Hi everyone--

Am new to the forum and would appreciate your thoughts, as I'm rather anxious about my situation. I'm 29 and have had a sore throat for two months now. My sore throat began in late April, and I noticed some tenderness in my submandibular lymph nodes. I also have some jaw pain and some pain at the floor of my mouth.

I made some bad decisions over a two year period (2009 to 2010), which involved some heavy drinking, "social" smoking, and some other behavior that has resulted in my having HPV. Since then, I haven't smoked and I drink occasionally, but otherwise eat healthy, exercise, etc. Having HPV, however, has really put me on edge, especially given the recent spate of coverage in the media on HPV and oral cancer.

What's been happening thus far--

Mid-May: I Went to an ENT who scoped my nasal cavity and felt my neck. He said I looked perfectly healthy and that I should come back in a few weeks if my throat was still sore.

6.8.11: My throat was still sore, if not a bit worse, so I went to the same ENT who used a tongue depressor to glance down my throat. He was extremely dismissive, said I was perfectly normal and acted as if I were a hypochondriac looking for things to be wrong with me.

At some point within the last two weeks, I started noticing that my teeth on the right side of my jaw felt a little loose. I also started having soreness/pain on the right side of my jaw.

6.10.11: Saw a different ENT, who used a tongue depressor to look down my throat and said I looked fine except that my tonsils were slightly inflamed. He prescribed me antibiotics.

Since my last visit, which I realize was only a few days ago, my jaw soreness/pain has gotten considerably worse and my throat is still sore.

I guess I'm frustrated because the last two ENTs that I've seen have seemed to indicate that I haven't had my symptoms long enough and that I was overreacting. I'm hoping that whatever I have isn't anything, but I'd think that they'd want to catch something early, rather than waiting until my symptoms got so severe that they required more serious treatment. So I guess I'm wondering, how long does this need to go on before I can ask for more tests, e.g. a CT-scan?

Current/ongoing symptoms:
-tight and sore throat
-right ear, neck very mild pain/tightness/fullness
-tender/sore lymph nodes on right side of neck
-tender spot behind right earlobe/jaw
-pain on right side of jaw
-teeth feeling a little loose on right side

Two final questions: first, what's the best test for determining what kind of HPV I have? I read through some earlier threads, but got slightly confused as to what's offered for cervical v. oral HPV testing, and general HPV testing v. testing tumors for HPV. Second, I assume that I have exposed my partner to HPV (he and I are monogamous)--should we avoid kissing/oral sex, or even vaginal sex without a condom, or will it not make a difference at this point? He is the most wonderful, understanding person (we're planning to be engaged soon), but I am devastated that I have brought this to the table.

If you couldn't tell, I tend to overthink and worry about things--every Google search I've done of my symptoms leads me to oral cancer--so all information/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much,
Cate