Re: stones in salivary glands

Yes hi Michelle, I had a small salivary gland stone near the bottom opening duct of my mouth in December of 2012 I had an oral surgeon perform whats called a "sialolithotomy," where he used a laser to remove the stone and leave the duct open. However, in January of 2014, I was having pain and swelling like you describe, I went to the ER, they did a CT scan and found a 6mm salivary gland stone in my left submandibular gland (thats beneath the jaw area in the neck). I saw an ENT doctor and had surgery to remove the entire gland with several stones inside. So yes every time you eat, the glands produce saliva to flow through the ducts, but since there's a stone obstructing the flow of saliva, it blocks the flow of saliva through the ducts to get released into your mouth. This blockage causes inflammation and severe swelling, but once you stop eating, the inflammation decreases. Best thing to do is to see your Primary Care Doctor and have him take an X-ray or CT Scan to find out how big the stones are, if you dont have them removed, then the problem can get worse, more stones can develop and your entire face can be swollen like a balloon. I've seen some pretty horrible cases where people just waited too long and there entire face was like a puffer fish. Dont wait until its too late, get it taken care of. They put me on Antibiotics after the first diagnoses I had in January to reduce the inflammation and infection, however NO PILL will remove the stone, and if its too big, chewing on sour candies wont help if its too big to get pushed through the ducts. Hope this helped. By the way you have a total of 6 salivary glands, two parotid glands on either sides of the ear, two submandibular glands one under each jaw area (they each produce about 70% saliva each), and one sub-lingual gland underneath your chin neck area below your tongue. So removing one wont give you a dry mouth, your other glands should keep your mouth moist. Tweet