Hello! I am going back to the Dr. tomorrow for a 4 month checkup and feeling like I might have to prove that the right side now needs removed. I swear I read an article that the odds of bilateral occurrence is 58%. For the life of me I am not finding it and am hoping one of you might know where to find. Also if you have any advise here I would appreciate it. My right side symptoms include knife in the ear, feeling like a bone protruding under my chin on the right side, the ever common tethered feeling, difficulty talking, some headaches and general tightness around the ear. Thanks!
Thereās info in the Newbies Guide section:ES Information: Background, Anatomy, Styloid Length, Angulation, Classic and Vascular
'One Side or Bilateral?
Again, some doctors seem to be under the impression that you can only have symptoms one side, or that to have Bilateral ES is extremely, extremely rare, but we have seen on this site that many members have elongated styloid processes both sides, although often the symptoms one side are more severe.
Research papers showing the figures for this are:
In their study the authors found that 93% of people studied had bilateral elongation of the SP- Correl, Jensen, Taylor and Rhyne, 1979; Mineralization of the Stylohyoid-Stylomandibular complex.
In the study āEvaluation of the length and angulation of the Styloid process in the patient with pre-diagnosis of Eagle Syndrome- Kosar et al, 2011, Via Medicaā, the authors found an incidence of 86% of patients with Bilateral elongation/ calcification.
In the article Eagle Syndrome by Dr Ian Bickle, Dr Gagandeep Singh et al, the authors state āIt is often bilateralā.
Just a note ā members with Bilateral elongated SPās, but symptoms mainly one side have often found that following surgery on the worst side, the other side does become more symptomatic, so a second surgery is needed.
(see the section about surgery options for more info about having bilateral surgery).ā
Hope this helps, & that you get somewhere with your appt. tomorrow!
How did the appt. go?
Good, I guess. They agreed to operate on the other side - so that was good. Hoping to hold out until September 8th so I can get my youngest to college. The frustrating part was that they pushed, poked and prodded so much on the right side it just irritated everything. I was in so much pain yesterday it was awful. Today is better. For your amusement - they said the ear pain isnāt associated with ES - hard not to laugh at that one!
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Oh you have your pre-op tomorrow - right?
They sound like comedians and torturers!! But, all you need is that ticket to surgery. Iām sure youāll get the date you want. Iām very happy with the decision to wait until our busy May was over, although to tell you the truth it was very hard to get through it all not feeling well. Today is my last day of teaching school though. And yes, heading to Emory tomorrow! A busy week next week with confirmation and the next with some end of year school stuff then I will be there.
HOORAY! So glad you got the go ahead for round two, sjlash! With this being your youngestās ālastā summer at home, Iām sure youāll be quite busy & the time will fly by. Sept. 8th will be here before you know it.
Itās quite unfortunate that your symptoms were stirred up by the exam. Glad youāre feeling better today though!
SewMomma - Itās a cominā - that surgery date will be here in the blink of an eye (relatively speaking 
). Youāll finish the school year strong & be off for that pre-op so the real countdown can begin!
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I can relate. I saw a surgeon today that poked and prodded way to much down my throat - so he would believe that I have ES that my throats is so very raw today. My symptoms have changes over the months but most of the time my neck feels like I have the flu. Even I can feel the styloids with my finger inside my throat. Itās not rocket science.
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Youād think it is rocket science with how difficult it seems to be for doctors to diagnose!! 
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Can laugh at that one too - severe earache was the first symptom that set me on the road to discovering that ES was the cause of it, plus many other unpleasant symptoms.