That’s interesting both doctors were concerned about your C-spine too, it’s a tricky one… Personally I would do some research into this, as from my understanding of anatomy the nerves to the throat are the vagus and glossopharyngeal nerves, which exit from the skull base beside the styloid processes, which is why these throat pain/ swallowing difficulties/ globus sensation symptoms are very common with ES? Whereas the nerves which exit the spine at C5-C6 which would be affected by a prolapsed disc are to the arms and hands, so I would question if the throat symptoms you have could be caused by this disc bulge? I mean, it’s good to get all things investigated before making a decision about surgery, it shouldn’t be a decision undertaken lightly, so if you can live with symptoms a bit longer to have some more testing then fair enough. (I speak from personal experience, as I had a prolapsed disc C5-C6, which has been managed with physiotherapy, but if you were to consider seeing a physio, they would need to understand ES as well, as some exercises could worsen your ES symptoms, or even be dangerous). Many of our members do have similar degenerative changes in their cervical spine, but still have successful ES surgeries. I think if members have CCI / AAI then there can be more complications/ uncertainty with surgical outcomes, but not so much with the usual changes further down the C spine.
Members are often concerned that doctors don’t guarantee their symptoms will go with surgery, but this is quite normal- unfortunately because of the world we live in, doctors have to be cautious about promising too much with surgery.
There’s info in here about the pros and cons of external or intra-oral surgery:
ES Information- Treatment: Surgery - Welcome / Newbies Guide to Eagle Syndrome - Living with Eagle
But briefly, while many members have had successful intra-oral surgery, external surgery is regarded as safer because of better visibility to see nerves and blood vessels, and also often better results because more of the styloid process can be removed.
I don’t think we have any up to date research showing success rates, but there are some figures quoted from research papers in the ES Info Surgery section I’ve linked above.
At the end of the day, the only ‘cure’ for ES in surgery…
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