Salivary stones are crystallized minerals that get lodged in your salivary gland ducts, often hindering or even causing a blockage to the discharge of your saliva. This salivary gland problem is medically referred to as sialolith.
Salivary stones are usually made up of salts contained in your saliva. The greatest percentage of sialoliths cause blockage within your submandibular salivary gland, on the sides of your jaw in the back of the mouth. And a sialolith has no health relationship to a kidney stone.
When a stone blocks salivary drainage, you should expect a dry mouth, aka xerostomia. In addition, the blockage of saliva will likely cause your salivary gland to painfully swell.
Your pain and swelling symptoms from sialolith will typically worsen while you eat. And then these symptoms may gradually subside until your next meal. Yet, your dry mouth will probably hang around most of the time.
Other symptoms salivary stones may cause involve difficulty swallowing and mouth opening pain. And sometimes stones may not cause symptoms because the blockage of saliva is minimal, so any dryness in your mouth goes unnoticed.
The specific cause for these saliva blocking stones to develop isn’t known. Some theories to explain sialolith caused xerostomia are:
- dehydration
- inflammation
- suffer other health conditions ~ gout, Sjogren’s syndrome, kidney issues
- take drugs that decrease saliva production ~ antihistamines, diuretics, antidepressants, decongestants, sedatives
If left untreated, saliva blockage by stones may cause an infection because a blocked duct filled with stagnant saliva is an ideal environment for bacteria to grow. Or alternatively, an abscess can accumulate or salivary gland tissue destroyed.
A stone will continue to block a gland until it’s removed. Initial sialolith treatment is attempted by squeezing the stone out using finger pressure. Otherwise, your hardened salts will need to be surgically cut out.
If your health care provider is successful with these methods, your xerostomia symptoms should disappear. However, if after treatment your pain symptom persists, then an antibiotic may be given as well.
Most often, salivary stones can be squeezed out without any lasting health effects. In some cases, salivary gland removal may be necessary due to a problem with repetitive stones.