hi there... cancer can be painless. A sore that doesn't heal needs to be dealt with - we just lost an 18 year old last week who had oral cancer - and there's another 20 year old who's sister is on the forum here, who is also fighting this disease. I'm not saying this to scare you - I am saying it to educate you. Because of the type of cancer (usually a heavy smoker or drinkers cancer - often found in elderly men) people tend to look at young people who present with Oral cancer like symptoms and miss it or say it's something else -

This is old information. Now the young, women, pregnant women, and people like myself who are non smokers and drinkers are getting it.

So my advice... medical insurance or not, it needs to be biopsied. You've done a lot to try and treat it and nothing has helped so to me this is a red flag you need to know specifically what it is... waiting and watching can be deadly.

A few things about this disease - in young people it doesn't always move the way it normally does - (follow a predictable path) - it can be highly aggressive - and buccal cancer of the gum can move into the jaw as well as the nodes - the surgery to repair this can be very disfiguring.

I admire that your mom is a GP but waiting for another sore isn't a good way to tell if its oral cancer. Usually there is a primary (your sore) - that does eventually grow, and then it spreads into the nodes and surrounding tissue. So often there would not be a "second sore" In fact at times there may be only a small sore and it has spread into the nodes - so it really depends on a whole bunch of factors.

You need to see an ENT who will take this seriously - one who will take a small sample of the area and send it out for testing.

I'm not saying it's cancer, but you've ruled out a lot of other things and there has been no response so now you need to rule out OC, then you can work on figuring out what it is.

best of luck.