Pain on one side of throat

[sta78]

I forgot to add that I was told my problems more than likely were caused by stress and poor posture. I do admit that I was experiencing anxiety (the health concerns made it worse) and I do have terrible posture (sitting at my pc for many hours each day.) Also, I grind and clench my teeth and that was initially thought to have contributed to my muscular issues too.

[sowtrout]

My symptoms are a pain on the right side of my throat/neck, right under my jaw. It hurts when you press down on it or turn the head to the right and it hurts to swallow as well, but only if I turn my head to one side...I have no other symptoms, nothing with my tonsils or anything else...

I went to the doctor today and got no major answers or remedies, but he did suggest one interesting thing that I have not yet seen posted on this thread. That is: the symptoms might be the result of a muscle strain in the front of the neck. I never think about neck pain as occurring in the front of the neck- only in the back- but my doctor said that the major muscle in the front of your neck stretches right up to your ears and your head. And the pain started when I woke up in the morning in a hotel, so now I wonder whether I actually pulled the muscle slightly while sleeping or grinding my teeth (interestingly enough, I had bad nightmares that evening and I wonder if that might have caused me to strain or grind my way to a front neck strain!).

Anyway, hope this helps for someone who has similar symptoms. Though I was initially upset that I didn't get more treatment or tests, the more I consider this diagnosis, the more it makes sense.

These are my exact symptoms for the last 6 days. I was thinking it was some sort of strain as well. It really hurts in certain positions while laying down and swallowing and/or talking. Few questions.
1) What is the cure for a strained muscle in this area?
2) How long does it take to heal?
3) Is there any type of medication that you took?
4) Etc.

My Dr. has me on allegra since he thinks it is allergies. What a dork. I don't have any signs of allergies. No runny nose, so sneezing, no watery eyes, no coughing and he thinks it is allergy related. Diagnosed the problem in 5 minutes or less.

Please post reply as quickly as possible.

[sowtrout]

My symptoms are a pain on the right side of my throat/neck, right under my jaw. It hurts when you press down on it or turn the head to the right and it hurts to swallow as well, but only if I turn my head to one side...I have no other symptoms, nothing with my tonsils or anything else...

I went to the doctor today and got no major answers or remedies, but he did suggest one interesting thing that I have not yet seen posted on this thread. That is: the symptoms might be the result of a muscle strain in the front of the neck. I never think about neck pain as occurring in the front of the neck- only in the back- but my doctor said that the major muscle in the front of your neck stretches right up to your ears and your head. And the pain started when I woke up in the morning in a hotel, so now I wonder whether I actually pulled the muscle slightly while sleeping or grinding my teeth (interestingly enough, I had bad nightmares that evening and I wonder if that might have caused me to strain or grind my way to a front neck strain!).

Anyway, hope this helps for someone who has similar symptoms. Though I was initially upset that I didn't get more treatment or tests, the more I consider this diagnosis, the more it makes sense.

I have the exact same symptoms for the last 6 days. What was the cure for the muscle strain? Any meds?

[nicswan]

I hope this is all true. the front of my neck on one side is hurting. I just starting working out again after a long period & I think this might be the cause, but I NEVER heard of anyone's throat hurting on one side from a pulled muscle. I hope this is true because I'm getting paranoid thinking this could be something else!!

[Chrono]

I've been lurking here for nearly a week.

I've got similar symptoms as those I have read here. I must say it's with mixed emotions that I found this thread. Similarly to others, I breathed a sigh of relief that so many others had the affliction, but I'm disheartened to learn that few people have obtained a successful remedy. It's terrifying that no one seems to have a diagnosis that's working for people, especially those who have suffered for years with this.

Though I've read through most, if not all of the responses, I may have forgotten if anyone's mentioned these specifics.

Mine's afflicting the left side. It has been approximately one week. At first, it felt as though the pain was centred underneath a molar, and shot up to my ear, and down to approximately where the pulse would be taken. It would hurt every time I swallowed.

Unlike a typical gritty, scratchy sore throat, this felt more like a focused muscular pain, but within my throat.

Accompanying this has been a dull headache localized to the left side. Toward the back, just above my neck seems to be the worst. I have taken pain relievers and muscle relaxants to no avail.

As the week's gone by, the pain has changed a bit. If I keep my head relatively level and straight, I can swallow without pain. If I turn my head toward the left, I feel a bit of pain. If I turn my head to the right and swallow, it hurts a lot and is very sharp. I still have the dull headache. There is no pain beneath my molar anymore.

I have been doing salt water rinses, nasal irrigation (NeilMed - a bottle-type, not the neti pot) and peroxide gargles for the last couple of days. Two nights ago, I also did the submaxillary technique mentioned in this thread, and I had a great improvement when I woke up yesterday.... for about 30 minutes.

In the evenings, my throat feels exhausted. You know the utter exhaustion you get in your arms when holding weight for an extended period of time? That's what it feels like. Like my throat has been under tremendous effort.

My tonsils are not swollen or overly red, no difficulty breathing.

It went from very intense a week ago, to a more dull, annoying, but constant pain. Now, I can take this either of a sign of improvement - or my body's getting used to the pain.

I have been under a tremendous amount of stress lately (job woes for myself and my wife, monetary issues, deaths in the family), so these could be contributing factors. It doesn't help that Internet diagnoses have made us all alarmists and paranoid!

In my case at least, I can rule the following out:
- Mono (I got this when I was 19, and it felt different.)
- Strep throat (I got it twice a year from when I was 6 or 7 until I was 22 or so. This is very, very different pain)
- Infection beneath the tooth (I've had two infected wisdom teeth, and the pain there sort of travelled within the jaw)


Unfortunately, I am not in a position to see a doctor at the moment. I am hoping to be able to soon, because I would like a solid resolution. Unlike many others, if I do come upon relief, corrective action, or a diagnosis, I will post the results here to help any and all of you with your unfortunate situations.


Sorry for the lengthy post, and thank you.

[Chrono]

Further... I have a curved dental syringe that I've been using to spray my left-side tonsils with warm salt water, to allow more direct contact with the solution.

I seem to be improving slightly. I do not feel as run-down this evening as I normally do, and it is hurting less. My headache has lessened significantly over the last couple of hours. Of course, this remains to be seen if it lasts.

I do believe the weather and conditions affect this. Recently, we had a cold snap, and on those days of -30 Celsius weather, it was at its worst. I walk a lot, so this exacerbates it. As well, I run a warehouse, so I am exposed to a lot of dust, propane and diesel fumes. I seem to be most effected during my working hours.

Today, though I did have a lot of exposure to the same conditions, it was considerably warmer outside.

My recommendations (At this juncture, this is my regimen. In a few days, there may be no lasting improvement). It's worth a shot, though, right?:

- in the cold, wear a scarf to limit the cold air intake

- Nasal irrigation at least once daily. A starter pack will run you between $15-$20. If you're in a high pollutant area, use it twice. No more than that. And, as I've been using this off and on for a year, I HIGHLY recommend you do not use tap water, unless it is boiled, and has been cooled to above room temp. My strong recommendation is to use water filtered by reverse osmosis, and not remineralized. (Currently, the most widely available is Aquafina)

-Hydrogen Peroxide gargle every time you brush your teeth. I'm using 3% without further dilution with water. If you can't find anything lower than 5%, maybe dilute it with a 2:1 peroxide to water ratio. Don't swallow

- salt water gargle 2-4 times daily (I'm using sea salt)

- salt-water spray, using a curved dental syringe. ( http://www.carsondental.com/admin/up...012_medium.jpg ). Mine ran me about $15, as I recall. I've been doing two syringe-fulls, three times daily.
Alternatively, if you have one, you can use a water pik as has been recommended. Make sure to flush it with straight water after you've used salt water, so as not to allow crystallization to occur.

- drink a lot of clean, purified water. (Again, I recommend reverse osmosis, but this my personal preference. You may want to use distilled, or if you have a carbon filter, like a Brita or Pur tap.) I'm in that industry, and it's my professional opinion that for this "trial", avoid spring water or unfiltered tap water. Just for the risk of contaminants. Commercially available reverse osmosis water is also UV-treated.

- you may have success with Strepsils, or any other antibacterial lozenge. Personally, the sucking irritates my throat more, so it's risky.

Wish me luck.

I wish you all the best. If you try my suggestions, I hope you are successful. I'll report back as I can.

[Chrono]

Another update:

The process I've been doing seems to have worked.

By Saturday morning, I just had a bit of neck stiffness on the left and a mild headache. The swallowing pain seemed to have diminished (almost) completely. By mid afternoon, I felt loads better. No pain whatsoever.

At about 8:30pm, however, I went for a walk to the grocery store with my wife, and the temperature had dropped significantly. It was above 0 Friday, down to -25 with the windchill Saturday. When we reached the store, the left side of my throat was in slight pain, and I turned my head to the right and swallowed my saliva... the pain had returned (though it was mild).

I am now totally convinced that the cold weather plays a part in the condition. About an hour after I had gotten home, I was again pain free.

I discontinued the nasal irrigation Sunday, and I was fine all day. I spent a little bit of time in the cold last night, (walking from the car to a destination, and back) and there was no irritation. I figured it could have been the limited exposure.

This morning, I was out for about 45 minutes and I'm fine. We'll see how the next few days go!

[skkybar]

After being refered to this website and reading the previous posts, I have a similar problem I would like to share. I have had a severe persistant sore throat since November 08. I had started having "throat" problems since I had my gall bladder out 2 years ago. I was told by my nurse friend, that the anethesiologist had injured the back of my throat when he/she put the airway thing in. I have had gaging, coughing, choking, vomiting episodes for over a year. Didn't pay much attention to it, thought it was allergies, dry air, etc... One day, I came down with the sharp, stabbing pain in the left side deep in my throat. Had a strep test, negative, took antibotics, nothing. Finally went to ENT 6 weeks ago, was told I had an ulcer in my throat. Put me on Prilosec 40 once a day, four weeks later, still sore throat, very painful, hard to talk, hurts to yawn. Went back last week to ENT, looked at it again, ulcer still there, still hurts, and obviously is not healing. Put me on above 2x day. After one week, still pain in throat. What is next? I feel your pain.

[skkybar]

Update to above post. Finally the pain is gone, 3 weeks on prilosec 40mg 2xd, no pain, no gagging, can talk without losing my voice, call my dogs when they are outside, and read to my grandkids. However, I do have a cough when I lay flat on either side. When I elevate my head, it goes away. Fourty percent of people with acid reflux don't know they have it because they do not "feel" any symptoms. I still don't when the ulcer developed, and why, at the top of my esophagus and windpipe, (called LPR?) the same place the intubate device was used. I just want the ulcer healed and don't want to feel that pain again. I go back to ENT in 2 weeks, not looking forward to the nose/throat/camera, I will pass out again!

[ginnybean]

I'm too having neck pain on my left side, difficulty swallowing liquids, some left shoulder pain. I was diagnosed about a year ago with shoulder bursitis and had a cortisone injection in it. It worked. But I have recently read you can get bursitis in your neck and as a matter of fact, my orthopedic surgeon had asked me (a year ago) if I had neck pain proceeding the shoulder pain. I HAD! sooo, I think this is "bursitis" in my throat although they call it something else. I will be calling the doc tomorrow though and will let you know. Whatever I have, I know its not an infection. This is not a sore throat. It is a sore neck!! Karen

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome can also cause ear pain, neck pain on one side, trouble swallowing from your scalene muscle being inflammed, pain in the collarbone area, shoulder pain, chest pain, headaches, dizziness and scapular pain which mimics heartburn. You can also get vascular symptoms like swelling in the arm or hands and color changes. So check it out if you have many of these symptoms. What happens in TOS is a narrowing of the opening in your neck where all the nerves and blood vessels leave the spine and branch out to your chest and arms. When that opening gets too narrow due to the scalene muscle becoming inflammed or having whats called a cervical rib compressing the nerves and veins you get the above symptoms.

I had one or all of these symptoms for over 10 yrs before a doctor finally diagnosed me correctly. I started with ear aches in my early 20s that were never infected. My neck hurt on one side, I would get shoulder pain for no reason. Jaw pain on one side, scalp tenderness on one side, scapular pain, chest pain on one side, collarbone area pain, elbow pain, hand swelling, trouble keeping my arm raised and numbness and tingling from my neck all the way to my hand is what finally got me diagnosed and my hand changing colors. Doctors like to look at one symptom one at a time and not take all your symptoms as a whole. I suffered 10yrs of being misdiagnosed dont let it be you.