Tinnitus and TMJ — Sometimes the Tinnitus Gets Louder When Eating / Chewing

So, as is the common path for tinnitus, I'm working to address any and all possible underlying causes, and I recently learned that I have substantial teeth grinding, although it's never been called TMJ. But I know I retain a lot of stress in my jaws and my jaw structure has always tended to contribute to ear popping on the left side, where my tinnitus is.

I was just diagnosed with mild hearing loss in that ear, which is a combination of conductive and neuro-sensory. So, given that part of it is conductive, I'm thinking addressing the TMJ/jaw structure thing couldn't hurt. And even though I'd attribute the tinnitus mainly to this new diagnosis (maybe combined with an ear infection last fall), I've noticed it tends to spike sometimes when eating and chewing food.

Does anyone else's tinnitus act this way? I'm thinking of trying a simple mouth guard and wondering if anyone else has had any success doing this.

 

I don't really understand why, but researchers are saying hearing damage and TMD/TMJ have several crossovers that interact with one another. Try to correct your TMD it may help.