Last Movember I had a tonsillectomy and neck dissection for HPV+ cancer. Ear pain was the symptom that lead to diagnosis. Urgent care, two dentists and an ENT misdiagnosed it as TMJ. I went to a PT who specializes in TMJ and he said he does not see ear pain like mine in his cases and told me to pursue it harder. I went to a different ENT who expressed her view as “when I see persistent ear pain and can’t see where it’s coming from, I go find the cancer.”
If I experience ear pain again, I will doggedly pursue it and not let any provider convince me otherwise. If I had done that, or seen the other ENT first, I’d have diagnosed my cancer 8 months earlier.
Good luck!