My Tinnitus — Unknown Case

Hello. Here is my story about tinnitus. Excuse my English, it is not my native language.

At the end of March this year, I got some sort of virus. I was cold and very weak. I had a low temperature around 37.5. I only drank tea without antibiotics. I normally went to work. About a week later, when I was watching TV, I began to feel a whistle in my ears. I did not know what was going on yet. I had whistling in both ears, with more intensity in my right ear. The whistle tone is about 8 to 9kHz high. The whistle did not pass any more days. I visited the ENT Doctor. I did the tympano and the audiometry. Everything was fine, I had no hearing loss. I have been visiting another ENT doctor a few days later. All tests (audio, tympano) were OK. She did not like the eustachian tube in right ear. She said the problem would be ET. No change after blowing. She gave me antibiotics and some allergy medicines. After 10 days I visited her again and she said me that if I have tinnitus more to the right and it is a high tone that I have it from the cervical spine.

Then I went through various examinations. The bleeding image is fine, I passed the pressure holter. The blood pressure is fine. I visited the neurology. All right. She prescribed me tebokan (ginko boloba 2x 40mg per day) She sent me to the MRI of the head - all OK, and MRI of the cervical spine - only little osteochondrosis C5-6, C6-7. Treatment with ginko biloba has no noticeable effect.

I have also visited a popular healer. She told me the cause was kidney. I took some herbs without any effect. I also visited a specialist in Chinese medicine. He used acupuncture and said the cause was gall bladder and kidney. I do not see the change.

I have pain on the back of my neck on the right. I've also gotten tough balls there. I visited the infectious department. They took my blood (EBV, CMV, toxoplasmosis, toxocarosis, etc.) I'm waiting for results.

I have really done a lot in the past 2 months. I was not sick for more than 8 years, so I'm not a hypochonder.

I sometimes have a full head feel. Maybe some infection in middle ear?

It can also be the cause of the upper right tooth. I have root canals treated, and yet it sometimes hurts and my pain flashes into my ear and head.


Something about my tinnitus:
1. When move jaw to the left, intensity of tinnitus is higher in right ear and vice versa.

2. When I clench the teeth, intensity of tinnitus is higher in both ears.

3. I can also affect tinnitus by head pressure and head movement.
So I think could be caused by TMJ problems. I stopped chewing gum and started training TMJ

4. The intensity of tinnitus is the highest in the morning (in the morning is always stereo tinnitus). This is different from all. Sometimes intensity decreased during day. And sometimes is the same as in the morning. When I go to sleep the intensity is relatively low. I have no problem to sleep.

5. When I hardly work outdoors so the intensity is very low. Tinnitus gradually weakened during hardly work.

6. My tinnitus is sometimes stereo, sometimes in right ear with higher intensity. It is high pitch tone. When intensity is low, so it is something like hiss.


I've lost 7-8kg in 2 months . I've changed eating habits, maybe it's because of it. Maybe stress from tinnitus. I'm trying to sport - swimming.

What is your opinion? What can be the cause of my tinnitus? TMJ, tooth, EDT or something else? Thank you for your opinions.

 

@Miro The pain that flashes into your ear and head may be trigeminal neuralgia. I think maybe the pain where you had root canals is showing weak sensitivity to your C5 - C7 associated nerves and that may have started TMJ and the clenching. The TMJ which was secondary to your neck has become primary - causing your tinnitus. At the same time, weakness of nerves where you had root canals is causing trigeminal neuralgia. C5 - C6 was the original primary cause because of balls or knots on neck muscles. The neck muscles would be your SCM and scalene.

TMJ/D treatment would need to done carefully and by a specialist because of possible trigeminal neuralgia. Treatment for your SCM and scalene muscles.

 

@Greg Sacramento
Thank you for your response. Pain is not permanent, but it occurs once a week, sometimes more often. I think that pain caused by trigeminal neuralgia is permanent. Or am I wrong? Sorry, but I don't know what is it "SCM". The tooth is the number seven in the upper row on the right. When the dentist dug my tooth to fill the root canals, a lot of pus was poured out of the tooth. It is possible that I still have the inflammation there. It was a year ago.
Other questions:
Why did my T suddenly appear during viral illness?
Why is the intensity of whistling in the morning the highest? It's something between whistling and buzzing in the morning.
Can T be caused by kidney or gallbladder disease?
And what about parasites or mold? Can they be the cause?

 

Tinnitus is usually caused by either hearing loss of neck/jaw disorders,
if you have TMJ then it is no longer an unknown case, it's well documented TMJ or related issues can cause tinnitus.

Chinese medicines and healers are completely useless and it has absolutely nothing to do with your Kidney.

Most cases of tinnitus can be manipulated by neck/jaw face movements.

Most audiograms are inaccurate, they use an outdated method to check for hearing loss haven't been updated since the 1940's and fail to detect difficulty hearing speech in background noise.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28087419

My tinnitus is loudest in the mornings as well just from personal experience.

 

@Miro I will send you some links that may pertain to your situation. One link will be about tooth number seven with pus related to a root canal. I'll also send you some other links that may explain what else has happened. At the top of Tinnitus Talk is an Inbox. A number will appear in red showing that you have mail.

 

@Mira This is an answer from a dentist concerning a root canal on tooth number seven. The site is an ask and answer, so I'll will just post it here. I'll leave the spelling errors as is.

"If the canal is not thoroughtly cleaned out there still may be residual puss infection so when the canal is filled with gutta percha this can cause irration and possible re-infection. Any debris left in the end of the pulp canal can harbor bacteria and cause an infection."

From me. If you still have an infection I would assume that would need to be addressed first. Also we may have to re-think your problems if you had a tooth infection. This could cause clenching or an increase of clenching.

Update: An infected tooth and nerve area may be causing the shooting pain up your neck to your head. You may not have TN. Also the knots in your neck may be just a cause from related mouth stress. Usually when both neck problems and TMD are present the problem starts within the neck, but not always.

 

I have no pain right in TMJ. I just assume that my T could be caused by TMJ's disease. I did not know that most can modulate T by moving the jaw or neck. I was not exposed to noise, I did not eat any harmful ototoxic drugs.
Your T is one-sided or two-sided? What is the tone of your T?

 

@Miro A lot of people can develop jaw disorders after an onset of neck problems. The reason for this is the clenching of muscles to make up for the poor function of deep neck flexors. Then this will cause the mandible to react increasing tinnitus when turning the head and jaw. From this a further exacerbation of cervical musculature can happen.

Or - It can be mouth tension - an infected tooth and nerves causing the mandible to react when turning the jaw and neck where tension develops. From everything it may be that a mandible is causing your T, but now having knots or balls in the neck could also be a bully. Not always is TMJ involved with a tensed mandible.

I would start with any needed treatment for tooth number nine.

I'm just someone that had whiplash where I've done 2 or 3 hours of research every day for over a year. My X Rays and CTs of neck show a big mess. I got TMJ and a host of mouth problems at the same time. Now my neck is becoming more of a concern from former cervical degenerative diseases. Increased tension from unfixable neck problems is causing more jaw problems and now facial problems. I have serious heart disease so a series of operations on my neck is out of the question according to my doctors. My c spine would require several major operations.

 

@Miro I've added another paragraph above beginning with "Or." I don't have all the answers, but I do mostly understand how tinnitus ringing develops from jaw and neck problems. In my situation it's mostly hopeless as all I can do is try some TMJ treatment and use correct posture. I care greatly about others here with neck and jaw conditions, so I spend part of my time trying to be helpful in little ways. I can't really move my neck or face so there's little else that I can do. My intense high pitch hurtful T may soon stop me from posting.

 

@Greg Sacramento
Thank you for the answers. I appreciate your very efforts. I deal problem with my tooth number 7. I already have an X-ray image. I'm going to visit the dentist in the near future.
I still have no answer why is my T the worst in the morning?