I had a very positive experience with my dentist. At every visit he made sure to pull my tongue out and check all sides of it. At first - a few years ago when I first started to see him - I thought it was silly to do this for someone under 30. Then, around Thanksgiving 2005 - he saw a sore on my tongue that I had ignored for months and months and HE was the one who initiated the discussion of how long, why didn't you tell someone etc etc etc. I thought it was nothing - and hadn't even planned on mentioning it at this visit. He tried a few things for me - steroid mouth rinse, polishing the cusps of my teeth etc, but none of them worked. In the meantime - he had already made me seek an appointment with the oral surgeon for my wisdom teeth extraction and to look at the ulcer on my tongue. I saw the surgeon a month later - the delay was b/c this surgeon couldn't get me in right away - b/c I made the appointment for my wisdom teeth extraction consult and didn't mention the ulcer (I'd have gotten in sooner if I had really believed it was cancer). Once he saw it - he pushed for the biopsy ASAP. I feel my dentist literally saved my life - b/c if it weren't for him - I'd still be walking around with an ulcer on my tongue and I wouldn't have done anything unless it had gotten a lot bigger by this time.