What Kind Of Doctor Treats Lip Cancer?
Treatment of lip cancer can be done by broadly two kinds of doctors:
- The doctors who diagnosed it
- The doctors who treats it specifically
At the beginning the doctor who observes the condition while routine checkup or the patient consult him first by observing abnormal lip sign. These doctors can be,
Doctors who will play role in suspecting lip cancer.
May be the patient will visit them for another condition but during examination doctor might detect abnormal changes of lip. And they will further guide patient for test or specific treatment.
- A general Practitioner
- A physician
- An ENT specialist
- A dentist
- Intensivist
- Geriatric Physician
- Periodontist
- Prosthodontist
Doctors who will play role in confirming diagnosis of lip cancer then the patient will be refer to the specialist for the diagnosis of cancer. This doctor can be,
Histopathologist And Oral Pathologist. Pathologist will diagnose the cancer by either taking pathological sample of the tissue confirming the abnormal growth of the cell at particular area. They will also diagnose that which type of cancer it is squamous cell carcinoma (Most common) or Basal cell carcinoma of lip.They will also diagnose metastasis changes at other normal site.
Oral pathologists are specialist that patient can consult specifically for lip or other oral cancer.
Radiologist. Radiologist will take the digital x-ray, CT or MRI of the affected area will confirm the diagnosis their one of the important role will be to conforming the spread of the cancer identifying involvement of surrounding tissue.
Dental Specialist. Different specialists exist in further division. Generally, they are expert in diagnosis the abnormal tissue and calculate the stage of the lip cancer by lymph node examination, tumor size and metastasis.
- Doctors who will play role in treatment of lip cancer
- Oncologist
- Head and neck surgeon
- Plastic surgeon
- Dermatologist.
Oncologists are cancer specialist. They can be further divided as.
Medical Oncologist – More often the primary level of most of the cancer and most commonly lip cancer can be treated by Medical oncologist. They treat with chemotherapy, immune therapy or Hormone therapy. They do not perform any surgical procedures.
Surgical Oncologist – Surgical oncologist comes into picture in case of large tumor or abnormal cell growth with metastasis characteristic confirmed by biopsy. They will excise the tumor with surgical procedures. Few surgeons are also having additional fellowship degrees or subject matter expertise in particular type of surgery.
In some cases, excision can be made by general surgeon also instead of the surgical oncologist.
Radiation Oncologist – Specialist in Radio therapy.
Head And Neck Surgeon. The cancer which has been spread in other part of neck or lymph modes can be excised by the head and neck surgeon.
Plastic Surgeon. Lip is one of the important parts of body both anatomically as well as cosmetically. So any surgical procedure done on that should expect to be less scar marks and with minimal changes. If something needs to reconstruction, alteration or restoration which may need microsurgery plastic surgeon are expert in It. Craniofacial surgery by plastic surgeon can be done for lip cancer.
Dermatologist. If any local treatment is needed of any scar after surgery or lesion of cancer cell also which can be before surgery can be taken care by dermatologist which includes local application to laser treatments.
Doctors and other specialist who will play supportive role in treatment of lip cancer.
Psychiatrist. Coping with any type of cancer is a tough task and lip cancer which makes changes on appearance makes it more difficult to handle mentally. So psychiatrist can help in dealing with it.
Pain Therapist. Person who is having specialization in treating pain with different techniques can help to deal with cancer pain.
Dietitian. In severe stage of lip cancer, there could be difficulty in swallowing or due to surgery there may be restrictive lip moments present. Dietitian plays their role by sparing the patient from nutrition deficit.
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