Constant Swollen Salivary gland

I also have the parotid gland swelling. Chipmunk cheeks.
I have been to GP, ENT and had the tests and MRI. No stones. No calcium deposits. Dentist can't tell what is causing it. It is diagnosed as sialadenosis which describes it exactly but I cannot find what is causing it or how to stop it.
It has been going on for 7 years now. It has been regularly swelling on one side of my face in the parotid gland and then to the other but it varies.. no pattern except about every 2 weeks and lasts several days.
I am a female 61 years old. I don't seem to have the stringy or white stuff that comes out.. I push on the gland but nothing happens. I try the sour candy, gum that produces saliva, lots of water, hot compresses but nothing seems to help.. oh lemon juice gargles. My face itches on my cheeks just before it swells.. I mean really itchy! What do we have in common? What causes this? Oh, and I don't have Sjögren's syndrome been tested for that also. Can we help each other? I can't find the right type of doctor who can help.

When i was 12 i had my salivary gland removed from under the right side of my tongue,Like many of you i found that especially during the colder months my salivary gland would swell untill my tongue was pushed up towards my pallete.It became a real problem when it burst and a greenish ,slimy ,stringy and rather strong smelling goo emergerged(very Dr who!)This became quite a party trick for a while.I have to say that since having the gland removed i have not suffered with any reoccurance of the problem,although i was told that it was a possibility.I am now 41 and suffering from all sorts of other problems,but glad to say my salivary glands ar'nt one of them.Hope this has helped some of you,and if it is a viable opption the opp might be just what is needed.

I have the same swelling and pain w/ my gland when I eat. I was just diagnosed w/ Sjogren's Disease which is an autoimmune disease. You might ask your ENT to run a blood test for this. It's simple. They just draw blood and test it for certain antibodies that will indicate if you have Sjogren's. I've had mild swelling for 6 years, but it recently got worse along w/ symptoms of dry mouth which is what led my ENT to run the blood test.

I have lupus, and i am in research program. In may of 2010 my throat and around my jaw swelled up. I went to my doctor who ran a bunch of test. At First, he thought i might have mumps, but i did not have them. I went to my lupus doctor, and they put be on a antibioticand it took some of the swelling down. I went to a ENT, he said they take along time to go down, it could be 6 to 8 months. He did not want to do any test, because he said it is expensive to do them, and there is nothing that is going help. I should eat lemons and pickles to help clean them out. Sometime they hurt really bad, it sends sharp pains down my throat and into my ears. I have a hard time swollowing food at times. I am going to see a different ENT at the first of the year. There has to be something they can do for these glands. I really don't like to go anywhere because my face is swollen and it upsets me.

Like a lot of you I too have been suffering a blocked salivary gland on and off for about 5 years now. It's happened so often that my specialist has decided to remove the gland completely next week.

Anyone thinking of getting the same opperation please get in touch and I will fill you in as to how I get on....................

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It will be 4 years in Feb. that I bit my left cheek while eating and a few days later it became infected. The infection went through my salivary glands under my left ear and chin area then moved to the right side. I felt like a zombie for several days and majorly dizzy. I have been to ENT who said it was blockage in my sinus, Another ENT who said it was migrains ( i dont have headaches and I told him so but he insisted it was the cause) Dentist said it was my teeth from TMJ so i got braces in my 40s they are now off and the problem still persists, but I do have straight teeth. My glands below both ears have stayed swollen everyday for the past 4 years. I have had MRI, Cats, bloodwork etc, nothing found. I had a bad reaction to a antibiotic which caused me to have psuedo tumor ceribi which I only found out when my eye sight would fade out when getting up/bending over etc, so now have that to deal with by getting annual spinal taps, real fun let me tell ya. The dizziness is what really bothers me and is quite sever when these glands hurt. Whats really strange is the only time I have had ANY relief is when my braces on my teeth were tightened and my dizziness but not swelling would go away for a few days. Im at a loss of what to do now, ive spent a good 15K in 4 years and many Dr/Dentist visits with conflicting diagnosis. Whats even worse is im really worn out by this, trying to maintain my job and keep food on the table for my family all the while being dizzy everyday and with swollen saliva glands and its very noticable. I dont know what to do as I dont find anyone or doctors that have had anything like me with bitting my cheek getting infected and swollen glands and dizziness ever since the infection. Ive got to have some relief soon

I visited a plastic surgeon about this problem and apparently Botox can be used to lower the swelling. He said the glands are producing too much saliva and swelling up, but botox can reduce their size. The procedure was invented originally by a doctor in Taiwan to help women who were complaining about the same thing.

Use castor oil. It really helps. It won't get rid of the swollen gland but it will help. Rub it on the area. If you have allergies rub it on your face and the swollen gland. They may be swollen because of an infection or a pre-existing cause.

I have had this happen to me 2 times now with my gland on my right side swells up and is painful, but I have the salty stuff that feels like it squirts in my mouth on the same side for weeks or even months the first time it happened, and it makes it hard to eat because it feels like it sucks all the moisture out of my mouth and the food sticks to my teeth . I do know my Dad had his gland taken out but I don't know why so I'm wondering if that may be the solution for this.

I too have been suffering from this problem for about 10 years now. During a 'flare-up', my left cheek becomes very swollen and incredibly sore - the swelling starts from just below my temple and, at its worst, extends right the way down the side of my face to where my jaw bone meets my neck. It is extremely uncomfortable and has become infected in the past. I am unable to close my jaw so my back teeth meet and sometimes even my ear gets blocked when it's really swollen.


Although I am always aware of some level of discomfort with my left-side parotid gland, I am usually able to manage it and keep it under control. I have to be very careful to massage the left side of my face when I eat to keep the saliva flowing.


About every 2-3 years I do get a 'flare-up', I can usually feel it getting worse over a period of about 2-3 days and then I have to take myself to the docs asap and get on a course of antibiotics. it does seem to be associated with highly stressful periods of my life and my doc suggested that it might be aggravated by me subconsciously clenching/grinding my teeth when I'm stressed (I'm not so sure about this myself!)

I have had it investigated in the past, x-rays, saliagram and ultrasound, but there was no conclusive results to any of the tests - next step CT scan.....one time, the parotid gland became so infected, I got very sick and had to be hospitalised so they could give me intravenous anitbiotics - I was very ill.


I really don't like taking antibiotics at all but I found that it's, unfortunately, the only thing that works. Keflex was very slow to kick-in (about 3-4 painful days) whereas this time a new doc has put me on Staphylex which (along with intensive prayer) worked in about 24 hours. I am taking it 4 x per day for 10 days :-(


I find ibuprofen works really well as an anti-inflammatory and if bearable I try and press down externally on the swelling to squeeze out all the bad stuff, which like many of you have posted, tastes salty but is clear in colour. I also find that it generally gets worse if I don't drink at least 6-8 glasses of water - WATER - per day!


I am generally very fit and healthy, female and in my mid-forties and I'm on no other medications apart from the anti-biotics when this irritating problem flares up - I don't smoke or drink and have a pretty healthy diet.


I hope this post helps other people out there looking for an answer - I'll post again if - no, WHEN - I get to the bottom of this!

My Son has this problem once and a while and his Doctor told me to go out and buy him some sour candy and it worked and has worked ever since. Giveit a try, its only a doller.

I doubt any of you who have written will see this because it's been 4 years, but maybe someone will see this:) I have had that problem too and after several years I went to a rheumatologist. They work with people who have auto-immune diseases. There is an auto-immune disease out there that starts with the swelling of the salvary glands. The disease slowly kills all your moisture producing glands. You can get tested for it in your blood. The other symptoms besides the swollen glands are dry mouth, like it's hard to eat crackers or bread or chips without choking or needing a drink to wash it down. Your teeth rot easier, your skin gets dry, you sweat less, your lips gets chapped all year long, not just in winter. Sometimes you feel so tired you can't stand up and sometimes your muscles ache. Your eyes get real dry and they burn and feel like sand is in them and they emit white stuff all the time, which is the oil left over from having not much tears to mix with it. You get sick easier and all the symptoms come and go, come and go. You might have some , all, or none of the other symptoms, but it's worth a blood check from a rheumatologist that knows what he's looking for. the disease is called Sjogrens Syndrome. Hope this helps someone. Most people who have it don't get diagnosed until they have had it for 7 or 8 years on average.

My Dad has always complained of a swollen salivary gland under ear.  He is very allergic to brazil nuts, and he also notices his glands swell up if he has bread or anything with gluten in it (but it could be an allergic reaction to all grass types, therefore grains?).  He also suffers from a chronic fatigue (depression of the central nervous system?).  I seem to get the same symptoms...hereditary atopic allergic reactions?  I guess the tubes that link the gland to the mouth swell due to allergic reaction and so block up? 

I came online to see what others were saying about it all. 

Two other notions (not medical facts at all, just notions): gluten when it is not digested fully forms an opiate...hence you get drowsey...but has anyone heard of opiates causing salivary glands to swell? Perhaps there is a link here with gluten?  Inproperly digested milk proteins (casein) also form a similar opiate.  Or more simply, gluten and casein are both sticky...perhaps it gets into the salivary glands via the lymph system and simply gums it all up?  I notice my nasal passages seems to swell inside and gets stuffy when I drink milk, so perhaps ones salivary tubes swell up in a similar way?  It is a bit subtle but I do think I notice a positive shift in my energy levels when I cut out wheat/gluten and dairy products.

One could conclude, I suppose, if the problem is allergic that anti-histamines would help, dissolved in the mouth.  However I do not like how drowsy these antihistamines make me.  Of interest is the "histpenia" and "histadelia" distinction in orthomolecular medicine (Google it to find out more).  I suspect I am low in histamine, and probably so is my Dad.  So could low histamine affect salivary glands (incidentally opiates....as in the gluten connection... well opiates lower histamine).  I notice I respond well to the "biogenic amines" in red wine and cider (again Google it), and the effect is noticed all the next day after just one glass of wine, or one pint of cider or less.  I am not a regular drinker so have no tolerance for alcohol.  I notice this biogenic lift the next day.  My mood improves, and it is not the alcohol, because I notice the lift even if I drink "de-alcoholized" wine or cider.  This may be a simple test to see if you are low or high histamine types: how do you respond to Biogenic Amines?  High histamine types may get a red wine headache instead of a lift.  One of the Biogenic Amines is histamine.  However if you are taking the antidepressants called MAOI you are warned to avoid any food with biogenic amines in it, as you absorbe the amines more readily and it can cause a hypertensive crisis.  I did experiment with this by eating a lot of stilton, sauerkraut (both foods are rich in amines) and alcohol free wine one night.  The next day both sides of my neck felt like I had pulled all the muscles...but in the end I realised this was from the excessive intake of biogenic amines.  So could amines cause cramping of the salivary ducts as well????  Weird notions, and I am off surfing the net to see what I find. Cheerio.

i have the same problems, i wish one would find a solution to this

Hi. I have had swelling of the parotid gland on both cheeks for over twenty years. it started after eating walnuts and for years thought I was allergic to nuts. My doctor took an aggressive approach to trying and figuring out what the deal was. I have no stones, no cancer, etc...when it continued I was sent to a very thorough allergist who tested me for sojerens, auto immune diseases, mast cells disorders etc.... the conclusion in my case is an cholergenic reaction which responds to allegra at 180 mg.  too much consumption of histamine containing, or releasing foods, also msg, nitrates etc.. can cause this to happen in people. if you are having road blocks try a prescription antihistamine and get a referral to an allergist. I was very glad to go through this process. was tested for all allergies with skin test etc. sulfites can trigger this in people and being dehydrated can trigger it. drink lots of water it can reduce the incidence. hope this helps some of you.