Shelly,

The biopsy sample is sometimes taken with a little snip, or a little punch tool to remove a small round sample. Your Dr. may have other ways. Depending on how it is done a stitch may be placed to close up the wound. The process shouldn't cause much if any pain.
To be sure, everybody here is hoping that you do not have cancer and in fact there are lots of things that aren't cancer. Please tell your family that if you find out it is not "C" then you can breathe a BIG sigh of relief and be happy that it got you to quit tobbacco use. The reality is that more than a few people here were mis-diagnosed or put off by Medical Pro's that didn't take things seriously. Oral cancers are relatively easy to cure if found early. I hope that you can find a way to keep your anxiety at bay. Ask your doctor if there is any way they can speed up the report after the biopsy. I got my results back in 36 hours. Tell him/her how much stress you feel. As to other symptoms, there are frequently no symptoms! The first symptom I had was an enlarged painless lymph node.