During this Covid-19 pandemic, visits to the doctor or, in this case, dentist are not allowed. Except in emergency. My dentist's website instructions identified "severe tooth pain" as an emergency. I was experiencing persistent though variable, discomforting, irritating, bothersome, occasionally significantly distracting pain. Was it severe? Um, no...or maybe...but not really. Not long ago, before Coronavirus, a son of mine went through such an experience where he delayed addressing the pain, not sure that it wouldn't just go away. Long story short - it progressed suddenly into a full blown and very painful abscess requiring immediate weekend attention.
To the Google I went. What are the potential causes for tooth/teeth pain and how could I distinguish causes that might help me verify that this is just a manifestation of a new crown that needed to, but in Covid-time couldn't be, adjusted? Hmmm - google search "tooth pain."
"...caused when the nerve is irritated...infected...decayed...injured...extracted..."
Okay, but what if it isn't that (hope speaking)? And what if it isn't just one tooth. What if it's a bunch of teeth? Off to the selections from various medical help sites that start their headline with "Causes, Treatment, and When to See a Doctor."
"...Gum Disease, gingivitis, periodontitis... if left untreated ... causes bone loss and deterioration of the gums..."
Ick. But wait, that was still under the search for "tooth" pain. Modify the search. Hmmm - "jaw pain." That should do it.
In the "People also ask" box, just below the Featured Snippet box I found these questions at the top of the list:
"Why does my jaw hurt on one side?"
"Which side of jaw hurts with heart attack?"
Wait...what???
"...in rare cases, it can be an early sign of a heart attack..."
What??? Ignore the reference to rare cases.
Further down in the "People ask" list:
"Is pain in the jaw a sign of a stroke?"
What?!?!?
Needless to say the rabbit holes quickly multiplied.
Click on "heart attack and stroke symptoms"
Click on "angina jaw pain"
Wait a minute. Didn't I feel a little chest discomfort recently. Was that angina?
Soon I had added causes like trigeminal neuralgia, osteoarthritis, temporomandibular joint disorder, and a bunch of other names I could never pronounce to my list of potentials. That last one though, usually abbreviated to TMJ for good reason, started to bring me back down to earth. That and the recognition that my blood pressure was ringing in my ears. TMJ can be brought on by dental mis-alignment, which we knew was operating in my background.
This situation could have benefited from medical ignorance. I've since learned that an estimated 7 percent of Google's daily searches are health-related, or about 70,000 each minute. But a surgical knife in a layman's hand is still just a very sharp knife with no useful purpose.
A phone call to my dentist under the confusion of what is considered "severe" brought her to the conclusion that it was all quite explainable by the previous diagnosis, didn't require long and complicated medical terminology, was quite treatable at home, and something that should allow me to wait until the dentist office reopens. She also assured me that if something did manifest in the meantime, she was available 24x7. That reassurance allowed me to back out of Dr. Google and commit myself to no more than three rabbit holes in any one search in the future.
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