Are Hyperacusis and Trigeminal Neuralgia Connected?

Anyone else also feel their facial veins swelling and or have a venous hum in their ear because of hyperacusis? It's hard ard to believe that one tiny tensor tympani muscle can cause people so much pain.

I really want to get mine cut so at least the hyperacusis will all be over.

 

I sometimes feel like something in my ear is lightly vibrating when it’s at its worst.

 

Hyperacusis is a cochlea problem. Don’t mutilate yourself for no good reason.

 

I've had super loud tinnitus in the past and it did feel like the sound was physically drilling a hole in my head.

 

Anyone here get headaches or migraines from hyperacusis as well? Or tightness/spasms on the roof of their mouth?

 

All the time... a month-long headaches...

 

Same man. It never ends. Ears spasmes, the nerve gets pissed, the veins inflame, rinse and repeat. I don't even get the loudness anymore just reactive spasms, ETD, nerve pain, and migraines about 25-28 days per month.

Do you get pulsatile tinnitus as well?

 

Yes they are connected. Tensor tympani is supplied by fifth cranial nerve, i.e. trigeminal nerve.

 

So is it possible to calm down the the trigeminal nerve with medication and then the Tensor Tympani issues will subside?

 

Not often. My main symptoms have always been ear pressure, migraines, pressure behind eyes, and irradiating towards temples an throat... It's pretty bad.

 

Same. I get venous hum in both ears on top of all that, and a lot of rumbling. The whole thing just drives me bonkers.

 

For me the symptoms started to subside when I started progressing towards hearing loss. So for me it was a trade off: lost a chunk of hearing, and now it is harder for me to understand sound in some contexts and situations, but wearing earplugs I am ok going for a walk etc, and the amount of pain and pressure has decreased a bit.

Before all that happened sound went through my body and head like a knife on butter. I could feel sound going literally through my head, like amplified bone conduction; it was just awful, and this was triggered by loud sounds that are commonplace.

 

Same but I haven't experienced any more hearing loss since my last accoustic trauma. Actually what you just said kind of matches up with the type II afferent theory going on in the FX-322 thread right now regarding hyperacusis.

 

Would you trade hearing loss for hyperacusis with better hearing?

 

I believe anti-convulsants just alter the pain signals/block them, they don't really "calm" the nerve itself if there's something else that is irritating it. I could be wrong though.

Are you referring to any other meds?

 

I experienced hearing loss only years after hyperacusis started, way down the road...

 

It's hard to say. I would say if I was retired I would rather stick with the hearing loss. But now probably I would prefer better hearing, as I need it to interact at work etc...

Hyperacusis is very painful and isolating but it is possible to interact, talk to others, sit in a group and enjoy the company, in a controlled environment (home, quiet place outside, park, the beach etc).

Hearing loss is isolating and frustrating, it is just that is hard to communicate even in controlled environments, and one needs to focus and pay full attention to listen to anything, so that's a big change for me. At the end of a normal (not a demanding) day it is usual to feel wrecked, very very tired, due to having to concentrate just to hear, something normal people do automatically.

 

Just Pregabalin... It seems to be the most promising option... Something is definitely irritating it... I can’t lift anything heavy... It seems to be getting worse/spreading... MRI showed nothing.

 

Hmmm... try it and see the response.

 

How are you doing now with the nerve issue?

 

I have recently been to a chiropractor who said my atlas/C1 is misaligned which is causing significant portion of my problems. Now it’s a matter on working on getting that fixed which my chiropractor is confident he can help.

 

That sounds great.

Is it a specialist or just a regular chiropractor?
Which symptom did you have from the nerve?

 

Hey I have a few questions, we seem to have very similar symptoms. Do you have ear pain and face pain or mostly face pain?

Any neck pain at all? Did they do imaging to figure out it's your atlas that’s misaligned?

And final one, do you find that your pain worsens with sound?

 

The right side has the bad hyperacusis. Lifting anything, and from stress and stuff, I get pain. I’m fairly sure the misaligned C1 was caused from lifting weights incorrectly.

My jaw radiates pain and is connected to noise sensitivity... maybe it’s connected to my neck.

 

Can you feel sound vibrations in your neck?

I can feel my nerves getting irritated by certain sounds, it feels like a rubberband in my neck and ear. I also get tingling or an electrical feeling in the back of my head.

 

I get pain in my jaw from sounds... though sometimes it feels like my whole nervous is system is going crazy... hard to describe... Kinda like everything is getting inflamed.

 

I have the same symptoms, maybe because I have TMJ and cervical problems (bad posture) for many years, but I did not have any trigeminal pain until now.

Now it exploded, I have pain almost 24/7, I cannot even put my face on the pillow, I have to sleep facing up, no side sleeping for me.

When the trigeminal nerve hurts I feel that also the neck hurts and the LDL is very low, my own voice hurts. I started yesterday Carbamazepine --- my neurologist gave it to me.

One of the causes are surely the earmuffs, when I put them on I feel a lot of pressure and pain to my trigeminal nerve. I stretched them a lot, but it seems that the nerve is too sensitive.

 

@Lilah, I have the exact same symptoms as you.

How are you these days? Did you improve in terms of pain?

Thanks.

 

I have not had a sharp pain (voodoo doll/ice pick) in my ear since that time (September 2020). I believe that was caused by my jaw, it as my ear/jaw were pressed on a hard wedge pillow on a very elevated level. I still have on/off dull ache in the same ear which I believe is caused by jaw or hyperacusis.

 

I know this thread is old, but I just wanted to say that I think you're onto something here. I had trigeminal neuralgia and "numb chin syndrome" in March of this year and it required a CT and MRI scan to check for a brain tumor (luckily nothing). Then in August I forgot my earplugs at a wedding and developed pain hyperacusis two days later; still hoping it'll go away!

There's some good and bad news here. If these nerve issues are truly related, there are some alternative therapies that seem to have actual scientific efficacy for facial nerves like electroacupuncture, LLLT, and even some supplements. For example, I found that Alpha Lipoic Acid seemed to decrease the incidence of my facial numbness, as did regular cardio. I'll be trying a lot of different things with this in mind over the next few months and I'll post again with results