There are 100’s of lymph nodes in your neck. From time to time they may enlarge. This is often related to an infection, a cold, or a sore throat for example. If infection related, they will often be tender/sore, moveable, and will feel like a pea or blueberry. In contrast, if you find a hard lump like a small stone, first compare it to the other side. If it feels different from the other side, if it doesn’t move around, if it is not tender/sore, and persists for more than two weeks, have it checked by a dental or medical professional. Firm, doesn’t move about easily when pushed on, enlarged, painless, those are the red flags. A hard, fixed lump or a visible swelling that is often painless and persists for more than two weeks should always be checked by your dental professional.

Anchorage Project Access offers donated dental services for those in need. Call 907.743.6600 or visit https://anchorageprojectaccess.org/ to see if you qualify.

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Using your fingertips, use a circular motion or rolling stroke to check the lymph nodes from the corner of your jaw all the way forward to under your chin. You likely will feel nothing, and that is good. It is the hard, painless, swollen ones we are concerned with. They are usually about the size and shape of a small almond.

Next with your fingertips on the inside of the muscle that runs down each side of your neck, roll your fingertips from under the jaw down to your collarbone. Turn your head one way then the other to feel the area occupied by the deeper nodes along this muscle. It is not unusual to feel a number of different lymph nodes in this area. Healthy ones are soft and move about easily when you push against them. Next check the lymph nodes above your collarbone. To do this, you will want to raise your shoulders and round them forward. This allows you to feel inside the hollow area above your collarbone.

Anchorage Project Access offers donated dental services for those in need. Call 907.743.6600 or visit https://anchorageprojectaccess.org/ to see if you qualify.

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You’ll want to look and feel both sides of your neck, under the jawline, along the muscle that runs down each side of your neck, then ending with feeling the hollow above your collarbone.

There are many lymph nodes in these areas that give us a lot of information about our health. They tell us about the presence of an infection in our body, and also can be related to cancer. Most often they are related to an infection and this causes swelling and tenderness. But lymph nodes that swell and enlarge, are not tender to the touch and feel firm and fixated in place are a red flag. In general, painful means infection not cancer (which if it does not go away still needs to be evaluated), swollen and not painful nodes, a warning sign that needs to be evaluated by a professional.

Anchorage Project Access offers donated dental services for those in need. Call 907.743.6600 or visit https://anchorageprojectaccess.org/ to see if you qualify.

#anchorageprojectaccess #dental #dentist #dentistry #teeth #oralcancer

Learn More about Oral Cancer:  https://checkyourmouth.org/wp/

Oral cancer kills one person in America every hour of every day, 24-7-365. Of those newly diagnosed today, about half will be alive in 5 years. Even surviving this disease will mean that you endured brutal treatments, and leave you with life-long issues that will compromise your quality of life. So this site was designed to help you avoid this disease when possible, and also teach you to recognize and find early symptoms of it, so you might then self-refer to a dentist or other professional to have suspicious things evaluated. Caught early, every negative part of this; from treatments to ultimate outcome, are lessened in severity.

Anchorage Project Access offers donated dental services for those in need. Call 907.743.6600 or visit https://anchorageprojectaccess.org/ to see if you qualify.

#anchorageprojectaccess #dental #dentist #dentistry #teeth #oralcancer

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