Hi and Next Steps :)

Hello gents,

nice to meet you. I am a 35 yo guy who's been living in Germany for seven years.
It all started back in September - I was on vacation in Sicily when one night I told my gf I could hear somehtign strange in my ear. It wasnt anything close to being strong, I was mostly laughing about it.

A few days later after a night where I was very late a more than tipsy. That night a friend had given me a pill (pill as in drugs, not sure what it was) , I wake up the day after with a bad cold and again that, still not too disturbing, high pitch in my ear.

Well on Monday I need to fly despite not feeling in great shape due to work. While in Spain I remember the ringing already being strong enough that I woke up and never fell asleep again. Then back to Germany and then an other flight home for a wedding. At this point the ringing reaches the worst and has never changed ever since.

Seen ENT doctors that, after a few exams, both concluded I have sever tinnitus. Given my cold and the flights they all initially thought it would go away by itself, well until it didn't and it was clear that all exams were saying that my ears are simply fine and I can hear any single frequency just OK. One doctor told me just to wait 3 months so I can be accepted by a specialised clinic.

I ended up doing acupuncture and neural therapy. It doesnt seem to help.
My tinnitus is somatic. I can make it louder and higher by pressing/moving muscles around my jaw and neck. It's loud enough that I can hear it even when shooting white noise into my ears. Sometimes I can localise it coming from the right ear, some other times it's just a noise coming from an hard to define area of my head.

I still have to finish my current neural therapy but was wondering what my next steps could be.
Well thanks for reading if you made it so far

 

I suggest going down the diagnosis path to try and figure out a root cause.
This flowchart can help you (and your doctors): https://www.tinnitusresearch.net/index.php/for-clinicians/diagnostic-flowchart

 

Very informative chart

 

@Francesco From looking at your photo with every noticeable detail I would read this article that contains several pages. It appear that neck muscle strain and posture is placing pressure on your jaw. You may also have oral cavity problems from association with neck or independent.

I would consider seeing a specialized dentist to examine your jaw and for any dystonia. I would consider getting a c-spine X ray.

There's several pages to this article. https://starecta.com/craniocervical-mandibular-system/
See picture #74. For this condition there's is treatment.

https://sites.google.com/site/oromandibulardystoniaenglish/

 

Many thanks guys I'll make sure to bring the pdf to my doctor tomorrow.

 

Hey guys,

I have a dentist appointment the 24th of December with a dentist. I am also trying to book a session for a spine MRI.
In the meantime I wanted to explain a little bit more the nature of my tinnitus in the hope someone has had something similar. Also in a previous reply somebody though that my profile pic is what I normally look like, well that was just a weird face - I do not look slanted like that

Like I said it's somatic "with resistance". As in, if I apply pressure with a hand to my jaw and let my jaw adjust naturally (rag-doll style to be clear) nothing changes. On the other side If I apply resistance with my jaw (like to counter the pressure applied by my hand) to keep the jaw in place then my tinnitus goes through the roof. It does increase in loudness and frequency.

This happens to both ears. Depending on which side I push my jaw towards, I can control which ear gets the temporary tinnitus (which fades as soon as I release pressure).

Also if I just stretch the nerves around my neck just by contracting the neck muscles, I also get increased tinnitus. Only to my right ear though, which is the one that has tinnitus by default.

In the evening when I am in bed T seems to be more equally distributed.
I also notice that since T came around, it's easier for me to get a headaches. Not strong ones but they are annoying. At times I have a feeling I do not have perfect balance - this may just be me overthinking stuff though.

My theory is that left and right ear have the same problem - only difference is that left ear isn't as messed up as the right one, hence in standard condition I only perceive T in the right ear. Something must have changed that's causing these problems, not sure what, perhaps a trauma whose effects only showed up long time later.

Final rant: it is so hard to find a doctor who actually takes his time to think what may actually be going on. Last ENT, after injecting me Cortison, said (and I cite literally), let's hope it'll go. Without even knowing or caring about the fact the my T is somatic. A other one just gave me the number of a clinic for habituation to T.

Curious to hear your voice.

 

@Francesco I would consider a pervious injury similar to whiplash - or neck muscle tension that placed pressure on your c spine causing a structural change. With this, it's possible that a constant pull on imbalance muscles placed pressure on the sphenoid bone and membranes causing a blood supply pumping drag of fluid. This effect happens from the cranial motor system.

I would consider talking to your GP for some X Rays of your c spine.

If this is the case and it often is for many, gently reserving cranial motion to free up compressed skull bones may help. Myofascial release techniques used to release spastic muscles may also help along with occipital nerve stretching. You may also need ALF appliances to correct cranial stress patterns and your dentist can advise when you see him on December 24th.

Update: Extensive cranial motor action and sensory nerves can place pressure on the trigeminal nerve. This process that I have discussed to your complaints to increase sounds within your noted areas is documented and much talked about per many case studies. Also recommended besides neck X Rays is to test for low blood sugar. Testing for a twisted cranial or pressured nerve needs to considered depending on X Ray results.

 

@Greg Sacramento Thanks for your kind reply.

Is taking an MRI for my neck as good as taking an Xray. I read around MRI is better?

 

@Francesco Unless aneurysms, tumors in soft tissues and infection are suspected then a X Ray would be a good start if one is MRI shy. A X Ray will show injury, abnormal curve, bulging or herniated disc and degenerative disease.

Don't walk into a radiology department without knowing the type and model of the MRI being used so that you can check on noise levels ahead of time. Techs will not provide you with that information. Sometimes proper hearing protection isn't provided and most often you will not be able to use your own headphones. If it's a hospital, speak to the engineering bio tech department or their operational compliance department days before your appointment. That can be a hard connection for information, but insist on it.

 

@Greg Sacramento well if MRI is more thorough I'd be inclined to do it.

Getting that tech info simply won't happen though. I am not even in the same country where I'll have the MRI or X ray.

Thanks for being so kind!

 

Thought I would drop an update.

Dentist:
My jaw is big and not perfectly positioned. He made me a "bite", this will help my jaw assume its natural rest position, jaw that would otherwise be blocked by my upper teeth. Will see if it gets any better. It's a veeery long shot IMO.

X-Ray:
my muscles are tense, which prevents my spine from assuming a natural S shape. Perhaps I could look for chiropractic support. Worth a shot?

Also question: when T is present 24/7 but constantly oscillating, as in coming and going by the second, is it considered PT? My T behaves like that but it's hard to tell if it goes by my heart beat.

Love!

 

well, the xray version of an mri is a pet scan, these use tomography which makes a 3d image, a standard x-ray is 2d. pet scans and mri's have their own distinct advantages over each other but the mri is safer because it doesn't use ionizing radiation.

 

Guys got a question: I notice that when I have ear plugs on with white noise, I can hear a bip (sometimes even a different sounds) matching my heart beat. Could this be of any relevance?

Let me underline it's only with earplugs and white noise on, else I dont hear it. And this is on the normal ear without T.

 

Hey guys,

wanted to share something that happened to my good ear. Thursday 4pm very normal day. All of sudden in my "good" ear I start hearing loud sounds, sounds that I could only describe as air passing through my ear. Squick squick. RRRR. All of this was very painful (and by very I mean very). After 2 minutes the situation settled down but the whole left side of my face remained sore for hours. When in the evening the pain was finally over I realised I had grown T even on this "old" good ear.

Anybody have an idea? I am gonna see an ENT again without much hope...

 

May I just ask, do you have a history of loud music, loud headphones, loud factory work? You get the idea.

Loud noise is the most frequent cause of tinnitus.

 

@Contrast not all. My life is really quite. Had my first encounter with T 6 months ago, even then out of nothing. Not even a ear pain event like what I described before.

 

Any medications you think might have caused it? Do you have any head injury, cervical issues or TMD/TMJ?

 

Thanks for the answer. I went through any sort of test/therapy for neck/TMJ. I think I only miss an MRI now.
I thought that kind of event (squicky sounds like on the plain + pain for a very short period of time) could say something...