UV radiation increases carcinogenic risks for oral tissues compared to skin.

People can expose their oral cavities to UV (290-400 nm) by simply opening their mouths while outdoors. They can also have their oral cavities exposed to UV indoors to different UV-emitting devices used for diagnoses, treatments and procedures like teeth whitening. Because the World Health Organization declared UV radiation as a complete human carcinogen in 2009, we asked if oral tissues are at a similar or higher carcinogenic risk compared to skin tissue.

UVB-induced inflammatory cytokine release, DNA damage and apoptosis of human oral compared with skin tissue equivalents.

People can get oral cancers from UV (290-400 nm) exposures. Besides high outdoor UV exposures, high indoor UV exposures to oral tissues can occur when consumers use UV-emitting tanning devices to either tan or whiten their teeth. We compared the carcinogenic risks of skin to oral tissue cells after UVB (290-320 nm) exposures using commercially available 3D-engineered models for human skin (EpiDerm™), gingival (EpiGing™) and oral (EpiOral™) tissues.