Welcome to OCF. The golden rule around here goes like this... any sore that has been inside the patients mouth for 2 or 3 weeks and has not healed on its own should be checked by a professional. Thru a biopsy the professional will be able to determine exactly what the sore is and weather its cancerous or not.

By a professional I mean either an ENT or oral surgeon who specializes in oral cancer. They can visually examine the patient and may make an educated guess but only thru the biopsy will they know for certain.

Hopefully your sore is nothing serious. There are so many variables involved including a patients predisposition. Ive seen many come to this forum who have used cigarettes, some used chewing tobacco while others have not and still have developed oral cancer or a pre-cancerous lesion. Then there is another group of seemingly healthy non-smokers who are HPV+ with tumors they cant see in the base of their tongue.

Best advice I can give is anyone using tobacco is to avoid all forms. There are so many proven cancer causing additives in not just cigarettes but also in chewing tobacco.

There are only a few members here who have only been diagnosed with leukoplakia and without it turning into oral cancer. We do have quite a few whose cancer began as leukoplakia. Here is more info about leukoplakia...

Leukoplakia info from main OCF pages

More detailed info about Leukoplakia