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Soft Palate Clicking Quite Loud Every time it Drops? Socially Distressing...

Every time my soft palate drops, it makes a clicking or "popping" noise loud enough for others to hear. It's also quite noticeable to people when I'm on the phone with them. About a month ago I had a sinus infection and ear infection, and this clicking noise began. Went on antibiotics, had the infection clear up, and the clicking noise stayed.

Upon investigation, I noticed that it was my soft palate. It clicks after I finish a sentence, say a word, or even between syllables in the middle of a sentence. It also clicks sometimes when I inhale or exhale through the mouth. Finally, I noticed it clicks when I swallow every now and then as well...but it's mostly the clicking at the end of speech that is causing me problems whenever it drops.

Here's an audio recording for reference: https://vocaroo.com/1fg6p0JFx9lf

...as you can hear, it's pretty obvious and not something I'm able to just "ignore."

For some reason, my palate does NOT click at all when I am laying down flat. I can speak without clicking, no problem, when laying down. It is also less noticeable in the mornings, and subsides quite a bit for about an hour after I eat a meal.

I've had sinus surgery 4 years ago to alleviate recurring sinus infections. Hadn't had ENT issues since then. I'm a 22 year old male...recently lost 30 pounds from 200 to 170. Not sure if any of this is relevant. I've seen an ENT recently and a neuro for a separate issue about 6 months ago. I'm quite confident it's not palatal myoclonus since my palate does not rhythmically contract all day. And I'm pretty sure it's not something neurological like MG, as I had a complete workup done for a separate reason in 2020 with everything coming back completely clean.

The ENT has no idea what is causing this, and I basically got a "good luck." Has anyone heard of this, or have any clue what this could be? Has been extremely bothersome in social situations...
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Avatar universal
Hello,

I am writing because this problem has been happening to me for approximately 9 months or so. In May of 2021 I had an adenoidectomy and tonsillectomy with turbinate reduction surgery. Healing took approximately 3 months, and that is when I noticed the clicking sounds. Clicking sounds were occurring inconsistently whenever I produced consonant sounds and at times during production of vowels. The clicking sound at that time was inconsistent and not apparent everyday. Nowadays, it happens quite frequently on any sound I make.

The ENT performed a nasendoscopy and said the popping sound was coming from the Fossa of Rosenmuller. He prescribed antihistamines, increase hydration and nasal drops. This did not help. Clicking would still occur even after trying this. Also, the click sound does go away depending on my posture, if lying on my back, but obviously this is not practical for every day to speak in this posture.

Throughout the year, I have had many instances where other people would hear the sound. I work in a profession that requires me to speak a lot, so this is very socially debilitating for me. I have kept records of what has worked for me, hope this helps:

- sparkling water seems to reduce it, however only temporarily.
- hacking up phlegm (I know this sounds gross) seems to help the click go away.
- For some STRANGE reason, drinking tea for approximately one week helped the clicking go away for about a month. Then the clicking came back only rarely. Now it is back every single day. The tea I was drinking for a month had the following ingredients in it:
--- Lemon peel, garlic and garlic peel, onion and onion peel, "romerillo" it's used for cough throughout Central America (a small flower with white petals and a yellow bud), avocado leaf, and ginger. Not sure which ingredient helped in this tea but I would drink this every night for about a week and it helped.

This is of course not any medical advise or recommendations. This is my experience with this problem.

Turns out that I had an ENT appointment set up months prior to drinking this tea, so when I showed up to my appointment, my luck, the ENT said he could not help me because I no longer had the click. I told him that it comes back... he wished me good luck. Charged my insurance $800 for the 5 minutes he attended me but that's another story.

I hope this helps.
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Avatar universal
For the past two months I have had the same issue. It does not occur involuntarily or rhythmically like palatal myoclonus, though sometimes it happens when head is tilted forwards and at the climax of breathing in. I also have accompanied clicking sounds coming from the inner ear sometimes if I tilt my head. (I can voluntarily force the soft palate to move up and down and this issue happens). Went to the ENT and they suspected palatal myoclonus but it does not present the same at all. My theory is that it has to do with muscle imbalances and a fix may be by doing soft palate strengthening exercises- though I only started doing these today so I do not know how long it may be until there could be a positive effect.

For me this issue started around the time I started sleeping without a pillow and my head tilted back- do not know if this is related. I have since stopped sleeping this way. There is another discussion about this issue on this forum somewhere with more people talking about this issue.
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