I have been able to be in silence longer and longer without noticing the T. It's not going away it's like melting into my subconscious.. Sometimes ... But now I have ear pain! I had it before but was kind of in denial .. It's like soft achy pain... I just feel like once one thing gets a little better there is something else lurking ... Doesn't the ear pain mean non treatable hypercausis?
I have that from time to time. Ear pain. I noticed when I am at home laying down and even tho I'm not bothered by it as much I still focus on it and then I start to get ear pain. I don't know how to describe it so I don't know if it's the same but still I know how you feel. I'm happy for you that you are slowly in the process. Good luck and have a good weekend!
Recovery is never a straight line. You are going to have bumps in the road. As time progresses the bumps will be fewer. When my T started I had some pain in my ear that came and went. Eventually it went away after a few weeks or so.
I've had pain and pressure in my ear for over a year. It's not related to an ear infection or wax. I've been to 5 ENTs and they all say your ears are fine. Does the pain ever go away?
My ear pain diminished but it took awhile. The ENT was fairly useless in diagnosing the problem other than to say it was not the auditory nerve (which she claimed is incapable of conveying physical pain, go figure). She said perhaps some other cranial nerves were inflamed and to take Advil. She then said come back and see her in a year. Gee thanks. At any rate, the pain can diminish over time. Mine isn't gone but it's not as bad as it was, thank God. It took months to see a change though. Anti-inflammatories like Advil helped a little bit but I couldn't take them long term as they are hard on my stomach. Time seemed to be the biggest factor when it came to easing the pain.
Did you find that it got to be VERY painful? Mine is kind of like a soft ache but of course the fear is that could get worse and worse. I did tell my husband at least PAIN is treatable. Tinnitus is not (other than habituation). So I suppose that is somewhat of a silver lining. If I'm getting used to the ringing at least I can take a pill for the ear pain. I'm not trying to minimize it I'm just trying to be positive
Yes, it was very painful. It was like having a sharp ear ache that would not go away. It actually hurt when I touched the ear canal. Every doctor that looked in my ears said they saw nothing though. Not even redness. It was quite frustrating because, since the doctors couldn't see a physical manifestation of pain (redness, etc.), they didn't take my claims that it hurt seriously. I think this had a lot to do with the fact that most MD's don't really understand tinnitus, hyperacussis and other auditory nerve issues that well. I can only hope that more research will be done in this area.
I also had a dull pain in my ears ... during and after my ear infection was treated ... that would come and go. It has become less and less frequent. Initially it happen multiple times a day, and now maybe once or twice a week. My PA just told me it took a long time for ears to heal.
get to a PT who can assess intra oral trigger points and get your lateral pterygoids checked out. In my experience, my ear pain is always muscle tension related.
The last time I needed a new trigger point PT, I used the provider directory at the Barnes Myofascial certification website (https://www.myofascialrelease.com/find-a-therapist/). I'm sure there are other PTs out there who do this work well, I don't think the Barnes people have a monopoly on it, but that could be an okay starting point. In my case, I had (and still deal with on and off) really severe trigger points and tension all through my neck, back, shoulders and jaws. You can work the lateral pterygoids yourself, but it's a lot easier to figure out how to do it after you've had someone else poke around in your mouth. Basically you want to poke up into the space above and behind your rear top wisdom teeth, applying pressure to the muscles in your cheek. It's a hard spot to hit because the skull makes it hard to access, and so you can't really get at the entire muscle, but a skilled therapist who does this kind of work will be able to release most of it. If it's really tight and twisted up there, it's pretty alarmingly uncomfortable (painful) to have those points released, but there isn't really anything else that works, and the relief following a session was generally worth it for me. Note that while this could go a long ways towards relieving ear pressure and face/jaw pain (and even headaches, teeth grinding, etc), I wouldn't expect it to do much for tinnitus per se. I'm sure some people have gotten relief from tinnitus by releasing those muscles, but it doesn't really change mine (with the exception that when those muscles are really messed up, it can crank my tinnitus up to 120%, and then releasing it brings it back down to normal).
I have had intermittent ear pain since this started, with this weekend being some of the worst I've dealt with. Thankfully its cooled off a bit. That said, @linearb is spot on with the mouth massage. It hurts like hell but does help with ear "fullness". I have another appointment on Thursday with a cranial PT, who in addition to the TMJ release described above, has done adjustments to my sphenoid, which has been incredibly helpful in regards to a lot of the trigeminal issues I was having that started with my tinnitus.
@linearb Thank you for the suggestion. I'll look into finding a good PT. I know my jaw is tight from whiplash. Hopefully, it will help with the ear pain.
