An experience of oral cancer screening in the workplace: a cross-sectional study

Objectives: Oral cancer is a serious disease whose prognosis worsens greatly with late detection and diagnosis. Therefore, a demand is pressing for a cost-effective model that is optimal for mass screening for oral cancer. So, this study aims to test oral cancer screening at the workplace to detect the prevalence of oral premalignant and malignant lesions in an institution-based campaign and to correlate it to the risk factors. Methods: The cross-sectional study recruited all the employees of an institution. Information about the risk factors (smoking/ tobacco and alcohol use, sharp dental restorations) was gathered. Then, comprehensive intra-oral examination and lymph node examination were performed to detect any abnormalities. Results: The study targeted 398 employees, 96 of whom declined participation. Therefore, oral screening was performed on 302 participants. The results showed zero oral malignancies, but oral findings were detected in 17 participants: frictional keratosis in 13 (4.3%), smoker’s keratosis in 2 (0.7%), and oral lichen planus in 2 (0.7%), which is an oral potentially malignant lesion. Chronic irritation and smoking were the only risk factors significantly associated with the detected lesions. Conclusions: Oral cancer screening at the workplace was valuable in detecting the most common risk factors in the studied population. However, it revealed some embarrassment of the screened population that impaired the participation rate. Future studies should adopt some modification in the examination settings to overcome this limitation.