My Tinnitus Is Not Intrusive Anymore

Hi all!

I'm "thenetherlands", 17 years of age, and, you guessed it, from The Netherlands. I've had tinnitus since January 1st of 2020. It was my first encounter with it. This is my story:

During New Year's Eve I was standing in the front door opening of my house when someone set off illegal fireworks in my street. It was maybe 10, 15 meters away. When the bang hit, I was facing it with my left ear. My left ear immediately felt numb, this went away after approx. 20 minutes. I checked for a beep in my ear, but was relieved when I didn't hear anything and the numb feeling went away.

The next morning, I woke up with ringing in the back of my head. It was a constant "eeeee". I was so scared and anxious that I started Googling - which I shouldn't have. We immediately booked an appointment with an ENT-doctor, it would take 1.5 week before being able to perform the hearing test and getting the results back. In that 1,5 week, I barely slept.

After 1,5 week I was so glad to hear that my hearing wasn't damaged and the ENT-doctor said there was a good possibility it would get less over time, which it did.

Shortly after, after finally getting some rest, I got a very bad cold. Immediately afterwards, I got a sinus infection. I had to take nasal spray for a week and it slowly went away. This all lasted around 3 weeks.

I felt so sick that I - again - wasn't really able to do anything. I just laid in bed. I had vertigo/dizziness, the ringing in my ear, and now ear pressure as well.

From all the anxiety and stress and restlessness, I started having psychosomatic symptoms. I, again, Googled. Shouldn't have. I developed pretty bad health anxiety for the next 3 months which made me clench my jaw at night, and pressuring my jaw during the day from all the stress.

I was wearing a headgear (I have fixed metal braces) as well for 2 months but I quit due to the circumstances. I still have my fixed metal braces (got them in November 2019).

After all that I developed TMD problems: I now have ear fullness/pressure (especially when burping, sneezing), my jaw and ears hurt and my ears crackle and pop all the time. I get migraines more often now as well (I had migraines before too, but now I have them more frequent).

Thankfully, the tinnitus is not as invasive as it was. It's still there, but it's manageable.

My only problem with this is, I do not know what to do next. The orthodontist and dentist are closed due to the virus-outbreak and to be honest, I want to get rid of my braces. I just don't feel comfortable with them, it gives me anxiety.

Even though this is a success story, I kinda don't know what to do as well: everything happened consecutively. Right now I have TMD issues, with ear problems.

Does anyone have any advice?

I'd greatly appreciate some advice.

Thanks very much for reading,
thenetherlands

 

Hello! I am really happy that your T confidently goes away. As for the dentist. May be you can check if any clinics are open in your city. Because, for example, in Estonia (Tallinn), where I'm from, the government left three dental clinics open but they will help you if you have any emergency (severe pain). They won't deal with a patient if the visit was planned before. So, may be if you have such clinics in your area just phone them and tell that you are in pain. But I am afraid that you will have to wait anyway if your city is big there are lots of people with dental problems I'm sure. Give it a try. And have a nice day. So good to see that young people recover really quickly.

 

Hi the netherlands
Bad luck being so close to the fireworks when they went off.
It's certainly not your fault you now have T.
But, you seem to be managing well and hopefully the T should continue to diminish.
So, if possible, try and protect your ears from now on.
All the best.
Relax1