Your mouth can tell dentists a lot about overall health

Hopping into the chair in the dentist's office might be a less-than-thrilling way to spend an afternoon, but for some it could be the difference between life and death.

That message struck uncomfortably close to home for Dr. Vernon Sheen the day he found a lump inside a patient's mouth.

The patient was his own 74-year-old father, Shuh-ji Sheen.

Mr. Sheen had dropped by Annapolis Center for Dental Health and Wellness for a quick checkup from his son while in town on vacation. Some vacation.

"The lump was bigger than a grape, and he didn't even know it was there," says Dr. Sheen in amazement. "It was something he'd...