Hoping someone can point me in the right direction with an issue I'm having. A few months back, I noticed the parotid gland in my left cheek was inflamed/swollen. No pain, just some mouth dryness and an annoyance in my mouth. Had it checked out by a periodontist and was told I had a blocked parotid gland. He suggested giving it some time to pass on its own and if not, then to see an ENT so that it would be removed. Fast forward to this last week, I noticed the gland in my right cheek doing the same thing. I went to the ENT and he examined my face and neck and was not worried about any kind of growths or anything like that. He suggested getting a CT scan to see if there were stones there and if there were, scheduling a Sialoendoscopy to remove the stones. He mentioned that he would have to find somewhere in Houston that has the equipment to perform such a procedure, which was odd to me. It seemed like a pretty lengthy procedure for something relatively minor. He said that if it's not causing any pain or doesn't get infected, that it could be left untreated with no other repercussions. He suggested sucking on lemons and sour candies, drinking water, and massaging it, which I have been doing. Just curious if anyone else has experienced something similar and what they did about it.

Also wondering if there are any ENTs or other medical professionals on here that could offer any advice on what I should do. This ENT was pretty young and I don't know if he had a ton of experience in this area.

Thanks in advance for your help.

All of that is pretty reasonable. Make sure you drink tons of water, use warm compresses and suck on lemon drops or Vitamin C tablets if and when it starts to get inflamed. If it is a recurring thing, you should definitely get further workup. Sometimes a CT can show stones or other parotid pathology, sometimes a sonogram can show the same thing or a dilated parotid duct which would indicate stones or strictures. If it recurs frequently, evaluation for autoimmune disease with labs, including Sjogren's disease, can be helpful. Sialoendoscopy equipment is really specialized, and expensive. For that reason, not all that many people offer it. Think of an endoscope that go into a couple of millimeter wide duct, strong enough to make a fairly sharp turn around a muscle in the cheek without breaking, through which you can pass a basket to retrieve a stone or an instrument to dilate a duct that has scarred down (usually related to a stone that has passed). Ergo not all that many people do it. I took the training courses to do it years ago, but my main hospital wouldn't purchase the equipment. If it gets to that point, it might just mean going to see someone at the nearest teaching hospital's head and neck faculty. Cheers

I ended up having to go to a head/neck surgeon to get my salivary stone removed. My ENT wasn't able to do it. Ended up at UT Physicians downtown Houston at Dr. Karni and would highly recommend him.

He left it up to me on whether I wanted it removed or not, but it was bothering me enough that I wanted it out.