good evening SJS folks.
does anyone know or heard of a stone in a salivary gland? or is it in a parotid gland? what is the stone made of, how do you get rid of it.
The other day I posted about a pain in my jaw where it connects under my ear. happens off and on, usually with the first bite or two of food, I wait it out and then resume eating. Well, I have just spoken with someone recently and she said a stone could do that. That when you start to eat, your salivary starts to work and a stone blocks the duct...resulting in pain. I never heard such a thing before.
It sounds logical but, why does it stop hurting after a few minutes of torture and why doesn't it happen every time I eat?
I am fixated on this subject d/t my father died in 1987 after struggling with cancer for 9 years. His began in his parotid gland, he saw a dentist first, then a dr. then finally a surgeon.
I suppose I should just let it go.
eye2dry
Salivary stones are not uncommon and can happen to everyone. They are formed from the calcium, etc in the saliva. When we have thick saliva and it sits and stagnates in our salivary glands or in the tubes these salts from the calcium, etc will settle and slowly form stones.
I have had a lot of them that form and if I massage my glands and drink plenty of fluids and apply heat to my face/neck area these stones will find it easier to migrate and be expelled.
When they get too large they block off the salivary ducts and prevent the saliva from being able to be able to empty out of the glands. This can be very painful and can result in infection in the salivary glands.
As a side note, a person can also have tonsil stones too. These smaller stones are usually a light grey in color. Sometimes I will feel like I am chewing on "fiberglass" and after years of messing around with docs and trying to get diagnosed I finally figured out that this was "grit" or very tiny stones.
The big salivary glands are the parotid in the side of the face and down under the ear a little, the submaxillary which are under the chins on both sides and the sublingual which are under the chin and recessed back a ways.
The parotid empty into the side of the cheek above the back molars more or less. The submaxillary ducts drain under the tongue and under the sides of the tongue on both sides. The sublingual ducts empty under the tongue.
These ducts under the tongue will get swollen and red and sometimes you can see stones just laying in there waiting to pop out. I ended up having one submaxillary gland removed because it was having a lot of stones and infected a lot.
If It was me I would be seeing an ENT about the gland that you think may have a stone. I may have had some bigger stones in my glands because a few times I had the worst pain and spasms that was almost unbearable. Heat sure helps to sooth these pains and helps relax the ducts. Also drinking lots of fluids help to thin the mucus some and enable to mucus to empty out of the glands. Good luck. Irish ;D
Irish is correct. I was told that by an ent specialist myself.
My ENT back then mentioned about they might have to flush it out. Sounds a bit icky but no more so then flushing out a pic line.
But make sure that you tell the doc about your father. My uncle had a cancer in his thigh muscle, which is very unusual. It was removed successfully with no problems and he die of very old age. His youngest daughter had the same cancer, waited too long, and died a really horrible death from it. In your case, a biopsy would be a good idea, I would think.