Hey everyone, I should have done this earlier. My dentist had been trying to do a scan of my mouth for several years and finally did a month or so ago. I go to see and oral surgeon tomorrow. Lots and lots of other back ground and not sure where to start. Lots of questions but I will look and see if I can find what section to ask them in.

Hope everyone is doing well today.

If you suspect cancer, go to an oral cancer specialist. Locate a CCC near enough to you and let the experts deal with the cancer. If it's not cancer, come back and tell us you got lucky!

https://www.cancer.gov/research/infrastructure/cancer-centers/find/kucc

Thank you for the reply. I hope you are doing well. My dentist and the staff think I have cancer. Or they would not have wanted to do the extra in office scan or sent me to an oral surgeon. Information on the screen in the office to sell the service indicated that 40% of folks that get oral cancer never use tobacco. I like food and drink really hot and burn my mouth a lot and bite my tongue and mouth a bit. And I scrape my tongue extra hard before going to the dentist. My mouth has been more tender lately and I don't know if that is real or just me thinking about it more now. I have been doing some reading and found out to get biopsy as soon as I can to confirm or clear me as having cancer. I will look to see how far away a CCC is. I started another thread in the Diagnose section as all this so new to me. I know we all owe this life we have a death and have made some advanced arrangements. But I am not in a hurry to go just yet. The blood tests that I found online were not conclusive and it has been 4 years since I had one. So I will push the doctor today for a biopsy but will not be surprised if it is refused.

Hope everyone is well today and wishing you all nothing but good things.

The oral surgeon just put me off for 3 weeks. No tests just an examination.

And thank you for the link for NIH Cancer centers. There is another one in OKC that is actually 50 miles closer. There are also a number of cancer centers in Wichita, KS that are a lot closer. I have been to KU in KCK before and they do have a breast cancer center in Wichita. There are 8 other cancer centers in Wichita in addition to the KU one.

Just waiting another 3 weeks.

There us also a link on the OCF website in the resources section called best hospitals. It will take you to an unbiased rating done by US News of centers around the US that can be searched by zip codes. It rates a facility on a long list of factors, everything from modernness of equipment to training of staff and more. It’s worth a look.

There are studies that show that some small hospitals or satellite facilities do not have the same end results and survival statistics as larger teaching and NCI institutions. When possible you should not let geography dictate where you choose to go.,