancers. SCC of the oral cavity may comprise up to 50% of all cancers in developing and underdeveloped countries, and its prognosis is poor. 2 Therefore, an improvement in the prevention and control of oral cancer is of critical importance. This may be achieved by reducing the risk through avoidance of tobacco and alcohol, recognizing and treating premalignant lesions and detecting developed OC at an early stage. 3 Tobacco use, in any form, and alcohol use are the major risk factors for oral cancer. With dietary deficiencies, these factors cause more than 90 percent of OC. Preventing tobacco and alcohol use and increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables can potentially prevent the vast majority of OC. 4 When primary prevention fails, early detection through screening and relatively inexpensive treatment can avert most deaths. This review ruled out web of causation and web of prevention including early detection and prevention to be ABSTRACT Oral cancers (OC) represent the majority of head and neck cancers with more than half million patients being affected each year worldwide. Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the sixth commonest cancer worldwide, accounting for approximately 4% of all cancers. Therefore, an improvement in the prevention and control of oral cancer is of critical importance. This may be achieved by reducing the risk through avoidance of tobacco and alcohol, recognizing and treating premalignant lesions and detecting developed OC at an early stage. Data search for the present review was done electronically. Electronic search was conducted using databases such as Pubmed and Medline, Cochrane library, articles published in peer-reviewed journals, text books, grey literature and from sites of World Health Organization, Centre For Diseases Control Report, Global Adult Tobacco Survey and Global Youth Tobacco Survey reports. This review ruled out web of causation and web of prevention including early detection and prevention to be an ideal strategy to reduce the prevalence of oral cancer and its impact on quality of life. Screening and early detection in population at risk have been proposed to decrease both morbidity and mortality associated with the oral cancer. Keywords: Early detection, Prevention of oral cancer, Oral cancer 1 Department of Public Health Dentistry, Peoples Dental Academy, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India 2 Department of Public Health Dentistry, Government Dental College, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 3 Department of Oral Surgery, Pacific Dental College, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India 4 BDS, Triveni Dental College, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India Received: 23 October 2019 Revised: 04 December 2019 Accepted: 06 December 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Swati Agrawal, E-mail: drswatibansall@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20195883