Briway Seattle/ Fidalab attended the American Dental Association (ADA) in October 21-23, 2016, in Denver, CO to introduce their first product offering to the dental community. The Annual Meeting of the ADA attracts more than 13,000 attendees.
The Fidalab team, included co-founders Cheng Xie and Dr. Qinghua Feng PhD, Blake Crockett, and Deborah Drake who spent time at the exhibition engaging with attendees and showcasing the Oral Rinse Collection Kit.
Dentists, hygienists, and allied staff alike showed curiosity and support for the easy-to-administer oral HPV screening test. that augments visual screening methods. Regular and consistent screening for oral cancer as a standard of care and why it is important to educate patients was a frequent theme in conversations.
Fidalab’s kit and laboratory assay provides dentists and hygiene staff a simple and accurate adjunct test to visual screening methods for oral cancer symptoms. The highly sensitive assay allows for earlier detection of problematic HPV infections that could contribute to future oral cancer. The assay specifically detects as few as 10 copies of certain high-risk HPV viruses–16 and 18.
Dentists and often hygienists are the first line of defense for HPV-associated oral cancers because screening for oral lesions and HPV infection that persists can be done in conjunction regular, preventive, and restorative care dental visits. Case in point, to collect a saliva sample for evaluation adds a few minutes to a head and neck exam during a visit.
Former president of the American Dental Hygienist Association (ADHA) Susan Cotten, RDH, who travels as is an educator for ADHA chapters and a Regional Director/Speaker for the Oral Cancer Foundation expressed enthusiasm for the oral HPV screening tool that Fidalab developed and offered to add details about the resource to her HPV and Oral Cancer presentations.
Educator and dental practice consultant, Corinne Jameson-Kuehl, RDH, BS, OMT, said she’d not hesitate to recommend that all patients be screened for oral HPV–given the
What became clear in all the conversations the Fidalab team had with dental professionals (in every role in a dental practice) was the need for raising patient awareness about the importance of knowing one’s HPV status and early detection of a persistent HPV positive infection.
- HPV-associated oral cancer is best caught in the earliest stages.
- Detecting and treating a lesion that is precancerous is always optimal for a patient.
- Oral rinse HPV testing can be used to help reduce the incidence of oral cancer.
Fidalab’s mission: to contribute to a decrease in HPV-associated oral cancer incidence through early detection and treatment. In addition to developing non-invasive screening products, they provide patient education, practice support, and continuing education on the value of early detection, and the role preventive screening plays in reducing the incidence of HPV-associated oral cancers.