Dbmatt, welcome to OCF. Im hoping your sore turns out to be nothing serious.

The ENT you are waiting to see hopefully specializes in oral cancer. This is the kind of doc who is most familiar with patients who come in with your symptoms. I suggest calling to try to move your appointment up, ask to be put on the cancellation list so if someone cancels you can take their slot.

Usually its a 3 appointment gig. First appointment the doc will get your history, give you an exam and discuss what comes next with options for how the biopsy is done (if necessary). You can do it by being asleep, a local shot like what the dentist does for a filling or doing it without anything. Biopsy results in the US usually take one week. That would be your second appointment and the 3rd on would be to get your test results. So yes, it will take several weeks even if you can move up your initial appointment.

Symptoms of oral cancer are having a sore in your mouth for over 2 weeks that has not healed, ear aches, sore throat, hoarseness, trouble swallowing, sometimes patients experience pain and some patients dont. Your sore could be any number of things besides oral cancer. Best to get yourself checked out by a professional to find out whats going on and how to fix it.

If you are still smoking.... QUIT NOW! I know its not easy, Im a former smoker myself. I quit cold turkey after being diagnosed with OC. It took me a while for it to sink in that I was sick and it was from my smoking habit. Once it finally sunk in, I quit immediately and have not used tobacco ever since. For the sake of your overall health, quitting is a good idea no matter what the mouth sore is. There are so many known cancer causing additives in tobacco, if you quit now then your tongue will have a chance to heal without interference from all those chemicals.

Best wishes!