Recently I had a CT of my head and neck, and the report was added to my chart. The findings of my styloid processes are, 4.4cm on the left, 3.9cm on the right.
I’m not sure if others have experience with their styloid processes being this length, or can tell me what their next steps are?
When finding out the length of them, I felt overwhelmed with emotion. I just started to cry. I’m ready to see my TMJ specialist next week to see if she can help me navigate my next steps.
Welcome to the forum @Kgreene! You are going to get a ton of good info here. 
I was pretty emotional about my diagnosis too (although partially because I had never heard of it lol), it was nice knowing that my health issues were not just “anxiety”.
What symptoms are you experiencing?
Hi & welcome here!
It’s good that your styloids have been measured on your CT and are obviously elongated. Your next steps would be to decide whether you think you want to have surgery, if your symptoms are impacting your life, and if so, then to get an appointment with one of the doctors on our list. The surgery is tricky and also not all ENTs are aware of this condition so that’s why we suggest that you see someone that we know has done successful surgeries.
Here’s a link to the info about surgery:
ES Information- Treatment: Surgery - Welcome / Newbies Guide to Eagle Syndrome - Living with Eagle
Here’s a link to the doctors list:
Doctor Lists – no discussion - Symptoms and Treatments / Doctor Information - Living with Eagle
If there’s no doctors close to you, we can recommend other doctors. Some doctors need a PCP referral, with others you can contact their office yourself…
And here’s some info about things that can help in the meantime:
ES Information- Treatment: Pain Relief, Medications and Alternative Therapies - Welcome / Newbies Guide to Eagle Syndrome - Living with Eagle
I hope this is helpful!
My symptoms are, ear pain, head and neck pain, as well as headaches. I usually wake up in the morning not feeling well at all. My ear pain is usually a 9 or a 10 with pain.
thank you for being sooo nice and welcoming me to this page, I feel so grateful 
Thank you so much for all the information. I did look at the list of doctors and I’ve read good things about Dr. Cognetti in Pennsylvania. I do feel like I need to decide if I want surgery or not, as it does affect me so much everyday.
Thank you again for all the info! I appreciate you and how welcoming you are!
Yes, Dr Cognetti is very experienced with ES, and has done many successful surgeries for our members, you would be in good hands if you’re able to see him! He does have a fairly long waiting time though (as do many of the most experienced ES surgeons unfortunately), so perhaps you could be starting the process and then you can be thinking about whether you want the surgery while you wait? 
We have alot of the same symptoms! I am so sorry you are experiencing them… it is so disruptive to your whole life!
@Kgreene - As @Jules said, Dr. Cognetti has a very long wait time for an initial consult i.e. Oct. or Nov. at this point. He puts his cancer patients first & only does ES consults & surgeries one day/month. He is among the top doctors on our Doctors List as far as experience goes. It would be a good idea to get an appointment with him ASAP as you’ll have plenty of time to consider whether surgery is your next step or not while you wait. Also, just because you have a consult with him or any doctor, doesn’t mean you’re committed to having surgery so there’s time post consult to consider whether you’re ready for surgery or not.
Depending on whether you have vascular compression or your headaches are nerve related (the trigeminal nerve can also cause migraines), you may also want to consider a consult w/ Dr. Costantino in NY & Dr. Hackman in NC.
Was your CT done w/ contrast? If so, vascular compression of the IJV or carotid (ICA or ECA) may be visible. If you’re willing to convert your CT scan to 3D & post images here, we can possibly help you determine whether or not there is vascular compression. Use radiantviewer.com if you have a PC or Bee Dicom Viewer App if you have a Mac. If you don’t want to post images on the public forum, you’re welcome to send them to me &/or @Jules in a PM (done by clicking on one or the other of our screen names & following the prompt to start a message), & we can let you know what we see.
We always suggest that our members request to be put on a cancellation list when appointments are scheduling in the distance as we’ve had a number of members get their appts scooted significantly forward that way.
This is good to know! I’m on the fence right now on if I want surgery, but wondering if my symptoms will improve with getting it done. What do you think?
ABSOLUTELY! Both @Jules & I can attest to the benefits of having ES surgery & if there’s vascular compression, getting that decompressed. We had our surgeries in 2014 & 2015 & have had good long-term outcomes.
Okay, I’ll have to contact medical records to get my actually CT scan so I can send it. I read the report but not fully understanding what all it’s saying 
Thanks for the info on Dr. Cognetti, I’ll keep that in mind when I’m looking up the doctors. Can I set up an appt with any one of them and they will see me online, or does it need to be in person?
Dr. Cognetti & Dr. Costantino do telehealth consults. Dr. Hackman didn’t used to but someone recently posted that hers had been telehealth w/ him so maybe he’s being more flexible now. The upside of Dr. Hackman is that when he was requiring in-person consults, he would schedule surgery soon after for those who wanted it so those traveling from out of state could just stay & get the consult then have surgery.
If you want to send me your radiology report, I can help de-code it for you. Often radiologists don’t look for vascular compressions unless requested to, so even though it may be blatantly obvious, if they were only asked to look at the styloids, vascular compressions aren’t commented on.
Okay, telehealth would be the best option for me, I live in Indiana.
Who did your procedure?
@Isaiah_40_31 had surgery with Dr Samji in CA initially and then further surgery with Dr Hepworth in CO. He is very busy as well though!
Surgery has been life changing for me, I had bilateral IJV compression and was feeling pretty ill before surgery, those symptoms went soon after the first side was done. The nerve pain hasn’t gone completely, but it has improved. (I’m UK)
This is what I need to hear! I feel like I would feel better once I get it done.