Can Wearing Eyeglasses Trigger Tinnitus?

Here is a question for the group.

It is something I discounted from my early googling and talking to medical professionals but it continues to tickle the back of my mind. Here it is: The day before the night I woke up with sudden onset tinnitus (never had it before, no noise event, no known infection) I wore prescription eyeglasses all day long. Previously I hadn't worn glasses for years. I had just gotten a new pair and wanted to try them out.

Yes audiograms show that I have some hearing loss and I assume that was a precondition to this happening, but now that I understand that this is much more a neurological condition than just an ear condition I wonder whether wearing prescription lenses, essentially modifying my visual set of sensory inputs could have triggered my tinnitus.

Any thoughts? Anyone ever hear of such a thing?

 

No.

 

I cannot confidently say No, but I have never had such a problem with eyeglasses.

 

probably no

 

How could wearing eyeglasses possibly do anything regarding your ears or tinnitus? I suppose if you had thick and irritating frames, it might bother your ears?

Is there even one study or scientific paper about eye glasses contributing or relating to tinnitus? I am guessing none.

Ditto to the question of changing eye sight or change in optical prescription.

 

Gaze eye or gaze evoked tinnitus is well known. It can relate to jaw and neck movements where some will get blurred vision by bending head forward and down. A change in glass lens or from wearing none can disrupt DCN fusiform cells to any of the many cortex areas within the brain. This is the same for those with headaches, visual snow, floaters, acoustic neuroma or intracranial hypertension.

 

I know that! I believe it can't cause tinnitus!

But if I say it unconfidently it's because there are many root causes of tinnitus so no surprise if someday a scientist proves that wearing eyeglasses causes tinnitus!

 

Eyeglasses in principle have nothing to do with tinnitus.

 

I believe that also.

Eye problems and blurred vision such as etiology noted in the optic canals anterior to the optic chiasm can be caused by other problems that can connect with tinnitus.
Other conditions - partial list
herniated disc
cervical degeneration disc disease and dysfunction
concussion
whiplash
cervico-ocular reflex
vestibulo-occular reflex
Meniere's disease
Labyrinthitis
sternocleidomastoid issues
intracranial hypertension
thyroid issues
visual snow
floaters
fusiform cell trauma
gaze eye

 

It makes no sense. Do you know how many people wear glasses?

 

Still not primarily an eye or vision problem.

 

We're not fighting each other, I agree with you, I do wear glasses myself. There are some other eye conditions which are related to ears but wearing glasses IMO No! If it was for the glasses you could have a laser surgery and T would disappear as a side effect

 

Quite unlikely.

 

Yes! It could be so!

I had this humming sound or like an idling car motor in my ears many years ago. It started several weeks ago again. In regards to your question about the glasses... it came to my attention that I had been wearing my glasses since I've been home due to this Covid 19 virus pandemic. The part of my glasses that go over my ear irritates that area. Also, since my prescription is high the lenses are heavy. I have noticed myself using my temple and scalp muscles to somehow hold my glasses back closer to my face...if you get what I'm saying... this may stress out the inner ear area to cause this sound in my head?

 

No, wearing eyeglasses does not trigger tinnitus.

 

AfroSnowman, sorry half of these people say rude things like “why would glasses have anything to do with tinnitus?”

Yes, there are apparently several ways your vision is associated with auditory pathways. Everyone, tinnitus is a blanket term for an audible sound where there is no external source. You may have sensorineural or somatic tinnitus in which certain muscle movements in the face or neck modulate the sound (as is the case for me). Or even “GET”; gaze evoked tinnitus in which eye movements modulate the tinnitus.

Now I’m no specialist, but have read quite a bit to try and figure my own tinnitus out, but yes, your tinnitus can absolutely be potentially caused by visual issues. A neurologist is likely who some of us need to see, not an audiologist or ENT. People are misinterpreting where the sound is perceived as coming from. Mine is indeed from my eyes. It feels like a numbing sensation and my vision seems to be slowly getting worse as I get older (I’m only 36). I’m only now realizing this and hopefully going to find out more this next week with a neurologist. I am concerned the COVID-19 vaccine damaged my CNS and no doctor wanted to even entertain that. One year later, it very well could be the case.