Brian,

Thank you for clarifying the different ENT types. I honestly did not know that all ENTs were not also head and neck surgeons.

In my case, I first went to my primary care physician, who referred me to an oral surgeon for the biopsy, and when the biopsy came back positive I went to a local ENT (referred by the oral surgeon). This ENT was a head and neck surgeon in private practice with other ENTs. The doctors in this group did surgery 1-2 days per week and saw patients in the office the rest of the week. The patients they treated included kids needing tubes, allergies and other H&N conditions. Over the years I�ve been to 3 other ENTs all of which were also head and neck surgeons, located in larger cities and affiliated with major hospitals. I called the local ENT�s office right after I received the OC diagnosis to make an appointment with him. I was told the first available appointment was about a month away. I wasn�t happy with waiting that long (I wanted to see him NOW), so I went back into the oral surgeon�s office and had them call the ENT�s office � I then got an appointment that same week.

On the OCF forum I and others have often suggested to newbies who are worried they have oral cancer to seek out an ENT who is familiar with oral cancer (or something to that effect). Based on what you said it is probably hard to get an appointment with an experienced ENT/H&N surgeon unless you already have an OC diagnosis. My guess is that a lot of ENTs located in smaller cities or towns who are in private practice primarily treat other head and neck conditions.

Based on the many discussion I�ve read on the forum from newbies worried about having oral cancer, their concerns are often dismissed by their doctors particularly if they don�t fit the antiquated �oral cancer profile�. So what is the best advice we can give to these newbies? Yes I know they need a biopsy to find out definitively but it can take months to find the right doctor to do this.