I Have Some Questions

[JeremyA]

you seem very knowledgeable on the subject of tinnitus so i wanted to get your opinions on some things. I am 19 and have had mild tinnitus ever since i can remember probably from playing to many video games or hunting with my dad. but in the past week it has gotten really bad out of the blue to the point where i can barely function. before its started getting bad it was barely noticeable than i woke up on monday and it was terrible. i dont listen to TV loud i am always careful to keep volumes low. but it still came from nowhere. I went to the walk in clinic yesterday to ask the doctor but he basically shrugged it off and gave me antibiotics and told me to take them for a week. but this morning i woke up with the ringing still there but as i layed flat and stretched my neck i heard a pop and the tinnitus went away for a while, do you think my problem may stem from neck issues? mind you i do spend most of my time on my laptop with my neck bent back at a 90' angle laying flat on my stomach. do you have any ideas of anything i should do? should i see a chiropractor? im sorry this was so long but i really need some help here.

 

[Dr. Nagler]

Hi @JeremyA -

I am sorry to hear that you are having such a hard time.

It is really difficult for anybody (me included!) to definitively tell you what to do in this sort of situation. I can, however, give you some general suggestions.

• I think you ought to sit down with your parents and tell them what's going on with you. Especially tell them how your tinnitus is currently affecting your life. This is not the sort of thing you want to keep to yourself if there is somebody else in your life who has your best interests at heart
• Understand that for the vast majority of individuals in your situation the tinnitus just settles back on its own within a few weeks. The fine folks on this board are the exception rather than the rule. Try to keep that in mind.
  
• Tinnitus aside, the position you assume most of the time when you are on your laptop (i.e., prone with your neck bent back) is unhealthy. You need to be sitting at a desk or at the very least sitting up in a chair with your laptop on your lap. That change should begin now.
  
• From your description of the onset of your tinnitus (i.e., no discernible precipitating event), it does not sound like your neck had much, if anything, to do with it. The position you assume when using your laptop does not help matters, but I'm not sure I'd rush off to the chiropractor immediately. I do realize that your tinnitus went away when you stretched your neck and heard a pop - but it came back. My concern with chiropractic neck adjustments for tinnitus is that there are a number of reports of people who underwent neck adjustments for reasons unrelated to tinnitus and who developed permanent loud tinnitus immediately after the adjustment. These are individuals who never had tinnitus before the adjustment!
• I would keep some soft sound (quiet music, a nature CD, white noise etc.) around you all the time - even when you're asleep. No need to "mask" your tinnitus with the sound; just play it in the background. A lot of folks with recent onset of tinnitus try to avoid sound with the idea that they are "giving their ears a rest." That is a very unwise strategy in my opinion. The auditory system is at optimal rest when it is not straining to hear, which is why you want to avoid silence. Similarly, avoid very loud sounds - you need to find a happy medium there.
• Realize that you are not alone in this and that given a bit of time tinnitus generally resolves on its own. If you're still having trouble after another month or so, you should probably undergo a thorough evaluation by an ENT and an audiologist with some experience treating folks with tinnitus.

Those are my thoughts. I hope it helps.

Dr. Stephen Nagler