C,
I would like to tell you that my cancer experience is the same -to shock you into quitting your deadly addiction but alas, I had no pain at all. It was actually very stealthy. My GP and dentist both misdiagnosed me probably because I haven't smoked in over 30 years (watching people dying of lung cancer cured me). Grinding your teeth go hand in hand with periodontal disease. This will cause pain and loose teeth as well. Swollen lymph nodes are often a response to infection. Based on your addiction though and leukoplakia you need to take cancer screening very seriously and so does your ENT. For an ENT to shrug off a deadly addiction like tobacco is reckless and irresponsible. If it was my ENT, I would have fired him. Dentists (and most GP's for that matter) don't know jack about oral cancer sadly to say - one of our missions here is to raise the bar in area of early detection. You think that there is any possibility that they don't take you seriously BECAUSE of your addictive behavior?

The biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosis. They will not order scans typically until there is a positive result on a biopsy.

Unfortunately the little cigarette package warning labels are not only true but understated.

As a recovering addict/alcoholic I can tell you that in AA they often that alcohol MIGHT kill you but cigarettes WILL kill you.

Check out this link: http://www.sptimes.com/News/61599/Floridian/He_wanted_you_to_know.shtml