Hello! Its been almost a year since my surgery on both sides and everything has been going well! I’ve begun noticing my jaw and neck under my ear have started locking up and popping almost constantly. Any movement I do with my head pops that area, and im trying to figure out if its the jaw or something else. I was curious if anyone else has dealt with something like this and what it might be.
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Hmmm…that sounds like it could be related to your hyoid bone. When do you notice the popping is occurring? Is it painful? Is it affecting your ability to swallow at all?
I’m glad your surgeries took care of your ES symptoms & you’re feeling much better now. That’s the news we love to hear on our forum! Do you mind sharing the name of the doctor who did your surgeries as I’ve forgotten?
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It might be an idea to look into getting a CT scan done to see what’s going on, if there is any new calcification or if your hyoid bone processes look elongated? As well as looking into TMJD… 
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@Trinity_768_00 I was thinking TMJ as @Jules mentioned. Do you grind your teeth at night? It’s something you could explore with your dentist.
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My doctor was Andrew Johnson down in Colorado. As for the popping, it depends on how much I open my mouth or how often it pops. Ive started avoiding opening my mouth far because it pops worse and definitely hurts, as well as when i fixate on it and keep trying to pop it. Sometimes my swallowing is affected but not horribly. Thanks for the help!
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And I will definitely talk to my dentist as well. I was curious if it could be that too, cause I know I clench my jaw at night pretty badly since the eagle syndrome caused issues at night when I still had the styloids. Thank you all for the recommendations and help!
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@Trinity_768_00 I’ll add Dr. Johnson to our Doctors List since you had a good outcome from the styloidectomies he did for you. Was it by chance Dr. Andrew Johnson at UC Health Anschutz?
I agree w/ what @Jules & @Chrickychricky both said. Your symptoms do sound more like TMJ problems. Out of curiosity, do you know if Dr. Johnson dislocated your jaw to get better access to your styloids during your surgery? I found out my ES surgeon did that, but it was long after I had my surgery. His technique came up in discussion on our forum as the result of some of his patients have TMJ issues post op. Interestingly, my TMJs are pretty worn out, but for whatever reason, my symptoms went away after my ES surgery. Maybe it was due to the styloids being gone &/or the jaw dislocations realigned something?
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Yes, thats him. Im not sure about him dislocating my jaw but Ill definitely read through the report and see.
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@Trinity_768_00 - My surgeon didn’t note that in the operative report, but it came up when a future patient asked more specific questions about physical position during surgery & styloid access then posted the info on this forum.
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