Grin and Bear It

I spent about ten years without health insurance betwixt college and full-time gainful office employment. I recall occassionally visiting a doctor here and there...usually for some cold/sinus infection gone horribly awry. Now that I have the health insurance, I have been to more doctors more times in the last two years than all the previous ten combined. Is it because I am aging and with aging comes medical conditions? Could it be that the possession of an insurance card leads somewhat to hypochodria? Or did I always just ignore these conditions because I knew I could not afford to have them?

The dentist cleaned my teeth up nice and sparkly on Saturday and is sending my crooked jaw to an oral surgeon for a TMJ consultation. He also wants me to see an ear/nose/throat specialist to rule out an inner ear malfunction. He wonders (and he is the second dentist in the last two years to question this) why I did not have braces as a teen. My teeth are not really crooked, persay, but my bite is all wack-a-doo, which is possibly causing the grinding and constant dull ache.
My face hurts.
Every day.
Sometimes I cry.
It's frustrating because I very specifically remember the dentist of my teen years saying, "You can get braces to straighten that spot out, but you don't really need them." So, we did not get them.
So....if not an inner ear thing causing the constant ache, then the oral surgeon will make his recommendations, which range from night guard (easy) to braces if it's a dental issue (I'm 35 and trying to get acting roles!) to break your jaw and reset it if it's a skeletal issue (wtf?)

That health insurance is a double-edged sword. Thank goodness I have it, because I could not afford any of this without it (although I don't think my dental covers orthodontics...). But I probably wouldn't have gone to the doctor at all without the insurance and would have been happy to dull the pain with ibuprofen and/or bourbon.