Salivary Stone

Something in the mouth is no longer right. There is a pressure under the tongue or in front of the ear, a pulling that intensifies when you think of something sour or put it in your mouth. Sometimes the gland swells, sometimes it hurts so much that you can hardly swallow. And then it turns out: something has hardened in the salivary gland. A small, stony condensation — right in the middle of an organ that is actually responsible for flow.

That is the real peculiarity of this symptom. Saliva is flow. It is soft, moist, mobile. It is the first encounter between your body and everything you take in — the first welcome, the first taste, the first step of digestion. When a stone suddenly sits in such a fluid system, something soft has stiffened. Something that wanted to stream has crystallised. Something living has become hard.