UNITED STATES—I know so many people do this, hell, even I have been guilty of this at times, but I’ve discovered you can’t rely on the internet to diagnose a health issue. You can utilize it as a tool, but just because something aligns doesn’t mean it is 100 percent accurate. There is that notion that if there is something very serious going on with your body, it is best to get an opinion or visit a doctor to check it out.
Yes, we can tackle the health insurance industry in another column because that is another argument that will take more than a column or two, heck maybe three to really tackle. I do believe most Americans are aware when something is amiss when it comes to their body. If something looks really off or feels unusual, you tend to know it.
Why am I bringing this up? I’ve had a bit of an issue involving my mouth for the last two-three weeks. In particular my jaw. I noticed my jaw locking, which was something that has never transpired. It bothered me when I started yawning and my jaw was literally locking and I would hear it clicking and popping when I tried to unlock it. Not something I could describe as pain free, and then I realized it was happening more than I realized out of the blue. I hadn’t suffered any significant trauma to the face, so what was going on?
In the last week, it was not locking as much, but the pain has still lingered, especially if I yawn, or try to open my mouth to its fullest potential, and more to the point when I ate. I couldn’t eat anything that required excessive chewing or things overly crunchy because the jaw would start to hurt.
I ended up scheduling an appointment with my PCP because I felt it was the best approach to try to get some answers. Some exams were conducted and then I was referred to a dentist/oral surgeon to have a look. Yeah, trying to get into a dentist/oral surgeon for me has not been easy. It has been a little over a week in a half since the referral and I have been moving around the clock to try to get an appointment to be examined.
To be honest it was like my ordeal when I had to schedule an appointment to see a cardiologist because of my excessive heart rate which ultimately led to my Tachycardia diagnosis. There are some doctors that are just not easy to schedule appointments for. I finally have an appointment with the dentist/oral surgeon this week where I am hoping after a few x-rays and exams we can get an official diagnosis of what the issue is.
I actually caught myself grinding my teeth while sleeping recently. That is something I have never done or even had the notion that I did it, so that did concern me. My biggest issue is the yawning, each time I do it, I feel it in my jaw and now the chewing of food is starting to hurt even more. I cannot chew excessively. It is not my teeth that hurt, it is the jaw so I know there is an issue and internet sleuthing can take you down a rabbit hole where you start to wonder what it could be, what could be a resolution and what you might have to endure to solve the problem. Yeah, I feel the pain directly in my jaw on the left side of my face right under the tip near my left ear. No pain on the right side, but that left side nothing has subsided.
Right now my ultimate goal is to find out what is the problem and how can I assure it is resolved. The internet at times can give you a hint as to what the issue might be, but you don’t truly know until you know, and as scary as things can feel or be at times, you start the realization it is better to know definitively than to simply make a guess.
