About Us
Who We Are
The American Oral Foundation was founded by Dr. Maged Zakhary in 2002. In 2003 the foundation attended its first CDA presents convention. The American Oral Cancer Foundation booth was organized and presented by Dr. Maged Zakhary's sons Peter and Patrick Zakhary. As the foundation began attending subsequent CDA events, Peter Zakhary comprised a small team in expanding the foundations reach. In 2004 Charles and Daniel Morcos were introduced to the foundation and began presenting at the annual CDA events promoting awareness to the public. In 2006 Peter Zakhary was accepted to the University of The Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, and is now practicing Dentistry. The foundation is currently active in CDA conventions, and is presented by Patrick Zakhary, Charles Morcos, and Daniel Morcos.
Our Mission
The American Oral Foundation, is committed to enhancing the quality of lives for all people through the development and dissemination of programs designed to educate the public, health care professionals, and health care organizations in order to decrease the incidence of oral cancer through education, prevention, early detection, and treatment.
Fulfilling Our Mission
Our Early Detect Program is geared towards
performing semi-annual oral cancer screenings targeting the at-risk population.
According to the Surgeon General the five year survival rate is 81.3% for those
diagnosed at an early stage, yet only 35% are diagnosed at an early stage. The
five year survival rate drops to 21.6% for those diagnosed at late stage. Our
program engages all health care professionals to perform routine oral cancer
screenings to increase the survival rate of oral cancer patients.
The American Oral Cancer Foundation (AOCF), through its network of participating health care professionals, offers the Screen For Free Program to the underpriviledged and at-risk populations.
The Tobacco, No! Program targets children of all ages, especially teenagers. It raises parents awareness of tobacco use and oral cancer in children. It involves parents with schools to develop community based programs for tobacco cessation. It is quite clear that oral cancer, which is the sixth most common type of cancer, lags the attention it deserves. According to the Surgeon General, one of us will die every hour of every day from oral cancer yet only 15% of our adult population has had an Oral Cancer Screening. Meanwhile, all the scientific data shows that early detection of oral cancer will increase the chances of survival by a staggering rate. In addition, the use of tobacco has been documented to be the most prevailing cause of oral cancer, and yet 3,000 teenagers become regular smokers every day.
In the Surgeon General's Report on "Oral Health in America" it was made clear that in order to combat oral cancer in America we have to educate the public regarding risk factors. Furthermore, we have to bridge the gap between dentists and other health care professionals regarding early detection of oral cancer.