Your experience sounds somewhat similar to my own. In my case, my dentist found my lesion as it was on the underside of my tongue. Although I have been an alcohol drinker, I have never smoked. I was 52 at the time. I was first sent to an oral surgeon who upon inspection didn't think it was cancer and more likely a fungal infection. However, he performed a full biopsy and it cam back as SCC. The legion was very small at the time and the biopsy removed all of it will clean margins. He referred me to an ENT who specializes in head and neck cancers. From there, I had full workup including neck and chest scans, which all appeared totally clear. So we proceeded with a very small semi-glossectomy to remove a larger margin around the area, which is the standard protocol due to the fact that the biopsy margins were very small. This surgery showed that no cancer was present in the surrounding tissue.

No further treatment was recommended, since my scans were all clear. However, I did want a 2nd opinion after reading stories on this forum, so my ENT referred me to a top oral cancer specialist at our local CCC. My ENT was not part of a CCC, but had close ties with one, including a mentor associated with it. Anyway, the specialist at the CCC only made one additional recommendation, which was to add follow-up CT scans at the 6 month and one- year points, in addition to the visual exams by my ENT, so that's the course we followed. I started out the first year with exams every 2 months; 2nd year, every 3 months; 3rd year, every 4 months, and now in the 4th year, every 6 months. Supposedly, after 5 years, unless I have a concern, these follow-up exams will cease, so not being monitored for the rest of my life.

I am still of the thought that my lesion may have been caused by a chronic irritation from orthodontia as there was a place in that area that was rubbed for quite some time by a hook used to hold my Invisalign on the inside of my lower teeth. The specialist at the CCC said that "could" be the case, but it also could just be random selection, so to speak.

Hopefully your journey will be similar to my own, which compared to many you'll read about here, was a true walk in the park.

Stage 1 SCC on tongue 3mm (7/1/14)
Biopsy had clean margins
Successful Surgery to remove more tissue and confirm wider margins (7/8/14)
Hoping I'm one of the lucky ones and this is just a small blip in my life, and just makes for a story of "how I spent my summer vacation" down the road.
Non Smoker, Social Drinker (pre DX, but no more!)