I know, you’re not a doctor, or you’re not my doctor. Or dentist (come to think of it, I know we have a few MDs here, but I can’t think of any Dentists) I have an appointment with my dentist tomorrow. Dr. Google says dentist is first line of defense.
Very suddenly today, the gland on the left side, just in front of my ear (I’m sure it has a name, but I don’t care) started hurting like HELL as soon as it was called on to do its job. It is sensitive if I touch it, and it’s a little bit puffy- you can see it on my face.
I was aware that salivary glands could become infected, and that was my first thought. I was NOT aware that they could get stones, rather like kidney stones.
It doesn’t bother me at rest, just when I put certain things in my mouth (get your mind out of the gutter). So I told them I’d take the appointment tomorrow.
Any experiences? Knowledge? Time to get my affairs in order?
I’m guessing stone just because I would expect an infection to start mild and get worse. This was out of the blue.
My sister had a salivary gland stone (or maybe a cyst) that caused her enough pain to have it removed. IIRC, whatever it was like the size of a ping pong ball, but they got it all out and there wasn’t an infection.
She did have a good sized scar on the side of her neck for quite a while though.
I don’t have many more details than that, but I do remember her doctor telling her to suck on sour candy.
What you’re describing sounds like a condition affecting the parotid gland. Leading differential diagnoses would include inflammation or infection, possibly secondary to a stone causing salivary duct blockage.
Doubtful. Sudden onset of swelling/pain is much more likely due to an inflammatory/infectious process than a tumor. It’s good that you’re getting it seen to quickly.
After my thyroidectomy and radiation therapy one of my parotid glands got blocked. The whole left side of my face puffed out so bad it looked like I’d gone ten rounds with Muhammad Ali. Of course this happened in the car on our way to the airport for a three-hour flight. Panicked, I called my endocrinologist and she told me to suck on sour candies to get my saliva flowing. I bought a bag of Jolly Ranchers and all was well by the time we got to our hotel. I’ve never had the problem again but if I do I know how to solve it.
I had read about the sour candies and trying to get things flowing.
Well I was grilling the planned pork chops on the grill and thought I’d have a beer. Every sip sent shockwaves through my face. It was bad. But I powered through as all beer lovers will.
I kid you not: by the time I got through the beer, I felt something oozy. Then I found a hard nugget between my teeth and the pain was just gone. I think the beer stimulated the gland and that pushed through the stone.
Beer. The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.
As LSL Guy stated I am a dentist who just retired. As others have said, the parotid gland and most likely an infection or swelling from a stone blocking the duct. On folks my age (66) and up, always want to rule out mumps if they didn’t have them as a child or never had am MMR vaccine.
It the dentist can get saliva to express from the the parotid duct and doesn’t see a stone radiographically, it is probably an infection. That sudden an appearance I’d think stone. Often can be expressed in office with local anesthetic.
Unfortunately, yes and very recently. Disclaimer, I am not a medical anything so my nomenclature could be questionable. I’m posting to let you know it can become very serious.
Mizpullin had the same thing earlier this year, swelling in neck and jaw, and a an onset of pain. After a few days, went to GP who ran some tests in office (they have in house lab). GP sent her immediately to the closest ER. She was admitted with (as I understood it) staph infections that had spread somehow to her bloodstream. This is apparently pretty serious, and she spent 9 days in the hospital under the care of an infectious disease specialist and a variety of others. On the tenth day she was sent home with some type of port (PIK?) line installed and a lot of antibiotics and saline flushes which were to be given every 8 hours. This went on for a month, with weekly lab tests and home health nurses every few days to take blood samples and check on progress. After a month, we went to another glandular specialist who took more samples and tests, and declared her free of infection (and removed the annoying line from her arm).
We still have appointments with surgeons who specialize in this particular area, and they’re considering several options (I think either modifying the offending glands or removing them entirely – still unsure). It seems to be the Parotid gland as @rsat3acr mentions. Going to another office this week, so this has become an ongoing issue. I had no idea these infections could be life-threatening, but the doctors decided it was very, very serious and they’re not through treating her yet.
So… probably just what others have said, but letting you know it can be serious too. Sorry I don’t have the expertise to give a lot of detail. I was just tasked with cleaning, maintaining a sterile and refrigerated area for her meds, and step-and-fetch-it tasks when various items ran low.
In 2019 I had a salivary gland under my jaw swell up to almost the size of a ping pong ball every time I ate a meal; though in my case it didn’t really hurt, and the gland went back to normal eventually, in an hour or so. I, being a bit of a hypochondriac, immediately went to thoughts of former Beastie Boy Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch who had cancer of the salivary gland that spread and eventually killed him.
I went to an EMT who said that it was a blockage, and if it didn’t resolve itself they would have to either cut the gland pathway lengthwise and scrape it out, or just remove the gland altogether (apparently we have more than enough salivary glands to get the job done). He had me get a head MRI to make sure it wasn’t anything more serious than a blockage. In the meantime he recommended I try sour things to get the salivary juices flowing, as recommended upthread, and massaging the area when it’s swollen to try to push the blockage out.
Anyway, I don’t remember a breakthrough like the OP apparently had, but my situation resolved itself spontaneously, my MRI came back clean, and no surgery required. I now have a freaky DVD somewhere of my head MRI in which I can scan front to back through my head
