Question

What would happen if the glossopharyngeal nerve is damaged?

Answer 1

What would happen if the glossopharyngeal nerve is damaged is it would result in and cause difficulty swallowing also known as dysphagia as well as loss of taste or a bitter and or sour taste on the posterior third of your tongue and a reduced sensation in your palate/pharynx as well as an absent gag reflex and reduced salivation.

Damage to the glossopharyngeal nerve can also cause severe pain or neuralgia in your ear, throat or even tongue.

The common symptoms of damage to the glossopharyngeal nerve are dysphagia or difficulty swallowing, which can result in food getting stuck in your throat.

Loss of taste and loss of sensation on the posterior one third of your tongue and palate.

Decreased or absent sensation on your throat, palate and posterior tongue.

Diminished or absent gag reflex

Reduced saliva production, which leads to dry mouth.

And rare cases of a glossopharyngeal nerve being damaged can lead to neuralgia, which results in intense, stabbing pain in your throat, tongue or ear also known as glossopharyngeal neuralgia.

And your uvula might deviate to the side opposite the injury with glossopharyngeal nerve damage.

These symptoms of glossopharyngeal nerve damage often result from injury during procedures such as tonsillectomies or even from compression of the nerve by blood vessels or tumors pressing on the nerves or blood vessels.

The way glossopharyngeal nerve damage is treated through antiseizure medications like carbamazepine.

And antidepressants can help some people and in severe cases, when the pain with glossopharyngeal nerve damage is difficult to treat, surgery may be needed to take the pressure off the glossopharyngeal nerve.

The surgery for glossopharyngeal nerve damage to relieve the pressure off the glossopharyngeal nerve is called microvascular decompression surgery.

The glossopharyngeal nerve can sometimes regenerate through holes in the sieves.

In studies axons of the glossopharyngeal nerve regenerated through holes in the sieves and supported the functional regeneration of taste, thermal and mechanoreceptors.