Differentation Between Hair Cell Damage and Somatosensory Tinnitus?

[Tinniger]

Many tinnitus sufferers suspect noise damage, - but are not sure. (Me, too).

Moreover, somatic symptoms are not uncommon. (Somatic tinnitus).

Is there a way to distinguish between the two?
E. g. otoacustic emissions or similar?

Regards
Tinniger

 

[Tinniger]

Especially, - the therapy for noise damage and somatic tinnitus should be completely different...
In general, I have the impression that the diagnosis is given too little attention compared to potential therapy...

 

[SilverSpiral]

There is a lot more to hearing damage than just haircell damage to consider (such as synaptic damage).

From what I've read on this forum, it seems that very frequently people who have noise induced tinnitus develop somatic elements to their tinnitus. I don't have any references on hand, but I've read things along the lines that the theory is that this is how the brain (mal?)adapts to the loss of proper audio sensory input, by picking up sensory input from somatic elements where it didn't before. Sort of like a mix of brain plasticity and phantom limb syndrome following amputation.

Somatic tinnitus has happened in isolation, but I haven't read much about that, and I get the impression that this is usually experienced as pulsatile tinnitus, but I'm sure it varies. But it is very common overall to have people be able to change their tinnitus by moving their jaw and the like.

If you are part of the minority who has purely somatic tinnitus, the good news is that this usually seems to be much more treatable, but I don't have experience with that, but usually people talk about getting their spine andmusculoskeletal stuff. I've heard about sacro-cranial therapy (IE Julian Cowan Hill type stuff) but a lot of people put some heavy speculation on that stuff. It might be worth looking into if you think it applies to you.

 

[PaulBe]

I have the impression that the diagnosis is given too little attention compared to potential therapy

I think this quote says it all. The Specialty is at this time still not interested in complexity of diagnosis.

 

[Tinniger]

From what I've read on this forum, it seems that very frequently people who have noise induced tinnitus develop somatic elements to their tinnitus.

I have the suspicion that the somatic elements were not infrequently discovered only by dealing with the tinnitus.... and perhaps have always been there....

 

[SilverSpiral]

I have the suspicion that the somatic elements were not infrequently discovered only by dealing with the tinnitus.... and perhaps have always been there....

Yeah exactly, lots of people have reported temporary relief when they realize they can modulate their tinnitus by some somatic element and they get that part of their body worked on, but I never get the impression that they think they developed the body imbalance prior to tinnitus. Lots of the people who notice TMJ can modulate their tinnitus had TMJ issues prior to getting noise induced tinnitus.

 

[linearb]

Somatic tinnitus is generally a result of cochlear damage, not a standalone condition.

In general, I have the impression that the diagnosis is given too little attention compared to potential therapy...

This is because very few people are in a situation where they can hope to cure or eliminate their tinnitus as a result of somatic work. However, there seems to be a spectrum of how this works in different people, and some people do report significant subjective improvements from various physiotherapy interventions. It's likely to be highly personal and unpredictable, though.

 

[Tinniger]

Somatic tinnitus is generally a result of cochlear damage

??

I have understood somatic tinnitus in such a way that the problem is not the auditory organ, but e. g. the cervical spine, the musculature, the jaw joint etc., - and the auditory organ itself is healthy.

 

[PaulBe]

I have understood somatic tinnitus in such a way that the problem is not the auditory organ, but e. g. the cervical spine, the musculature, the jaw joint etc., - and the auditory organ itself is healthy.

Blood flow issues are a possibility here. Some sort of somatic pathology (a swelling, a slippage) could have a knock-on effect on the quality of blood flow in the region (too little, too much?) which may affect the auditory system at some point. Just a thought.

 

[Tinniger]

up..

I still do not know, whether I have a damage of my haircells..., - or not.
The audiogram shows al little bit more hearing loss than age-related...

 

[Tinniger]

Yeah exactly, lots of people have reported temporary relief when they realize they can modulate their tinnitus by some somatic element

I often have the thought that the discovery of somatic influence on tinnitus was counterproductive - and only made everything worse...

 

[Tinniger]

From what I've read on this forum, it seems that very frequently people who have noise induced tinnitus develop somatic elements to their tinnitus. I don't have any references on hand, but I've read things along the lines that the theory is that this is how the brain (mal?)adapts to the loss of proper audio sensory input, by picking up sensory input from somatic elements where it didn't before.

Sounds logical.
Nevertheless, there seem to be many tinnitus "experts" who are not familiar with somatic tinnitus.

 

[Tinniger]

Actually, this is a catastrophe that even the best tinnitus experts can't tell us if we have the same disease as someone with a blast trauma (pistol next to the ear), or something completely different....

 

[Tinniger]

Obviously, none of these so-called tinnitus experts has any idea how often tinnitus is caused by damage to the inner ear, or whether other problems are common, too.
This complete ignorance reminds me of the fairy tale of "the emperor's new clothes". Probably the whole manual of tinnitus is such a story. A huge handbook where the production of the many precious garments is described in detail.
But in reality the king is... naked.