Dental Work (Including Drilling) & Tinnitus — Questions and Experiences

I've also had fillings and drilling with no adverse effects on my tinnitus.

However the ultrasonic tooth cleaning on my molars caused a permanent increase. The procedure shouldn't go past 30 minutes, they spent 45 minutes due to the condition of my tarter buildup.

If anyone gets this procedure at the minimum opt for manual cleaning when it comes down to your molars. Ideally have the manual cleaning done for all your teeth.

 

Hi @Ahat

I am no longer able to have dental work done, because of my extreme sensitivities to the chemicals and vapors that are so ubiquitous for most dental procedures. So I haven't been to a dentist in many years.

I have learned how to address various pain syndromes that come along now and then however. I irrigate with hydrogen peroxide a few times per week. On a regular basis, I put 1-2 grams of vitamin c powder (sodium ascorbate) in my mouth, and let it soak into my gums for several minutes before swallowing. I often combine the Vit. C with a few drops of DMSO so it absorbs deeply in the teeth and gum tissue. I also use a chlorine dioxide solution to keep various oral infections at bay. And I do oil pulling on a fairly regular basis.

It looks like you'll need to have some dental work done regardless, but I think if you did some of the above things, you could at least get significant pain relief for now, and perhaps be able to delay the dental work until you're in a less anxious state of mind. -- BTW, the chlorine dioxide trick (called MMS) is amazing for quickly reducing infections and associated pain. Also, I've come to believe that drinking bone broth regularly will not only prevent cavities, but can heal dental caries that have already started (I realize this goes against conventional wisdom).​

 

I had a filling done just last week, not a problem. Get an understanding dentist and all will be fine.

 

Proper and non delay dental treatments has few concerns. Drilling off and on may be wise, along with keeping the neck straight so muscles and the c spine are not affected. People who clench teeth can end up with loose teeth where removal and/or an implant in needed. Using a mouth guard or relaxing mouth techniques should be done to protect teeth.

Infection and trauma within the mouth that's not addressed can later cause serious somatic reactions and consequences as several here and myself have noted.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3052669/

 

I need drilling and filling done on my upper molar near to my worst ear. Big filling. Was dreading this news that eno one day come. I know ear plugs would make worse through occlusion effect. Would there be any benefit from noise cancelling ear muffs? Any positive experiences would be helpful guys. Any ideas. I don't have many teeth so can't afford to lose it.

 

Can you wait until FX-322 comes out?

 

Just looked it up. Looks early days for this. Think my tooth will not last.

 

This is interesting. I had issue with ultrasonic and now have manual cleaning instead. I hope drilling is better for me than ultrasonic. I think the ultrasonic experience makes me nervous of the drill work I need done. I take hope from fact that dril was not so bad for you.

 

See if they can use an electric powered/laser drill, the air powered ones are way louder. Have them drill for 5 seconds and stop for 10 etc, it's tedious so make them understand why.

 

That's a tough cookie your in man. That drill could certainly hurt your ears.

 

Does wisdom tooth removal have any loud procedures during the removal.

I know its usually done with anesthesia but Idk if I should be worried or not

 

Have read through the posts and wearing earplugs seems not to be wise but noise cancelling headphones maybe of benefit. Would like to hear from those who have tried noise cancelling headphones for drill work. I may try it out using electronic toothbrush.

 

Not long back from dentist after having old amalgam filling drilled out and replaced. I wore NC headphones and it helped a lot. It wasn't quiet but quite bearable. I would advise using them. I will no longer fear the drill in the future. Just need to conquer flying next.

 

Michael - You believe it is a needless worry. I believe you are wrong.

For 50 years I never had tinnitus let alone really knew what was.

I then went to the dentist to get a crown (my first) and came out with 14khz T that is so loud it can compete with conversations.

 

There are always exceptions to the rules Jimchicago. I once counselled someone whose tinnitus had got considerably worse after dental treatment. I am sorry to hear of your discomfort and hope the tinnitus improves.

Michael

 

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but @Stina you suggest the below which I hadn't heard before. Could you explain this please?

 

And apologies to be late to the party again but @demi have you used air abrasion and how did you find it? Was it reasonably quiet? Thanks again!

 

Here's a last question, should we be worried about the ototoxicity of the injection used when teeth are drilled?

 

I had my upper right molar extracted a couple of days ago (#3 tooth) as I will be getting an implant.

He did have to use the drill for several very brief moments (5 seconds, etc.) but it was very loud and temporarily hurt my ears. It did spike my Tinnitus, but not until an hour after I left. Usually spikes happen faster, right?

On any rate, hopefully it will go back down but I did not wear ear protection, however, I feel like it could have helped if I would have (such as ear protection muffs).

I might need a crown and root canal on my bottom right molar. The root canal specialist said the drilling is very short, but the crowning process would take time. I do wonder if I should wear ear muffs. There are so many mixed opinions about this. Confusing.

 

@dh42

T spikes can definitely be delayed for hours to even days.

Earplugs do not help with the sound inside your mouth do to the occlusion effect, and actually make it louder as the sound bounces around. I am not sure if ear muffs work any better, but it seems the NC canceling may be the best choice in this scenario.

 

Are noise cancelling headphones where you can listen to music?

I have just basic ear protection headphones such as when mowing the lawn.

 

@dh42

For mowing the lawn, those are ear muffs, and just reduce noise.

Noise cancelling headphones send an inverted sound wave to cancel out the sound.

https://www.amazon.com/Cancelling-H...id=1556926052&s=gateway&sprefix=noise+&sr=8-3

 

How long would one have to wait if an increase of tinnitus is do to dental work? I had all four of my wisdom teeth taken out and dont have an increase yet.

 

Thanks. So do you listen to music with these as they do the canceling? Totally unfamiliar with them.

 

@rdz If you did not spike the T after say a week from the wisdom tooth extractions, you should be fine.

@dh42 I don't have noise canceling headphones personally. I have not listened to any music via headphones since T, but really did not use them before anyway. I am concerned that the headphones are too close to my ears and can give additional damage.

 

Digital doc,

I actually got my Tinnitus from poor quality headphones (in Nov 2014).

I was doing some online training at my job - borrowed a pair from a co-worker who warned me they were "not very good" (what an understatement!).

I plugged them into my computer to listen and the volume on my PC was turned up way too loud before I could turn it down; but at the same time the headphones produced a very scratchy, crackling type of audio. They obviously were not working right.

BAM.

After several seconds my ears started ringing ever since.

 

It sounds like you got T from an a acoustic trauma:

That's your acoustic trauma. There is no reason to believe that a "better" set of headphones would have protected your ears from T. Perhaps a different set would, but the root cause of your problem was the signal you fed your headphones, not the headphones themselves.

All headphones (and generally, all speakers) have a limit in what they can put out and will saturate if you feed them "too loud of a signal". It doesn't mean they were not working right: it just means you drove them too hard (by mistake). When that happens, they make all kinds of weird loud sounds (crackling, etc), and ears don't take that very well.

 

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The Headphones were the trigger for sure. I visited Dr. Jastreboff and he said based on tests, my hearing loss was not typical of that from acoustic damage over time but perhaps viral/flu or caused from a medication (although I've never taken an ototoxic med) . The headphones even at a lower volume were not great (although not bothersome). I ended up using another pair after and were much better. So yeah, they were crap. Looking back, it wasn't like the volume was super high initially. But something about the combination of sounds and volume - keeping the ears "trapped" with headphones brought it on. Either way, doesn't matter now. Just trying to figure out the best approach going forward for dental work - appears to be no clear answer.

 

I'm not arguing with the fact that their quality was subpar, but that is somewhat irrelevant: poor sound reproduction at low volume is unlikely to give you an acoustic trauma: it'll just sound bad.

 

You seem to want to argue. I've had lots of louder exposures in my life (music, home theater, etc.) It was an odd combination of somewhat loud sound and weird sounds. It just sounded very strange.