Hello friends Had a quick question, just how rare is Eagles? Maybe a better question, how rare are symptomatic occurrences of this syndrome?
From what I have read, 4% of the population have Eagles, and 4% of that group have symptoms.
This is the rate published in some of the early articles and it seems to have stuck. This works out to be 1 in 625 people in the general population which would be considered very common for a disease - not sure where the reference rare comes from. Completely under-recognised would be more appropriate. How many people have only 1 or 2 Eagle's symptoms such as chronic neck pain, and/or dysphagia? Would love to see a study done on people with chronic neck pain and see the incidence of calcified stylohyoid chains in those people compared to normal population.
Well it seems as though the reference rare is one of the most common describing words most of us have come across in searching for a diagnosis. I’m very sure you have heard at least one medical professional refer it to so.
I'm sorry, I'm a cynic where the medical profession is concerned; I think that if they can keep calling it rare, then they don't have to look into it too much. Given that the symptoms can vary quite a bit too, makes it even less likely to be taken seriously! I agree that it's likely to be more common, but under-diagnosed; TN, GPN, TMJD, a-typical facial pain..... if they looked all of these might be down to elongated styloids! I have an identical twin, who doesn't have symptoms, I'd like her to have a panoramic x-ray to see if her styloids are long too, which would then show if it is caused by neck trauma, or if we were both born with them. Most docs don't believe they can grow either!