Quote Originally Posted by KenEwald
You are quite right, it is a question of scale and, yes, I am joining this table with several other tables.

The core driving table (that has the columns for which I have criteria) is a very large table. If I use 'SMITH' in my query, it takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r (100+ seconds), if I use 'FUZ', it returns in 3 seconds.

I apologize, but I can't post the query. Don't you think the bottom line is the issue of selectivity?

Would Oracle Text help here?
Does the explain plan change between the SMITH and the FUZ examples? Feel free to post them