Does Fleeting Tinnitus Scare You?

I get them about 1-2 times per day. Each lasts between 30 seconds and about 2 minutes.

 

I have read it just recently on more than one site relating to dental tinnitus. It's one of the first things mentioned. It has something to do with the 8 nerve that travels from the jaw to the ear. One site said that bending your neck will get you tinnitus way more than the drill itself. One site said that many dentists have a little tinnitus, but that is after years of treating patients. It's a slow development for a dentist to develop tinnitus. I guess it's because the drill isn't in their mouth. I remember reading that the sounds of the drill on your ear doesn't usually give a patient tinnitus and usually won't increase it for those that do. Although spikes sometimes happen lasting up to two weeks.

 

Sorry Bill, I posted my reply to you on the wrong thread.

 

Doesn't your posture in the dental chair depend on the shape of the chair? Is the default shape safe, as far as T goes?

 

Yes, I think so. The dentist that I went to for the implant, not my regular dentist had a head rest that was rounded. I had research dental chairs last weekend and many manufacturers make chairs where the head rest is like a hard pillow. So with those types, any bending of the neck forward will set one in a worse posture position. From the waist up - one's back, neck and head should be a straight line. I think the reason why I was bending my neck down was the pressure that the dentist was applying to place the metal implant into my lower front jaw. He was pressing really hard and my front jaw was killing me for several days. I can't take pain meds. At least the meds that dentists and ER docs give. --- Something else - two different kinds of metal in one's mouth can react with a positive and a negative causing high pitch tinnitus. My implant and crowns have two different kinds of metal. For those that didn't have tinnitus before or from another reason will lose their tinnitus if one type of the metal is taken out of their mouths. 20% of people who are older have more than one type of dental metal in their mouths.

 

How old are we talking about?

This is how I like all of my seats to be. Unfortunately, in the past 10 years or so, all of the cars seats and airplane seats force your head forward.

Would you say that one is more likely to be ok if one pushes one's head back into the headrest?

Is that because pain meds are ototoxic?

 

I think the article said 55.

The neck bending is a problem during drilling because that allows sounds to travel a wide open highway thru veins to your ear.

Yes, I'm one that can't even take magnesium.

 

@Greg Sacramento The solution is to push one's head as much into the headrest as possible, right? Or should one visit one's dentist the day before, and check out the shape of their headrests?!

 

It does scare me, but at least for me the frequency has dropped considerably. Used to happen quite a bit a year ago. Now, I can't remember the last time it happened.

 

Just before one starts, I get maybe one second of complete silence in the affected ear. That one second is golden and for that reason I look forward to episodes of fleeting tinnitus. I have one maybe one every couple weeks, but I would welcome them more often on account of the one second of silence.

Here is an interesting presentation by Dr. Robert Levine on fleeting tinnitus (also called SBUTT - Spontaneous, Brief, Unilateral, Tapering Tinnitus).

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...VzdGlubml0dXNzaXRlfGd4OjFkMjQzMGY3YTkzYjRjNDE

 

It doesn't seem to explain why T sufferers seem to get these more often than the general population...

 

No, it does not. This paper on fleeting tinnitus / SBUTT, also by Dr. Levine, contains more information than the presentation, but still no definititve answers.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...VzdGlubml0dXNzaXRlfGd4OjMzZmU3MmNlNjhmZGQzOWM

 

Interesting paper. Thanks for the link. It lends credence to the idea of fleeting T as some sort of error correcting mechanism.

That doesn't take us from point A (having T) to point B (curing T), but it is yet another piece of the puzzle.

 

Is fleeting T dangerous? I had one a moment ago and one 2 days ago, before that I can't remember. Both in the same right ear. The tone went away the first time but it took time, I still have the tone now in my right ear (5 minutes) although it is a bit faded.

Does this mean there is any damage done, or is it harmless?

 

In another thread on this site, someone suggested that these fleeting spikes might be our brains trying to heal themselves. This hypothesis is consistent with the fact that people with T get these more often than healthy people.

The link in this thread states that fleeting T can be stopped by opening one's mouth wide. If these bother you, you may consider trying to open your mouth wide. I think I will not be doing that, just in case these fleeting T spikes promote healing...

 

Ok thanks. I had it a third time just now. Really weird because I had a relatively good and calm day today and my T didn't even spike once.

The tone is staying for now but I read that it is called prolonged spontanious tinnitus and it is harmless, big relief. Whats weirder is that the third time my T pitched higher in rhythm a couple of times and it sounded like that tinnitus relief youtube someone posted here where you hear random beeps.

 

Get it from time to time...in the beginning i thought i was getting worse and sometimes it occured after exposure to loud noise. I did experience it for a few seconds today but i was in a very quiete room so its pretty much a totally random occurance. Havent had one in a while though.

 

My first fleeting tinnitus that happened 4 days after onset actually gave me a panic attack. I dont know exactly how, it was a new sound and my curiousity peaked and I started listening to it. Before I knew it I thought I am having a hearth attack.

But not anymore. It still happens from time to time. There were days when I got 3 or 4. And there were weeks when I didnt get any. I actually am experiencing now spike that last for second day and I got fleeting tinnitus again today, but it was first time since March, I believe.

 

I get fleeting tinnitus every other day. It used to scare the hell out of me in the beginning but now I keep calm. Of course it still startles me because the pressure in my head seems to suddenly 'drop' along with the noise, but once I get over the initial shock, I remember that it'll go away. So It doesn't scare me anymore.

 

When I had my hearing trauma, I started to have them aaaaaalllll the time (with another things that I still always have). Now that I have a constant tinnitus and hearing loss, it seems to happens less but I still have some sometimes so I guess I'm just used to it now :/