I Suffer from Tinnitus, Trigeminal Neuralgia and Temporomandibular Disorder (TMD)

Hi peeps,

I thought I'd join Tinnitus Talk to get some advice on how other peeps deal with the bane of their life AKA Tinnitus!

Firstly I can go back and forth on things so my writing might confuse people, I apologize in advance, it's just the way my brain works.

A bit of back story on me, I'm not 100% sure when I developed tinnitus tbh. I remember going to night clubs when I was young and hearing a high pitch 'whine' when I got back home into a quiet house. But that noise was different to the noise that I class as my actual tinnitus; my tinnitus is a HISS.

As I'm aware I just have tinnitus in my left ear, I could have it in my right too, but the left is much more prominent. Like I stated, I don't know exactly when it came on, but a few years ago I had an MRI scan on my spine and the left side of the headphones were broken - meaning no music played on that side. The drive back from the hospital my ear felt a bit weird and I felt a bit dizzy.

Ever since then whenever I have MRI scans it appears to aggravate my tinnitus (even with 'working headphones'). For over a decade (before that first MRI scan when the headphones didn't work properly) I've always felt uncomfortable around noise, like for example, watching a movie at the theater. It wouldn't hurt my ears per se, but I found it aggravating and annoying.

I've had a sensitivity to sound for a very long time, be it people eating loudly or playing YouTube videos too loudly on their phone.

A couple of years ago I had a bad pain along the right side of my face, into my jaw and along my head. I was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia, thankfully flare ups aren't too frequent as I found there seems to be certain triggers. Going back to my tinnitus, after another MRI this year it aggravated my tinnitus, but also I developed pain in my left ear and around my Temporomandibular joint (TMJ), I was diagnosed as having TMD (Temporomandibular disorder). This tinnitus flare up and ear pain caused by TMD really got me down, but eventually the pain went. Although the tinnitus never went (It never does), I did become more used to it and focused less on it.

Brings me to my current day, a few days ago on Saturday,13th August 2022, I was exposed a burst of LOUD music as I walked past someone's house, it was SO LOUD it gave me pain right away. It came from the blue and within like 10 seconds the music stopped. I still have this ear pain in my left ear (the same side with the tinnitus) and it's 3 days later, and the tinnitus is a lot more noticeable than usual.

I went to my doctor's today. They had a look inside my ear, my eardrum is not burst which is good. But other than that not much help, I don't know what I was expecting really, but just told to take paracetamol!

I asked how long should I wait if it doesn't improve (to come back) and the doctor said to give it a few weeks. If I still have this pain in weeks, it will drive me insane! I know TMD can cause ear pain and tinnitus, but this was caused by a loud noise, so I don't think it's anything to do with my Temporomandibular joint.

I just wonder if anyone else has trigeminal neuralgia or TMD issue to go with their tinnitus? I know I have a sensitivity to sound, I just wonder if I've got hyperacusis too. I can't see the doctors investigating tbh :-(

Hope this pain goes, feel depressed.

Rich