Our Gorelik Dentistry team takes time every October to promote breast cancer awareness since October is breast cancer awareness month. Over 249,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer in America every year. Although women aren’t the only ones susceptible to breast cancer, they are the largest demographic of it. Still, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in America, after skin cancer.

For successful treatment, early detection is crucial. And even celebrities aren’t immune to this disease. If you have one of the many forms of breast cancer out there, you are in the company of these fighters:

• Melissa Etheridge
• Wanda Sykes
• Christina Applegate
• Sheryl Crow
• Edie Falco
• Olivia Newton-John
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus
• Shannen Doherty
• Sandra Lee
• Rita Wilson
• Giuliana Rancic
• Peter Criss

And that is just a few of the celebrities who have overcome their diagnosis. According to the American Cancer Society who not only creates breast cancer awareness but also funds research to help fight it, there are more than 3.1 million breast cancer survivors in the United States alone.

According to the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, risk factors include the following:

• Age: most diagnosis occurs after age 50.
• Genetic mutations: genes BRCA1 and BRCA2.
• Having started your menses early (before age 12).
• Late pregnancy (after age 30) or no pregnancy.
• Late menopause (after age 55).
• Sedentary lifestyle.
• Obesity after menopause.
• Dense breasts (more connective tissue than fatty tissue) which are hard to examine via mammogram.
• Those women taking combination hormone therapy (replacing missing estrogen and progesterone) over five years.
• Birth control pills.
• History: if you have had it before, you are more susceptible to getting it again.
• A family history of breast cancer.
• Alcohol use.

We urge you to take monthly self-exams in your early 20’s, and annual mammograms if you are older, and encourage those you love to do the same. At Gorelik Dentistry in Charlotte, North Carolina, we support your health for a lifetime of smiles. Please call 704-553-1627 to find out more about Breast Cancer Awareness, and how to support it locally!