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<blockquote data-quote="WPLG" data-source="post: 65538" data-attributes="member: 158">Each year in the United States, an estimated 66,000 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancers.Smoking, drinking, and exposure to the human papillomavirus can all lead to cancers of the mouth, throat, and voice box.“And those can significantly affect a patient’s ability to swallow and speak,” said Dr. Ryan Sobel, a head and Neck Surgeon with Broward Health.Sobel said the key to preserving those functions involves a procedure called salivary gland preservation.It’s done prior to treatment to protect one of the main salivary glands from the damaging effects of radiation.“What we can do is we can move the salivary gland that’s on the opposite side of the cancer and we can move it out of the way of the radiation to prevent it from getting any injury from the radiation itself,” Sobel said.This preserves the function of the salivary gland after the procedure is over.“We tend to underestimate how important saliva is in our daily activity. It helps us with swallowing, it protects our teeth, it helps lubricate for speech, it helps counteract reflux from acid in the stomach and all of this is extremely important,” Sobel said.The inability to produce saliva can lead to serious ulcers inside the mouth, the loss of teeth prematurely, the ability to eat, drink and communicate.Sobel said for all those reasons, salivary gland preservation is a standard part of his treatment approach.“So we don’t want to have tunnel vision and just focus on the cancer itself; we have to think globally and how the patients’ going to feel afterwards. So while our treatments are very effective and cutting edge we also have to make sure their life afterward is just as enjoyable,” he said.With the procedure, patients can reach up to 80 percent of their baseline salivary function.<a href="https://www.local10.com/health/2022/08/19/procedure-supports-quality-of-life-for-patients-with-head-and-neck-cancers/" target="_blank">Continue reading...</a></blockquote>

[QUOTE="WPLG, post: 65538, member: 158"] Each year in the United States, an estimated 66,000 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancers. Smoking, drinking, and exposure to the human papillomavirus can all lead to cancers of the mouth, throat, and voice box. “And those can significantly affect a patient’s ability to swallow and speak,” said Dr. Ryan Sobel, a head and Neck Surgeon with Broward Health. Sobel said the key to preserving those functions involves a procedure called salivary gland preservation. It’s done prior to treatment to protect one of the main salivary glands from the damaging effects of radiation. “What we can do is we can move the salivary gland that’s on the opposite side of the cancer and we can move it out of the way of the radiation to prevent it from getting any injury from the radiation itself,” Sobel said. This preserves the function of the salivary gland after the procedure is over. “We tend to underestimate how important saliva is in our daily activity. It helps us with swallowing, it protects our teeth, it helps lubricate for speech, it helps counteract reflux from acid in the stomach and all of this is extremely important,” Sobel said. The inability to produce saliva can lead to serious ulcers inside the mouth, the loss of teeth prematurely, the ability to eat, drink and communicate. Sobel said for all those reasons, salivary gland preservation is a standard part of his treatment approach. “So we don’t want to have tunnel vision and just focus on the cancer itself; we have to think globally and how the patients’ going to feel afterwards. So while our treatments are very effective and cutting edge we also have to make sure their life afterward is just as enjoyable,” he said. With the procedure, patients can reach up to 80 percent of their baseline salivary function. [url="https://www.local10.com/health/2022/08/19/procedure-supports-quality-of-life-for-patients-with-head-and-neck-cancers/"]Continue reading...[/url] [/QUOTE]

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