A few weeks ago, I went to the dentist and got a deep cleaning on my left upper and lower quadrants, and the dentist briefly went over the right side as well. I was the last patient and the staff were upset that we would be staying an additional half hour, because I wanted them to fill in a cavity while my face was already numbed. It was in that last half hour that I felt a little break in the corners of my mouth from being open for so long, but didn’t think anything more than that. Two days later, I got some blisters on and a little off my lip, mostly on the left corner of my mouth but one tiny blister on the right. I went to urgent care to check it out and the tests just came back positive for herpes simplex type 1.

I have no proof that I didn’t have herpes previously, and I realize that you can have it without ever knowing or having a flare up (and I had never had a flare up before), but the thing is that all the blisters were exactly where I got work done, and the symptoms showed up two days afterwards. I read online and the urgent care doctors confirmed that that is usually how long it takes for symptoms to show after being initially exposed to the virus.

I’m pretty convinced that I got it from the dentist, but am I off base? If I’m not, what should I do??? Also, my SO has had blood work done for it earlier this year and doesn’t have it, and I’m positive that he hasn’t cheated on me. Also, the embarrassment of having this on my face is really, really hard for me to deal with and I don’t have anyone to talk to about it because no one I know has it (that they know of, at least)