Where is the pain of first bite syndrome located?
Oh come on, i just read up on it, not another syndrome please 
It goes away. I hope you donât have it, but it can be common after Eagles surgery. After about a month or two, itâs usually faded quite a bit.
First Bite Syndrome pain usually initiates at your parotid gland which is just below your ear & kind of behind your jaw bone. When you take your first several bites of food you get a muscle spasm of sorts that radiates through your jaw muscles & jaw joint on the irritated side. I have this problem as a consequence of my first ES surgery. Initially it was so bad it nearly made me drop to my knees. Now I just grimace and dance around a bit. For most people, it goes away within a few months after surgery (if you get it at all). In my case, I fear itâs a permanent fixture as Iâve had it for approaching 2 years now. I have found some relief by periodically seeing a cranial chiropractor who adjusts my jaw & does cold laser work on the area. I hope you donât end up with FBS. If youâre going to get it, it usually shows up 5-7 days after surgery.
I dont think i have it. The pain I have seems more like a mechanical or muscolous pain. It emerges when I open my mouth too wide or when I make wrong or hectic movements. But eating/chewing/tasting isnt much of a problem as long as i dont open my mouth too wide.
Right now im kind of in a twilight zone. On the one hand i can clearly feel the styloid is gone and there is no more an obstacle when swallowing etc. But on the other hand i have a whole list of new pains and strange feelings. Its hard to distinguish them from each other and im sure most of em will subside with time but for now i feel quite bad. First there is the pain from around the scar, then there are different pains inside my neck and throat up to my ear. They arent too bad and not permanent and feel different to the ones i had pre surgery so i suppose they are wound-pains from the surgery but its really hard to tell. Also i have pain around the spot where I had the drain-tube (Which makes sense). Since yesterday the region around my scar and where the drain-tube was starts to itch really bad but this is totally normal I guess and actually a sign for healing. Last but not least parts of my right cheeck and ear are still completely numb.
How long did you guys take the painkillers after surgery? I take metamizol in liquid form. Im thinking about trying to stop it so I can have a better feeling for whats going on in my body but im not sure.
I have an interesting variation on first bite- I had it for a couple of months after my first surgery, but not too badly. I also had a weird like âhot flushâ feeling up the outside of my ear whenever I had an adrenaline surge, like if something made me jump. This time Iâm getting that weird hot flush at the first mouthful up the outside of the other ear!! It seems to be if I have something sweet to eat- maybe I should just stay off the chocolate!!
Benyon- the first side I had operated on I had a lot of aching for a while afterwards, under my jaw, ear and throat, but it did improve with time. And the scar has been pretty tender for at least a year- I think because mine has been done behind the ear and the skinâs quite tight there. Massaging with oil will help once the scarâs healed over, and I used to massage all under the jaw where I had aching too. I think with any surgery you have to expect pains- youâll be bruised inside as well, so Iâm sure this will all settle in time. I think itching is a pretty good sign of nerves healing too.
Other people on here have posted their post-surgery experiences and I do remember reading some who felt terrible post-surgery, a couple of members even regretted having surgery as they felt worse, but then they came back on several months later and said it all settled down and they were really glad itâd been done. So I think the message is that a rough spell is to be expected, but be patient and Iâm sure all will be fine!
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Yes! Im positive it all will get a lot better.
All the pains i have now are quite new and feel different to the ones I had from ES. This makes me think that they have to do with wounds i have from surgery and will subside with time. I never expected to be free of pain right away. One has to bring to mind that its been a major surgery and they had ti cut through various muscles and tissue to get there. On the positive side i can say that:
- Globus/feeling of something stuck in my throat is GONE since surgery
- Clicking/rubbing/feeling of obstacle when swallowing is GONE since surgery
- since surgery i never had that strange pain on the right side of my front neck that would come and go for the last 19 months.
- Also the pains i have now seem to be controllable with meds, the ones I had before werent controllable at all so im in good spirits because of that too
today i made a try and skipped the painkillersâŚIt was painfull, very painfull, but then I took the meds and it got a lot better so this was a big lesson for me.
On the negative side I have to say that I didnt expect so much pain in the upper jaw joint area when opening mouth too wide (never had that before surgery). Yawning for an example is an absolute no go, its impossible to yawn for me right now without having the feeling that my upper jaw joint will explode. Also the numbness is on the negative side.
Its day 7 after surgery and im getting better. VERY slowly but Im getting better
Especially the ES symptoms that I had before are fading out but I have all kinds of aches now that I didnt have before.
They will fade too. I had lots of bruising come out a few days after surgery- we had a laugh trying to work out what it was from- I thought theyâd dropped me, others thought clamps, but apparently it was from the probes they attach to check your nerve function, so nothing exciting! Glad some symptoms are improving at least!
My throat and neck has been pretty much painfree today, apart from the outside scar. What is really painfull is the region besides and below my ear. Its not the same earache i knew from ES (which was much more deep inside). Cant really tell what it is, its where the parotid glandula is i think, between ear and jaw. Its a more sharp, sometimes shooting pain. Ouch.
Looking at my scar i realize they have started the cut very close to my ear, didnt expect that as the pictures i have seen from other surgerys are quite different.
Btw, its not my usual âhaircutâ there 
i took the plaster off that covered the entrance of the drain-tube just today so wasnt able to shave it properly yet 
congrats on your surgery!
my surgery in October 20th, but I wanted to sayâŚabout the âfirst bite syndromeâ, I have had that for about a decade! no surgery or anything, I heard about it on here for the first time.
That is an impressive scar! My surgery was behind the ear, and then comes down to a bit below where yours starts. The area you describe as painful I do still have a bit of pain there- it has faded a lot to what it was. Massaging the scar helps a bit.
Hope that your surgery goes well Della- not too long to wait now, but time will probably go very slowlyâŚ
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Im not sure yet but i might have developed first bite symptoms 
My cheeck, upper jaw area, parotid gland and up to my ear hurts more and more. Not only when eating but pretty much permanently, Chewing or opening mouth too wide worsens it though. This is totally new and definately not the ES pain that i had before. Dont know If this is supposed to be. Did any of you guys experiences that?
I have an appointment for a follow up and the threads to be pulled for tomorrow, will ask about that.
No- aching, but not bad pain⌠hope that you get some answers tomorrow, maybe itâs an infection?
Yes, I think its very likely my parotid gland. If i google the symptoms of a parotid gland inflammation it looks very much the same. Maybe there is bruising from the surgery that blocks the gland and leads to irritation and or inflamation.
Yes, swelling couldâve blocked it a bit maybe. Let us know how it goes tomorrow. (there is stuff online about âmilkingâ blocked glands if thatâs what it is, but best to see what the doc says before you do anything!
Just got back. Good news is there is no infection nor inflamation and my parotid gland is fine. He told me how deep they had to âdigâ into my neck and how they had to cut through or bend away lots of muscles, nerves etc. He said all the pain that I have is totally explainable and expectable and will fade away with time.
Thatâs good news- hope it puts your mind at rest.