Introducing Myself! And Maybe Get Some Guidance.

Good day/night (depending on where you are) everyone! I have been a member of the crappy tinnitus club for three years now. Long time lurker, decided to join and throw my hat in. I'm in my early 30s, a male, in Canada.

I'd like to give my quick rundown and introduction. This may be a lot of information, so I apologize:

-Tinnitus since 2017. I have it mostly in my right ear which is a high pitched constant noise, I also perceive tinnitus in my head. So, for example, when I plug my ears with my fingers, it sounds mega loud.

-I also started to have a weird thumping noise in my ear, which would make the sound when I would tilt my head a certain way. This went away, thankfully.

-Also have weird cracking/crunching noises in my ears that only appear when I flex my inner ear. At least, that's what I think I'm doing when I make these noises happen!

-Long history of ear infections, but never had tinnitus when those would come and go.

-Long time headphone/music user which stopped when tinnitus started.

-Bad posture, very bad posture due to office computer job; I code.

- I get those 'fleeting' episodes I have read about occasionally. No rhyme, or reason to it! No consistency! So frustrating!

-Bad teeth grinder. Was just given a night guard. No effect!

-Had bad vertigo a few times. Goes away with time.

-Pressing parts of the right side of my head appears to increase the right ear tinnitus pitch, same with turning my neck all the way to the left.

Here's what I have tried. To no luck:

-I first consulted two ENTs as one would do. The first ENT advised I had fluid behind my ear drum and heavy wax. Prescribed a nasal steroid and the usual ear wax removal drops. The thumping noise went away, however high pitched tinnitus remains. This is back in 2017.

-The second ENT was a useless dork. Looked into both of my ears quickly, said I was fine, and that was it. A 2 minute visit. Said if the ringing was keeping me up, he'd prescribe sleeping pills. WOW! JACKASS!!!!

-Visited two audiologists (I always like a second opinion). Both said great/perfect hearing, one even said, "like a cat". Said I absolutely did not need hearing aids, were sympathetic to my plight, but were at a loss.

-Acupuncture for 3 weeks. Did nothing. Relaxing though let me tell you.

-Chiropractor. Hated this, did the neck cracking thing. No effect!

-NUCCA chiropractor. Relaxing, but no tinnitus effect! Still go for relaxation.

-Supplements. Tried all the usual suspects, to no success. Discovered a very bad vitamin D deficiency, which I corrected, but no tinnitus effect (I was really hoping this was it).

WHERE I'M AT NOW:

These bullet points are my tinnitus story in a nutshell. I have had bad depression, the usual, etc... No hyperacusis, thankfully.

I have a brand new, new born baby. Being there for my baby, and my wife, is unbelievably hard, especially when the baby is screaming (colic). I am stressed to the max, having tinnitus already for a few years has not helped.

I am always cognizant of my ears. I take earplugs when I know I'm going somewhere loud. Obviously, night time is difficult for a tinnitus sufferer.

So, I have been following the research. I see amazing things coming. The Susan Shore machine sounds like the real deal, I hope her research goes well and helps us.

Does anybody else have any other ideas on things I could try? I was thinking of trying neck massages... again, I must emphasize, bad, bad posture.

I don't know why I'm writing all this, but I needed to get it out.

Thank you for reading...

Anthony (not real name)

 

Hi Anthony, thanks for sharing. It's good to be part of the group. You've tried lots of things. I'm a newbie but it strikes me you have a good iterative approach. So keep the things that help and keep exploring. My specialist thought most likely mine was due to excess uric acid. If you have too much it can cristallise in joints, etc. Including in the ear bones thing..forming a slight permanent contact. No way to descale the ears so it's there. Incidentally the same problem gives the illness gout. So any diet that aims at reducing chances of gout could in my case be preventative. So maybe that could bring some benefits.

 

Agree with @Jeremy TB. Further details below.

Have you tried physical therapy or checked into musculoskeletal alignments that you could have? I had similar symptoms at tinnitus onset and my regiment has brought me lots of relief in volume, pitch, and duration and I have isolated my tinnitus back to my right ear where it started. Things like chiro treatments to help treat craniocervical/musculoskeletal misalignment/neuromuscular imbalance tinnitus sub-types will be more effective if you perform self-care and combine with other treatments.

Did you ever discover the root cause of your bruxism? I suffer from bruxism as well and bruxism and muscloskeletal misalignment ofter co-occur. Several things can trigger bruxism at night.

Did you ever try to target your acupuncture treatments based off of things you noticed with your neck? From talking with my acupuncturist, he treats the standard pathways for tinnitus outlined in Traditional Chinese Medicine in all of his patients in the same manner in the absence of more detailed diagnostic information provided by the patients and/or the referring physicians. If you can narrow down the likely causes for your tinnitus and develop a more targeted treatment plan with respect to the acupuncture, you might have better luck with it. In my situation, I got the most relief early on from receiving acupuncture treatment on my SCM in my neck, left/right QL muscles, above the pelvis, psoas muscle, and the serratus posterior/inferior muscles. These are some of the most over-utilized muscles that compensate for folks with bad posture and associated misalignments like forward head posture and rounded shoulders. I incorporate stretches and releases for these muscles in the regiment of self-care I perform which has helped my tinnitus greatly. I really think that musculoskeletal misalignment and neuromuscular imbalance tinnitus sub-types are more prevalent (or at least contribute to tinnitus development more) than conventional medical docs are willing to admit.

I still talk with my acupuncturist on a weekly basis and have spoken with more than a half-dozen of his clients referred to him for tinnitus by the same ENT who referred me that have gotten permanent relief from tinnitus or sustained long-term decreases in tinnitus severity from acupuncture treatments on the muscles mentioned above. Tinnitus treatment plans should be considered emergent and will need to tailored and if necessary changed or expanded as your tinnitus and health changes. Most articles about tinnitus close by mentioning that tinnitus sufferers achieve the best results by pursuing a combination of treatments, but the best combination will be up to you and your docs to determine. Trying so many type of treatments is good and will yield a good field of preliminary data of various types but it will be up to you work to review and summarize the main findings and refine and/or your treatment from there in a nested and iterative approach as @Jeremy TB recommends. In my experience, docs are often too busy and desensitized to a certain degree to work closely with all their patients to do that, so it will be up to you to be your own advocate and the catalyst behind continued treatment.

Please see the information above. Bad posture and tinnitus are often related, but you need to review tinnitus characteristics, medical history, and previous treatments to try to map how far upstream and downstream bad posture and tinnitus could be from one another. Such a holistic and systematic approach may hold the key for developing a treatment approach that may at least reduce your tinnitus. Keep in mind though, it will be a marathon not a sprint. Consistency and continuity will paramount to future tinnitus treatment.

Congratulations on the new baby. Incorporating mindfulness/meditation and taking steps to normalize and control your cortisol and stress hormone levels may be of further of benefit to you.

I hope you can find some relief in the future.

All the best,

-Oceanofsound26