I'm Scared, I Don't Know Which Kind of Doctor to Turn to, I Have So Many Questions

@SecretDoubleCat

My thoughts - maybe - not sure - but possible

It may be that the substance didn't increased tinnitus as there's no obvious hearing loss.
The substance taken could have increased nervous activity to the muscles and nerves of your back teeth by strong clenching. You may already had a nerve situation from any dental work on back teeth. This clenching can increase pressure to your C1 and in return the C1 can then add pressure to joints in the back of your jaw. The C1 and jaw joints have a hinging effect where it leads to the skull.

Discussion with your dentist: A 3D cone beam exam, but maybe a jaw MRI instead. A mouth guard made by your dentist that doesn't cover back teeth. Discuss a semi hard guard.

I would consider some magnesium/chelate that will support nerve and muscle function. I use this at times - one 100 mg tablet a day. Research this and B12.

I would get your side to side body height measured by a physical therapist. Or stand in front of a wall mirror and see if one shoulder is noticeably lower than the other. If so, discuss with your GP a X ray of C spine.

It is possible that the nerves from your jaw to ears were weak from clenching and/or noise over the years and then the substance taken increased tinnitus.

If you can control clenching with a mouth guard, use proper posture and with time your increased tinnitus may settle back down. One reason why I mention posture is that the jaw and C spine hates bad posture habits.

 

Hey everyone— I had a better day today. It seemed to have gone down. I went to two restaurants today. The lunch one had pretty medium music and for dinner I was at a sports bar with my girlfriend. It had loudish music but we sat in a quieter corner. I had earplugs and earmuffs on, sometimes. Leaving my T still spiked.

I think a lot could be anxiety induced and a lot could be noise induced. Is this temporary? It’s about 2 hours past dinner and I can hear the noise louder.

....please be gentle. I am scared and so alone.

 

does your girlfriend understand what you are going through?

 

Why do you say you are alone?
Didn't you say you were out with your girlfriend? Do you have some family you can rely on?

 

I have a girlfriend and she’s caring a whole lot but it still feels like the sound is in my head and I’m afraid that I fucked up. I didn’t think that just going to a sports bar could make it louder.

I don’t ever want to do that again. I’m so afraid the rest of my life is fucked if I don’t do everything perfectly.

 

I have also been on the Keto diet for over a year and some days I am better with taking all the salts I should and some days I forget.

Could this be part of it? Needing more magnesium maybe?

 

What about caffeine? I really like coffee to give me energy in the day.

Also my ear sometimes hurts just the tiniest bit. I think largely it’s from anxiety but today I woke up and I’m feeling a little stuffy.

I think that all this hyper focus is freaking me out and making it worse.

 

Mine worsened. For sure. But it's probably b/c I grind my teeth when stressed out, and tinnitus is stressful.

 

Dude the first few months are potentially the hardest days you're ever going to have in your life. Your tinnitus will spike, a LOT. Your ears will ache from it. But IT WILL normalize. It's unlikely to go away, but it will calm down. It does for nearly everyone.

For now just take it easy. Don't go out a ton. Binge watch some TV and maybe have a beer or two to get through the hard times.

It gets better tho.

 

@Tom Cnyc Hug. Thanks.

Also I just scheduled 3d cone imagining for my tinnitus but it's about one month out. That feels so far away. and kind of scary. Thoughts? Is that normal?

 

I'd expect very little to come from this. The better question to ask your doctor is "why are you doing this test" "what are you looking for" "if you find it, what will you do".

If they can't answer that 3rd question definitively, they're just padding their pockets and you should skip the test IMHO.

 

What I am hypothesizing is that the trigeminal nerve is involved in both TMJ and some form of pain hyperacusis. That's also what researchers are saying, It seems this type of pain hyperacusis will cause pain from TMJ to be more noticable due to the trigeminal nerve being more irritated.

There is no such thing as just "hyperacusis" but rather several unclassified conditions being lumped together.

 

@Tom Cnyc My regular dentist said he wanted to test for TMJ (which I'm pretty sure I have) because I grind my teeth at night, have light clicking in my ear when I chew. the right side of my head can feel tense a lot.

He said that before he wanted to treat it, he wanted to be sure of it. So I scheduled the imaging with an oral surgeon. @Greg Sacramento suggested it was a good idea?

 

Nobody listens when I say TMJ and a certain form of pain hyperacusis work together in irritating parts of the trigeminal nerve.

Enjoy riding the pallative medicine carousel, and holding hyperacusis research back another decade.

 

Probably. I had a lot of trigeminal nerve issues for the first 6 months. Maybe longer.

 

Sounds good. So long as they have a solution! Lots of people go for test after test for no reason.

 

did it go away entirely?

 

Up until my strep throat/ear infection in November, my tinnitus was basically gone for almost 8 months. Since then, the only thing that has returned has been a L side dominant, 2350 Hz tone that is not always present. I really only hear it in quiet rooms. I have a constant cassette hiss that I don't mind at all.

All my other symptoms subsided. The weird headaches, the tensor tympani thumping, the hyperacusis 99% of the time. - my ear will ache after 2-3 day spike and be sensitive to noise. Oddly, these doings are always very silent. Same goes for trigeminal issues / facial numbness / ear fullness.

 

Over the past few days my right ear, when I stress the fuck out and think about and focus on it, it feels pretty full. Or maybe like the tiniest inkling of pain. Probably just full. What's that about?

Also I might be coming down with a cold or something right now. Not sure if there's a connection, or what I should be aware of.

 

I never realized I had TMJ dysfunction until I learned about my hearing loss. I do recall instances where my jaw locked and the joint was out of place, but it became more prevalent after I learned of my hearing loss. Probably because I'm paying more attention to it and because I'm clenching/grinding my teeth more often due to stress/anxiety.