I’m 5 months post op from right styloidectomy at Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Danielle Bottalico. I haven’t been on the forum for a while. I have bilateral ES; still have my left stylohyoid ligament and only have had weird nerve sensations alongside and inside my nose on the left side. My symptoms on my right side ( extreme fatigue, dizziness/twirling/fainting, pain behind right eye, migraines, right ear pain, decreased hearing, inability to chew/eat, talk, nerve sensations and twitching in nose, mouth, gagging, numbness in tongue & lips, heat & cold intolerance- all of those symptoms were completely gone after surgery. I have my life back. I still have numbness under my jaw and chin and around my incision, and some First Bite Syndrome symptoms but that is bearable and I’m “me” again. Recently I have been having symptoms again on my right side - some pain with chewing and talking, numbness in tongue & lips that is intermittent. I have also had more nerve sensations in my nose and at times the left side of my nose feels like “it is gone”. Now I am having terrible pressure in the center of my face on top of my nose- like someone is standing on me, or a cement brick is sitting on my face. It’s not a sinus headache or migraine- just intense pressure. I saw my primary to have her check my sinuses and incision etc. No swelling or sinus congestion or infection - a clean bill of health. She suspects it’s either the Eagle Syndrome or a nerve flare up post surgery & suggested I go ahead and contact my surgeon. I messaged my surgeon and the nurse replied that my surgeon doesn’t think these symptoms are a flare up or related to the surgery. I have an appointment with her in January. Has anyone else had these types of symptoms with Eagles Syndrome - ie the facial pressure across the top of the nose and/or feeling like your nose is numb or “gone”? Also can a remaining ligament cause pain to reoccur on the opposite side that a ligament has been excised from? Thank you to any help or answers anyone can provide.
Glad to hear that many of your symptoms have dissipated post surgery!!! Always glad to here about these success. Happy you have your life back.
The nose sensation is interesting. The only time I get that feeling (i.e., nose feels like it isn’t there) is when my cortisol spikes (fight or flight response, anxious) like when my body doesn’t have enough oxygen. But usually that “not there” sensation is followed up by tingling sensation. Just the nose. But I suspect yours has to do with surgery.
I did a google search and the sensory nerves of the nose branches from the trigeminal nerve. We often hear this nerve talked about on the forum. My only potential explaination is that having your jaw opened for intubation irritated your TMJ. The trigimenal nerve runs right beside the TMJ, so maybe there is some nerve irritation? Are your TMJs sore? Sorry I can’t help more!
@Suzygrace - I concur w/ @TML that it’s your trigeminal nerve acting up. Yes, “crossover” symptoms can occur after one styloid is removed, the remaining styloid can cause symptoms that cross over to the side where the styloid is gone or mostly so. I had both nose pain symptoms so a bit different sensation than yours & cross over pain. My right styloid was also removed first & the symptoms my left styloid were causing began affecting my right side during recovery from my first surgery.
A feeling of pressure is a symptom of an irritated nerve just as is pain. There are a number of different sensations nerves can cause when not happy & it’s easy to assume it will always be pain, but tingling, numbness, pain jolts, feeling a sensation of warmth or cool in a particular spot can all be caused by irritated nerves.
As silly as this may sound, try 15 min of icing the areas that are bothering you (nose included) when symptoms flare to see if that helps them settle. If ice doesn’t work, then try heat or alternating ice & heat.
I suspect you may need to get your left styloid removed in order to be rid of these new symptoms. If they become too bothersome, ask Dr. Bottalico if you can try a nerve pain medication. These can take several weeks to a month to start helping, & they do have side effects that bother some people more than others, just FYI.
Good that you feel you got your life back after surgery, that’s brilliant!
The trigeminal nerve is commonly affected with ES, so it could be that your other side is causing cross-over pain, so if you feel that it’s becoming difficult & you’re getting symptoms the non-surgery side too it might be worth getting that removed…there could otherwise be scar tissue aggravating the nerve on the surgery side, that can happen occasionally & we’ve had discussions about it- cold laser therapy has been mentioned as helpful.
I do get a sharp pain like a needle on the side of my nose, but never felt like it wasn’t there…
Hello. YES!!! this was my MAIN symptom when all hell broke loose in my life. The pressure on my nose start out small and after 3 months went to a level 10 horrific pain. i described it as an elephant was pressing into my nose or that my face was being squeezed through a vice. Some of the things that I got ruled out during my long travel to ED were autoimmune vascular diseases. It would be worth a blood test to check for vascularities GPA , as this does cause bridge of nose pain because of the compression of the vessels in that area. My pressure went from a 10 to 3 after a double medrol pack and eventually subsided from having a pain management doctor directly putting steroids into the area. i hoep some of htat helps.
I’m glad the cause of your nose pain was diagnosed, @Spedula. Thank you for sharing your story. Every bit of new information is valuable here! Good that all it took was a dosing of steroids to reduce the inflammation & stop your pain.
