I was recently diagnosed with possible ES with right SP of 47mm and left SP of 32mm. My only symptom is electric like sensation under the tongue (right side) due to which I have problems while speaking. I don’t have any problem while eating which makes my symptom a bit different. There is no pain in my ears or the areas around. A possible reason of having only one symptom which I can think of is that I am 28 and have heard that the pain gets worse after the age of 30. I feel like I have less energy while speaking and saying a longer sentence is not easy for me for past 5-6 months and that was the time when I started feeling pain under my tongue. Is there anyone else having speaking problems and elongated styloid process (ES)?
YES!! Both tongue & vocal chord problems are side effects of ES. I had the tongue trouble (could feel my styloid under the base of my tongue where it attached back by my throat). It made singing & speaking difficult. There are other people on this forum who have lost their voices or become hoarse &/or it was painful to talk or sing.
To set the record straight, the symptoms of ES have nothing to do with age but everything to do with the angle at which your styloids are growing. If they are long but have conveniently found their way among the nerves & vascular tissues without interfering with anything, you can have no symptoms at all. That scenario is most unlikely & as you have noticed, even though you don’t have a huge amount of pain, you do have discomfort due to the location of one of your elongated styloid. Your styloids will continue to grow & your symptoms will become more diverse and uncomfy as time passes.
Benyon who posts on this forum is also from Germany & had a successful styloidectomy there several months ago. He gave the name of his surgeon in one of his recent posts. The doctor’s name may also be on one of the Doctors’ Lists found when you click on the “HOME” button above.
My surgery was in Hamburg/ Germany at the Heidberg Clinic. The doctors name is Dr. Liebehenschel. My right styloid was 5,5 cm with calcified ligaments, it was also fractured. My left one is still in there. It is even a bit longer but not fractured and doesnt make as much problems yet. Dont know if it was vascular but im quite sure because i sometimes had strange vertigo when moving my head in certain ways. The symptoms that bothered me most werent vasvular though.
My speech problem started after my first surgery as the right half of my tongue was temporarily paralyzed. It took about 9 months to heal. In the meantime, my left styloid continued growing & was pressing on the back of my tongue which continued to make it hard to talk even though the right side of my tongue was back to work. I believe that even if I hadn’t had the tongue paralysis as a result of surgery #1, I would have still ended up w/ speech problems prior to my second surgery because of my elongated left styloid.
Hi Ali, I’ve had problems with the left side of my tongue going flaccid, making it hard to speak during intense or extensive conversations, for about 4 years. A recent CT scan showed I had a left growth of 6.9 cm, right of 2.6, in the combination styloid ligament and bone. So that seems to make me a candidate for Eagle’s surgery. However, checking with the original CT scan I had 4 years ago, the radiologist says I seemed to have a combination length of 7.2 cm at that time. So my styloid has been the same the entire time. (The radiologist explained the discrepancy in length by saying it was a two-dimensional reading of a three-d object.). At any rate, the problem for me is, given that there’s been no difference in length over the four year span, is my tongue problem caused by the styloid or by some other, still unknown factor. (The Mayo Clinic suggested some unknown overriding condition might be the cause; not helpful, since they didn’t find the condition.) An operation seems an expensive way to find out, both financially and in terms of potential damage to other nearby nerves. Still, I don’t see much other choice and will probably go ahead with the surgery. Let us know if you come up with further info; good luck with your choices. Regards,
Manx
Manx,
If the length hasn’t changed, perhaps circumference has. It could be getting thicker around because it can’t grow any longer because of the limtis placed by the skull & hyoid bone.
