Kroman --

See my signature below: My husband's initial diagnosis of a leukoplakia (white patch) on his mobile tongue was dysplasia as well. As Brian Hill told me when I first asked here about dysplasia almost seven years ago (boldface added by me):
[quote=Brian Hill on 5-9-06]Dysplasia are those cells which are no longer normal, but they are not really malignant yet ... an in-between state, so to speak. Dysplasias also do not always go completely over to the dark side, but they are a step in that direction... and having them removed or watched very regularly is prudent. Dysplastic leukoplakias can often return after surgical removal, many times done with a laser, sometimes via a blade excision. Keep an eye on things even after the removal from now until forever.[/quote]
Most dysplasias do NOT turn malignant; my husband was one of the unlucky ones. He was referred to a local ENT for an excisional biopsy of the whole area because the pathology report of the oral surgeon's biopsy of a tiny area raised some concerns even though no cancer cells were found.

By the time of the excisional biopsy (a month after the oral surgeon's biopsy), his leukoplakia had indeed become malignant -- but it was caught at the very earliest stage possible, it was removed with clear margins, and it required no further treatment. He is regularly checked by his dentist and has been referred a time or two to the oral surgeon; fortunately, those referrals didn't result in discovering anything serious (or even vaguely concerning). He also has gotten regular checks by a cancer specialist ENT at Johns Hopkins, whom he saw as soon as cancer was officially diagnosed and who was the one who said no further treatment was necessary.

Both your oral surgeon and your dentist are telling you the right thing. You are very lucky to have such a proactive and observant dentist who obviously doesn't hesitate to refer you to have something suspicious checked out. Keep up with the regular checkups, and don't let worry overtake your life (easy to say, I know -- but it sounds like you are in very good hands). If you do choose to see an ENT, be sure to find one who is familiar with oral cancer (such as those at the James Cancer Center at Ohio State; if you go to this page and click on "Otolaryngology" under Search by Specialty, you'll see ENTs who list "General Otolaryngology" and "Cancer" or "Head and Neck Oncology" among their interests). That's the type of doctor you'd want to see, as he/she will know what to watch out for -- most "general" ENTs concentrate on such things as taking out tonsils and putting in ear tubes and see very few, if any, OC cases.