I didn’t read the article yet but love the title! It sounds so appropriate to what many of our members feel in their throats! I’m glad your appointment is reasonably soon & I hope your doctor acknowledges your symptoms & sends you for a CT scan ASAP. It will be a relief to know one way or the other if what you’re feeling is your styloid process or not. My bet is in favor of an elongated styloid/calcified stylohyoid ligament. 
1 Like
I hope you are right! Excited to hopefully be a step closer to being vindicated in my race to get a cause to this cloud I’ve been living under for the last few years.
It makes it hard to get through the day not knowing what will set off a flare up. It’s also pretty inconvenient not being able to turn my head to the left haha. Ready to be rid of this constant stick in throat feeling.
How productive were you all when you were dealing with an elongated styloid? Sometimes I just wake up exhausted.
I had better days & worse days. My left side was worse than my right but my surgeon insisted on removing the right first because of its strange angle. I begged for the left one to come out first, but in the end, his decision was a good one. I had blood pressure & heart issues that stopped after the right styloid was removed.
Obviously, it’s hard to be productive on days when you don’t feel so well but easier when you do, however, productive days can lead to being over active which can flare symptoms so less good days often follow good days for that reason.
1 Like
When I started getting the vascular symptoms, I had some days where I felt quite ill, & tired, but luckily I was just doing part time voluntary work then. Hats off to anyone who holds down a full time job or has young children with this!
Hopefully soon you’ll have answers…
2 Likes
I just got out of an appointment with my FNP and am happy to say that she agrees something is wrong and that it is not anxiety!
I am scheduled for a head and neck ultrasound on Friday.
She said my jaw is completely out of alignment and I have a swollen lymph node in my throat. (Right around the stylomandibular ligament.
She thinks my issues could be resolved by chiropractic adjustment or acupuncture - but wants the ultrasound to see if anything else is going on.
Will an ultrasound show very much? I tried to get a CT but she didn’t want to expose me to the radiation unless it was necessary.
An ultrasound can show bones, so might be able to see if the styloids are elongated, but I’ve not heard of anyone being diagnosed this way; usually they’re used over the blood vessels to show if there’s compression, (vascular ES) but only if the head’s in a position to cause compression by the styloids. A CT is the best for showing ES, & I would strongly suggest that you don’t have any chiropractic adjustments; if you do have ES it could make things worse for you. Acupuncture could help with some symptoms, but it won’t cure ES.
I don’t think that the radiation from one CT would be that bad, unless you’ve had quite a few CTs or x-rays recently!
1 Like
Will it show calcified ligaments?
I am avoiding chiropractic adjustments.
1 Like
Good choice avoiding chiropractic adjustments, dillonh9. The CT scan specifically shows calcification in the area being scanned so it will show your ligaments if they are calcified. If they don’t show up in the CT then they are not.
There is a debate whether the styloid itself elongates or if the stylohyoid ligament calcifies starting at the tip of the styloid & traveling toward the hyoid bone giving the appearance that the styloid has elongated. For some people, the s-h ligament actually calcifies at the hyoid bone end & the calcification travels up toward the styloid. In those cases, the styloid is usually not elongated.
As Jules said, the CT scan is your best bet for getting a diagnosis. It should show the area between your skull base & your hyoid bone.
1 Like
Thank you for the info and the PM! I hope the ultrasound shows something so I can get the CT.
The US will go from the hyoid up
I’m glad the ultrasound with show calcification - maybe it will finally prove that I have this tiny sharp stick poking through behind my lower molars on the right side. Most of the eagles cases I have seen have the styloid process coming down into the mouth - does it make any difference that mine seems to be protruding at an upward trajectory along my jawline? This leads me to think that it is my stylomandibular ligament that has calcified or broken at a weird angle (similar to this image I have included).
Bonus question just because I’m curious - Can jaw misalignment be caused by ES?
I hope you get that CT sooner than later. It really is the “gold” standard for diagnosing eagles and is usually required by most all Eagles specialists before considering you as a patient. It would save you alot of time to get this in advance as it along with a referral will get you in the door alot faster.
1 Like
Jaw alignment cause ES? Likely not.
I have cervical instability and have for decades due to hypermobility, 2 whiplash accidents as well as removal of tonsils…and life long TMJ issues. Before my last ES surgery, I saw a TMJ specialist and the Cone Beam CT showed jaw mis-alignment as well as osteoarthritis is jaw. This only adds to neck dysfunction. MY TMJ doc has a theory that tight neck muscles clamping down on styloids and calcifications cause the ES pain. He may be right in part but doesnt explain how some of us end up with bones sticking thru our throat. Personally I think it several dysfuntional processes along with inflammation that cause ES.
1-s2.0-S221026121500382X-main.pdf (705.7 KB)
@dillonh9 In some cases the styloid process grows thick and long straight in the direction of the jaw (for example in my case). So in that case “the jaw” (soft tissues etc) wants to “avoid” the pain and tries to stay away from the source of that pain. I presume that may cause jaw misalignment.
On the other hand, misaligned jaw possibly can put pressure on the stylohyoid/stylomandibular ligaments and cause calcification leading to the pain.
Moreover, I’m finding more and more thinkers in various fields (medical, dentistry) believing that TMJ problems and especially jaw clenching habits may lead to “military neck” (e.g. why is the temporomandibular joint(TMJ) important? - YouTube) and elongation of styloid processes or calcification of the ligaments. The quality and reliability of these “thinkers” might be questionable, but I have to admit, personally I had had about five years of bad jaw clenching / teeth grinding about fifteen years ago, and later started noticing small changes in how it “feels” in the area where the styloids are supposed to be. Was that the cause of, or was it caused by the elongated styloid processes - now it’s too late to know.
Also, at uni years I had a bad habit to study while lying on the floor and propping myself on elbows rammed into the jaw. The neck and jaw muscles would work hard as they tried to maintain the strength required for me to keep my head up. I guess that also was a contributor to my military neck, and elongated and thickened styloid processes.
2 Likes
Good thoughts, vdm, thanks for sharing. As always, what you say makes a whole lotta sense. It’s interesting to look back over our lives & try to identify old habits that may have contributed to or caused problems we now have. I need to get my hips replaced, left in particular, & am now realizing some habits I have that likely contributed to the wear & tear on my left hip, not the least of which is how I get into & out of a car. I’m working on changing that, but it takes effort to stop doing what I’ve done for 50 years & start a new habit.
1 Like