White spots on the side of my tongue... Help!

[Meg071189]

I'm only 23 years old but I have three white patches on the side of my tongue and I'm terrified that its oral cancer. I got the first one about a month ago and the other two a couple days later. They're completely painless but they do feel more coarse than the rest of my tongue. It seems that one of them has gotten smaller since though. My mouth also feels really dry lately, and a few days after I developed the spots, I noticed that my tongue was "scalloped", or had teeth indentations around the edges. That hasn't gone away either. I'm unfortunately a smoker for 5 years now so I know that oral cancer is a possibility. I'm terrified to go to the doctors because I have agoraphobia and just severe anxiety about hospitals in general. I was just there 2 months ago but it was for my checkup for my hypothyroidism. Also my tongue has a white film on it but it'll brush off, as where the white patches on the side of my tongue won't. Please help. :(

[AlexandriaUK]

Sounds like you have oral thrush which could be a side effect of your thyroid ism, or you are just not drinking enough water, but as you say you are a smoker so this will discolor your tongue and cause major problems for you later in life, also smoking can increase anxiety, try to quit now while you have the chance to make it as though you had never smoked.
I quit 3 years ago and couldn't be happier about, wish I had done it years ago.
Take care.
Check out the NSD web forum for quitting