Medical Questions » Mouth and Throat Questions » Question No. 693
| Question: | Tell readers about salivary stones. I have just been through the worst imaginable agony, and all people do is laugh at me—and it' s not funny! |
| Answer: | Under your tongue and in the side of your jaw you have salivary glands—three on each side of your mouth. These produce the saliva to keep your mouth moist and start the digestion of food. A small tube leads from each gland to open into the mouth under the tongue or at the back corner of the mouth. If the gland becomes infected or injured, or the saliva becomes too concentrated, a stone may form in the gland. This stone then moves along the duct towards the mouth, causing excruciating pain with every movement.
When you see, smell or taste food you automatically salivate. In patients with a salivary stone this salivation causes pain because the pressure of saliva behind the stone moves it in the delicate duct.
These patients require urgent treatment to temporarily dry up their saliva and ease the pain. Surgery is often necessary to remove the stone and relieve the condition. It is certainly no laughing matter, but one that is fortunately fairly uncommon.
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