Dear Jackievar,
I have had the jaw pain since September of 2003....I went to my Dr. and they diagnosed me with all kinds of things...sent me to the dentist several times even an endodontist...I requested a cardiac work up twice and the Dr. yelled at me that it wasn't my heart and not to ask again. After 7 months of this unrelenting pain in my Left lower jaw...I had a heart attack. Then the HMO spent the next year trying to cover their butt, including trying to make me into a psych patient. I still have a very irregular heart and at the last check was having 7-10 PVC's per minute...PVC's are considered normal in the medical literature but they are talking about up to 500 per day not 18,000 per day. I am no longer with the HMO, but the crap they wrote in their notes to discredit me follows me around today. Jaw pain is real and can be cardiac related but it really needs to be evaluated thoroughly. My jaw pain is consistently between the first two molars on the Left bottom jaw...it can be dull, achy and then comes on strong...or can be sharp or almost stabbing at times...Nitro usually relieves it with one or two tabs. When I have had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital the pain finally radiated down to my left shoulder and across my chest but for me that is a late sign. Please have your pain followed up on and make sure you are correctly diagnosed. My doctors even suggested I had gerd....so we did the little purple pill, and all it did was give me a rash. They put me on a different pill and then I did have acid reflux.Which should be not good but it at least made me positive my jaw pain was not acid indigestion/gerd as suggested by the doctors. My husband had a blip on his EKG prior to an elective shoulder surgery....they whisked him into the cardiologist that very day has been through all the tests....all NORMAL...not once have they questioned his mentation. But a women in her 40's with chest pain, that seems to be where the Doctors go first "Are you sure your not depressed?" "Are you having anxiety," it is really quite disgusting. Today I went to the doctor and he became angry when I told him I wouldn't take Xanax and was not interested in Atavan or any other sedative. Anti depressants and Anti anxiety meds seem to be the Dr.'s solution to women with symptoms....just like valium was given to women in the 1970's. Sad business really.