New to the forum today. Just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I've had Tinnitus since 2014. No idea how it started. The only thing I can think of is that I had dental surgery around that time. The ringing hasn't stopped since. Some days it's very low and some days (like today) it's incredibly loud. Nothing drowns it out! Very frustrating. I went online to find help and stumbled across this website. Happy to be here and pleased to meet you!
A warm welcome to Tinnitus Talk @Eclipse. The dental work could be the cause and put your bite out of place slightly and causing inflamation on your jaw. A mouth guard might help you made by your dentist to go over your bottom teeth at night. Keep posting for support...lots of love glynis
Thank you @glynis. Interestingly enough, I've got to go in next week for a check up and will definitely ask my dentist about a mouth guard. I'll do anything to tone down this ringing. It's been so loud these past few days. It's driving me mad!!
Hi @Eclipse and welcome! I'm sorry you had to search for help but I'm glad you found us. Unfortunately, doctors can't do much to help with tinnitus and most people you meet really can't comprehend it. It's good to reach out to people who understand you.
Welcome @eclipse to the forum. It is positive that you have real low T days. Try to count that as a positive. The more positive, the less stressful you are and the less intrusive T can become. It is not a straight equation, of course. But it generally helps to stay calm to prevent stress and anxiety from building up to aggravate T. One way is to mask it. You said nothing drowns it out. That is tough of course. Many of us have those days. But I think any masking will help distract the brain and the audible system to focus on T. In fact TRT states that the masker should be set at a level lower than the T sound just to let the brain get used to or habituate to the T ringing. I have ultra high pitch dog whistle T. So I have to use really high pitch masking sounds, shower, waterfall, torrential rain, even squeaky faucet sound and even that sometimes would not cover my T. I could hear it above the jet noise in my recent flights and above the raging rapids in the wild salmon rivers I fish. So I know your pain dealing with obviously loud and high pitch T. If you haven't tried these masking suggestions, give them some thoughts. Take care. God bless. 1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that are soothing to you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this, or a computer with speakers. 2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds. 3) If you have computer and speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds too: TT's audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/ or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: http://mynoise.net/ or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.
THANK YOU SO SO MUCH @billie48! I completely understand about water sounds. I have noticed that I barely hear it when I'm in the shower. I am going to check out the links you suggested. I do try to stay positive because I know it could be so much worse... Thank you for reaching out!
