‘FIRST LINE OF DETECTORS’ Senior Emily Valence detects oral cancer early during father-in-law’s screening It was a small little area in the mouth, but Emily Valence’s training as a dental hygienist told her something wasn’t right. A second-year dental hygiene student who will graduate in May, Valence’s thoroughness and attention to detail while examining her future father-in-law, Mike Eddings, caught a symptom of oral cancer before it could become an even more serious situation. She made the discovery last fall after inviting Eddings to visit the university’s Dental Hygiene Clinic.
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“I brought Mike in for a routine cleaning,” she said. “During the first part of the cleaning we do an intra- and extra-oral examination to look for abnormalities in the mouth and lymph nodes. “While I was doing this, I checked under his tongue, where I found a whitish area. My instructor looked over it and recommended he get it checked out.” Within the next few days, Eddings – who lives in Ozark, Mo. – saw his regular dentist and then a specialist who determined it was a pre-malignant cancerous lesion.
CROSSROADS MAGAZINE
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SPRING 2022
