I went to the oral surgeon first because following the ear explosion, my bite went out of alignment and has been chattering ever since. my bite is mostly back in alignment now, but the chattering hasn’t stopped. the oral surgeon doesn’t believe I have a problem with my jaw and believes that my styloid is making muscles twitch and keeping them inflamed. and there is no way to know how much will clear up until we get this out 
Dr Hackman had never heard of this starting with an ear explosion, so he thought my eagles could be asymptomatic and that it was jaw/whiplash related, but the CT showed the carotid compression, so now he does believe surgery will help me. boy oh boy I hope this isn’t forever
I suspect the chattering is nerve compression. Your jaw and/or your neck may still be out of alignment and cause this especially if you had a whiplash accident. I would suggest you see a TMJ specialist, not an oral surgeon re: jaw. I would not think jaw chattering would be connected to muscles in neck although all the muscles all interact with each other.
I felt like I had a bone in my throat and when I swallowed the pain started there and went up to my ear - like fireworks going off in my ear. It took 5 years to get Eagles diagnosis. A neurologist immediately suggested Eagles when I shared the bone in my throat feeling. I believe it was the styloid and/or calcifications compressing a nerve causing the ear pain. Many of us here complain of ear pain. No doubt your whiplash shifted things but yes, hard to know until you get it out.
I would suggest some acupunture and/or if you can find a good osteopath to do some gentle cranio-sacral work on your neck and skull. It may help your chattering. I found when my neck was super tight, I needed gentle massage and.or gentle work as it was so inflammed that poking around in there sometimes made it worse. given you have some compression, you want to be cautious.
I did see a TMJ specialist who is an oral surgeon. That was a nightmare in and of itself because no TMJ specialists anywhere around here contract with insurance, so everything was out of network aka out of pocket.
I do have the feeling of something in my throat when I swallow too. but my pain starts at the base of my skull and spreads to my ears and up to my eyes and the top of my skull sometimes. My assumption has been that everything in there is so inflamed that it’s pressing on all the nerves causing occipital neuralgia. I am just hoping that what the styloid is touching is causing the majority of inflammation causing the neuralgia and when it’s out of the equation everything else will calm down. I wasn’t in neck pain post wreck, pre ear explosion, so I thought that the whiplash had healed or was healing just fine.
But since the pain has got so bad, the muscles at the base of my skull are tense and sometimes pop, specifically at night.
That was quite an informative discussion, ladies! So glad you’re able to safely talk about health details here!
I agree that inflammation is at the root of ES symptoms (as well as other things that go wrong in our bodies). I also had a whiplash injury in 1974 & have had neck issues ever since. I suspect that injury & a cycling accident I had at age 13 started my ES journey, but it was many years later before I had significant symptoms. @tp12, I am sorry your whiplash ignited a new problem rather than solving an old one!
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I had a whiplash injury 25+ years ago & have had neck trouble ever since. As well as ES I had a prolapsed disc C5-C6, & had occipital neuralgia, pain in the beck of my neck & head, behind my ears & tense muscles too. I had physiotherapy & some very gentle neck stretches to do which really helped. Have rarely had the ON since; I think the tense muscles were maybe trapping the nerve? I don’t know if PT might help you?
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Unfortunately, very few insurances cover any TMJ treatments. And then it is hard to find a competent TMJ doctor that knows what he/she is doing and isnt just saying they know and ripping you off. I had that happen to me over the years and just gave up on seeing TMJ specialists however recently a person here on this blog told me about someone in Seattle and raved about him. I decided to bite the bullet and pay out of pocket $1000 for a consult, injections, and a Cone Beam CT scan right in his office. He pulled it up and explained in detail what was going on and I saw for myself. My jaw out of alignment causing bite issues, osteoarthritis and bone loss in one side causing pinching of the trigeminal nerve. I just coughed up $2200 for an appliance which was hard to do based on past experiences over 30 years.
I was lucky and found an actual very competent TMJ doctor. I have the utmost confidence in this guy. I had to pay out of pocket to get this far and it is hard to do. It has stopped me for years from following through and getting this TMJ treated. I suspect, if I had had this treated and managed years ago, I would not have the osteoarthritis and bone loss to this degree. My daughter has TMJ and in her 20’s. I am taking her to see this specialist. Looking back, I think not spending the money has cost me in terms of quality of life and significant pain. I am hoping to prevent that with her.
I have alot of pain myself at the skull base and occiptal areas. My neck pops all the time. All that helps me is chiropractic adjustments, followed my massage to get those muscles to relax. I do it on a regular basis. At times, weekly massage for about 6 months when I have had particularly bad pain flairs made a world of difference. I suspect you have more going on in the neck at the skull base from the whiplash, than the Eagles and/or that one is aggravating the other. When all those muscles are lock up and tight, they all are connected.
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man, I hate it took you so long to find someone who actually knew how to help. I sure hope your daughter gets pointed in the right direction.
I genuinely believe that whatever is making my jaw chatter is what is causing the majority of my pain, I think it is what is keeping all the muscles irritated and thus irritating the nerves. I am hoping with all hope the tmj/oral surgeon is correct and what the eagles calcification is pressing against is causing the chatter. There were no noted findings regarding tmj issues in the panoramic xray or CT, so I am just clinging to hope at this point!
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Such a shame you’ve had to pay out so much, but hope that the appliance helps! I hope that the specialist can help your daughter too; you’ve both had more than your share to deal with… 
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