Is Tinnitus Due to Neck Injury Likely to Go Away If Treated?

In January 2020 I fell and hit the back of my head and received a concussion as well as whiplash. It took about three months to recover and I needed physiotherapy for my neck (which really did help a lot in my recovery). I did have occasional tinnitus during that time but was feeling so poorly in general, I mostly ignored it, thinking it would get better as my concussion did. And the tinnitus did go away once I started feeling better. Unfortunately, while my neck did improve a lot, I don't think it ever completely got better (unlike my concussion, which I did completely recover from). While I was still getting physiotherapy, we went into lockdown due to COVID-19 and it was a few months until the physio opened up again. By that time I thought I was mostly over it and so didn't go back. Occasionally over the next few months I would get a sore neck and might notice some slight tinnitus but I ignored it because it didn't really bother me.

Well, I didn't take care of my neck very well and had a few months of working long hours at my desk job, sitting with poor posture and generally being pretty tense due to all the stress of work. About a month ago I started feeling terrible again due to a very sore neck. I had lots of headaches and couldn't work for two weeks. I started physio again. Then, about a week or two after this all started, I got some screaming tinnitus for a couple of days, much worse than I ever experienced before. It died down quite a bit after that, but returned a few days ago pretty bad before getting better again. Today it has varied from very mild to complete silence. But I know it could return at any time.

Regarding my neck, my doctor had me get some x-rays and he found a few mild issues with my cervical spine. He is pretty confident I can recover with physio, he just said I need to keep doing it and in time it will heal. I am hopeful it will, my neck has improved in the last four weeks since I started with physio again but still has a way to go.

I am wondering, though, can I expect my tinnitus will go away if my neck heals? It seems from reading this forum, that it is something that never completely goes away, or if it does go away for a while, it comes back. Does anyone know? I mean I could deal with some occasional mild tinnitus, but I never want to experience that awful screaming tinnitus again.

 

I'm sure of it. Your backstory and the fact you hear compete silence at times confirms it to me.

 

Thanks for your optimism, ajc.

 

How have you been?

Can you modulate your tinnitus with neck movements?