Wow, they are really thick! I would think that they could well be thick enough to cause symptoms, and many of your symptoms are seen with ES… You cant see for sure with your imaging how much of a gap there is between the styloids and the C1 processes, as this is where the IJVs often get pinched, but given their thickness & they’re pretty angled, it could possibly be enough to compress the IJV where it exits the skull base. Fatigue, brain fog, off-balance feeling, disorientation/ depersonalisation are all common with IJV compression. I never felt the floor was sloped, but did feel closer to the floor than I was, like I was really short, & that’s been mentioned before as an intracranial hypertension symptom, so it sounds like you could have IJV compression which is increasing head pressure…As the vagus nerve exits there as well, you could have irritation/ compression of this nerve too, which can cause BP issues or heart arrythmias, and anxiety..
If you’ve not looked at the common symptoms info page, it’s worth reading, you might find some more!
ES Information: Common Symptoms And Possible Explanations For Them - Welcome / Newbies Guide to Eagle Syndrome - Living with Eagle
Dry eyes are common- possibly from the trigeminal nerve which I think supplies the lacrimal glands, which produce the oily part of tears.
Your hyoid bone processes look fairly chunky too, but you don’t mention any throat or swallowing issues? Your thyroid cartilage looks fairly calcified also, but doesn’t sound like that’s causing you symptoms either? Some people’s are naturally like that & they’re not symptomatic…
It’s certainly worth trying to get a CT with contrast done- if you can get this timed to show the arteries and veins this would be good to get the full picture. Some radiologists can do this dynamically, so if your symptoms are worse in one position you could ask about that, but not many places do this.
If you’re able to do this, & it does show IJV compression by the styloids, then you would need to find a doctor who is able to remove the styloids as close to the base of the skull as possible for surgery. We only have one doctor on our list- Dr Carlos Nabuco, Dr. Carlos Nabuco - IPFace Medical Team - Portuguese Institute of Face | Lisbon
We have been given his name as treating a friend of a member, none of our members have seen him, so don’t know anything about him…
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