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Eagle's Syndrome

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A differential diagnosis for a patient reporting what feels to them as a toothache could instead be Eagle’s Syndrome, or an elongated styloid process, which is the slender, pointed piece of the bone just below the ear (Aral, Karaca, & Güngör, 1997). This condition results in craniofacial and cervical pain that is triggered by swallowing, and/or jaw movement. Eagle’s syndrome causes a dull pain in the oropharynx as well as the feeling of a foreign body being stuck in the pharynx. Patients with this syndrome have also described molar pain similar to that of a toothache. This syndrome is most common in 30-40-year-old patients, especially women. The diagnosis of Eagle’s syndrome should be considered when encountering a patient exhibiting “oropharyngeal pain originating from …show more content…

Also radiography examination should show the elongated styloid.

Another differential diagnosis for a patient reporting a toothache could be from Herpes zoster in the trigeminal nerve (Tidwell, Hutson, Burkhart, Gutmann, & Ellis, 1999). This diagnosis is particularly hard to come by because the beginning stages of the infection result in only odontalgia (pain in the tooth). Herpes zoster virus is responsible for the infectious disease known as shingles. H. zoster affects the sensory ganglion and its cutaneous nerve. 13% of patients afflicted with H. zoster, experience the infection at the site of the trigeminal nerve. There are three diagnostic stages of this infection: (1) prodromal stage, (2) active/acute stage, and (3) chronic stage. The first stage consists of a burning, tingling, or prickly

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