Elongated styloid process: Report of a case

We encountered a patient whose chief complaint was swallowing pain due to elongated styloid process.We describe a report of this case with some discussion. The patient was 51-year-old male who visited our hospital with chief complaint of swallowing pain.Clinical examination of the oral cavity showed slight redness mucosa of the left tonsillar fossa.The X-ray film showed the left styloid process abnormally elongated, the tip of which extended to the mandiblar angle.Under a clinical diagnosis of the elongated styloid process, this process was removed by a intraoral approach. Whithin 1 week after operation, swallowing pain disappered.Recently the incidence of laryngo-pharyngeal neurosis is increasing, and it should be kept in mind that an elongated styloid process is not rare. In the diagnosis of this abnormality, orthopantomography seems to be better than another radiography.