I have gone through left side Styloid removal in Oct 2022 and a month and few days ago (Oct 18, 2023), I went through C1 shaving. I still have not seen dramatic improvement of my symptoms. I am at loss now as to what could be causing this. Is your hearing loss bilateral or unilateral? I thought you only have hearing loss in the left side.
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@Kooldude - I’m very, very sorry your symptoms are ongoing after all the effort you’ve made to take care of the left styloid & IJV compression. Have your totally ruled out that the right side could be causing some of the symptoms you still have?
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@KoolDude Audiology report showed bilateral hearing loss, left worse than right but it’s mild, I can still hear just fine but if I plug my right ear I can tell the difference immediately. For example at night in bed if I turn my head to the right I can’t hear the air vent/furnace at all, so it has to be certain frequency because otherwise I can hear fine with both ears. The left one is also the one I have all sorts of weird sounds (intermittent, not constant). I’m sorry to hear your surgeries haven’t helped you. I assume you have already ruled out TMJ issues? As they can cause symptoms similar to ES including facial pain (both muscular and nerve ones).
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I have not ruled out TMJ. But my pressure on the jawline under cheek does not appear to be mechanical. It comes and goes and it is worse when I am tired or stressed. It does not click when I open the mouth either. It is also mostly on the left side where I had the Styloid and C1 trimmed.
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I have not but my right side is way smaller than the left so I expect the blood flow to be much less. I assume it is only carrying 10%.
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The pain you’re describing in the front of your face and cheeks sounds very similar to what I had before my second surgery. It got worse the second I would sit up and would feel like someone was jamming their fingers into the front of my face, bridge of my nose and a rubber band around my temples.
I honestly have never gotten to bottom of whether it was pain induced by high csf putting pressure on my nerves, or if it was directly related to my styloids compressing facial nerves.
I still have residual pain sometimes, even to the front of my face and sometimes it feels like my tops teeth are being slightly pulled backwards and there’s a weird pressure in the front of my nose.
Even if you IJV open up, I was told by one of my neurologists that nerve pain works on its own accord which explains why my IIH symptoms have gone away but a lot of my nerve issues haven’t.
I think it might pay to trial some nerve medications, starting with a low side effects profile one like amitriptyline / notriptyline and then some others if it doesn’t offer relief.
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Oh my good.
I always thought i was the only one that looks old due to this condition. Everyone asks what the problem is as i am obviously aging too fast. My face is more wrinked and rough (not fresh and smooth)
My theory is due to lack of fresh oxygen to the head, it affects all organs in that region including facial skin.
I also get the facial pressure but i find that relaxing my lower back relieves that a bit (arching it makes it worst).
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There’s something there with the running on the treadmill… My head would feel full and painful and I would walk on the treadmill and would feel better. I’m convinced that I was moving something out of my brain, whether it was blood flow or CSF. I would keep doing that and see how far you get with fluids moving around.
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I still have it
It is made worst when i sit up or arch my back.
I am thinking due to sitting and arching the lumbar spine, it leads to a corresponding arch in the cervical spine and causes more pressure, tightness and compression.
So you say this symptom is relieved after surgery?
And my IIH is so bad
Hi @elijah! I’m not sure if your comment was intended for me or @KoolDude but I appreciate your insight and recommendations. It does feel like someone is jamming their fingers in my face and when it gets bad like a hot poker especially on my worse left side. I did try Nortryptiline in the past and it cause me to have widespread body twitching although I can’t say for sure if it was from medicine or overwhelming anxiety. I would still like to trial a low dose Amitriptyline or Gabapentine and I requested those from my PCP. I don’t expect my surgery to be a miracle (well secretly I do 
) but if it gives me a reasonable quality of life back I’d be grateful even if I have to maintain with some medication and lifestyle changes. As right now my pain isn’t controlled at all and sometimes medications work sometimes nothing works, no rhyme or rhythm 
. I don’t believe I have IIH as a lot of members here as most of my pressure is felt in the face not in the head, I suspect Facial of Trigeminal nerve is impinged/rubbed on by either styloid or calcified ligaments. Either way hoping for improvements, thank you for your feedback 
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No, never had droopy cheeks…maybe that’s a facial nerve issue?
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My most severe facial is gone since my surgery as well as any symptoms of IIH. I’m not out of the woods and still have some other vascular/nerves issues that needs to be worked out, but styloidectomy saved my life
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I started ageing crazily fast after MRI with contrast. Hands look like someone’s who is 20 years older…
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You think it’s because of contrast?
Great news
Any insomnia?
In my case, it’s one of the primary suspects.
Gadolinium used in MRI contrasts isn’t fully eliminated from the body but some of it settles down in bones, skin, brain, muscles, liver, kidney etc.
It’s one of the heavy metals with extreme neurotoxicity.
Two main researchers of these side effects are Richard Semelka (radiologist) and Brent Wagner (nephrologist)
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I finally gathered myself and wrote a post on Gd toxicity.
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@Jules I meant more like sunken face. I remember you said somewhere that your mum could tell the difference on your face after you had the surgery.
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Well remembered! I think it was more the relief of having surgery, and being in less pain, less scared etc, I was so much happier & felt so much better afterwards… Praying that for you too 
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