We use Ilmanen's elliptic regularization to prove that for an initially smooth mean convex hypersurface in Euclidean n-space moving by mean curvature flow, the surface is very nearly convex in a spacetime neighborhood of every singularity. Previously this was known only (i) for n < 7, and (ii) for arbitrary n up to the first singular time.

12 pages. Revised version (2013): some additional explanatory material added at the end