No, never have and really haven’t heard of this. It sounds awful, Karen, and I hope you are getting better. I put on my ’Mama hat’ here because my brother had a bout with a salivary gland cancer about 3 years ago. He just happened to feel a strange node one day and had it checked. I’m sure you have been to your doctor, but this is more common than we think.

No but it sounds painful. I've heard of salivary stones too. None of it easy. With all that can go wrong with the human body, it's amazing any of us are ever healthy!!

I never heard of it. Quick search suggests it’s likely stones, and what you’re doing for it is correct. Hope this passes quickly, pun intended. Doesn’t sound fun.

Not me but a friend recently did. It turned out to be an infection in the gland. She's taking an antibiotic for it and it has improved. It wasn't fun.

Yes, and lemon drops is the way to go. See someone if it doesnt resolve and keep using the drops well after it seems to have gone.

I had to look it up too - it seems awful. So sorry for your suffering, and hope you can avoid it in future.

FWIW, one of the sources I read cited dehydration as one cause.

My hairdresser had a small lump in that area and it was cancerous. He had surgeries and radiation and chemo but nothing stopped it. I would get every bit of testing possible on it to be sure it is nothing. 🙏

I'm glad you're feeling better. If not, maybe time to accelerate your next visit to your dentist as a starting point.

What's an NTE?

ENT EARS NOSE THROAT🙏

It is a myth that coffee causes dehydration. It counts towards your daily fluid intake. Perhaps you are dehydrated but it won't be from drinking coffee.

I hope you are feeling better. I never read about it, but I will have to Google it. It sounds painful.

I've never even heard of saliva gland blockaage. So sorry you've had to go through this, but very glad you are getting better!

With all due respect to floral_uk, coffee is a mild diuretic, due to its caffiene content. Whether ir could cse dehydration or not would depend on the amount consumed and the person consuming it. Three or four cups a day probably wouldn't cause a problem. Karen, you said you drink 'lots' of coffee, but not how much 'lots' is. So I think it's entirely possible coffe may have helped contribute to dehydration. You know your body and its reactions. Dehydration is serious and can be dangerous (Ask me how I know). TTGL you recognised the problem and knew how to handle it! Take care of yourself (And keep painting)!

Rusty I looked it up because I’ve heard conflicting information over the years. From what I’m seeing, while caffein is a diuretic, the water in coffee offsets this. High doses of caffein for someone who is not used to it, can be dehydrating. With this quick search being the limit of my knowledge, at first glance it doesn’t ”seem to me” that coffee would be problematic here. But I’ll leave that for her doctors to judge.

Well I use a normal size coffee cup and from 5am to 8pm I average about 11 cups a day.

If it has happened to you before, there's a good chance it could happen again, so watch your fluid intake. Old age is one of the factors that can contribute to salivary gland blockage. We're all destined to break down eventually.

Wow, Karen, that is a lot of coffee per day!

I hope you are back to normal and feeling well now. And hopefully able to avoind any future reoccurnces of this problem. Dehydration is nothing to fool around with, it can cause so many problems, regardless of what caused it. Take care of yourself.