My Tinnitus Mystery Solved: Teeth Clenching

Hi, I started getting a debilitating ringing, 7/10 in my left ear and 2/10 in my right ear which started about two weeks ago. It became unbearable and unlivable. Of course the first thing I read on the internet is that there is no cure for this, and that I might have to live with this unbearable ringing in my head for the rest of my life. So I started to panic really hard.

I speculated that this might have happened due to sleeping wrong on our uncomfortable couch, or because of clenching my teeth. Just prior to this, my teeth started hurting horribly. And guess what, there was 7/10 pain in the rear left teeth, and 2/10 pain in the rear right teeth. What a coincidence.

At that time, I made a self-conscious effort to stop biting. I even put my tongue between my teeth just to make sure I wouldn't bite. So I conquered the daytime biting. And after a few days my teeth finally healed and started feeling better. But my ears were still ringing.

Another clue developed over time. I started to realize that the ringing would be worst in the middle of the night, as I would wake up to the loudest ringing imaginable.

I had a lot of friends and family praying for me the past few days. And I asked God for wisdom for why this was happening (James 1:5). Well, my tinnitus almost fully went away yesterday. It became a 1/10 for most of the day... and almost disappeared in the evening. I thank God so much for that. I was the happiest man alive.

But then I went to bed, and woke up a few minutes ago with tinnitus blasting. But this time it was reversed... with 7/10 in the right ear and much less in the left ear. Why would it reverse?

Since my ringing was worst at night, and since I felt like it might be due to biting, I figured I must still be unconsciously biting at night. So I bought a mouthguard, and that mouthguard must be biased to the right... causing me to clench down harder on the other side.

So I think I have the answer to prayer along with some detective work here. It is 100% definitely the clenching, and especially at night since that is when it skyrockets. The mouthguard changed the ringing from the left-to-right, which shows that I can alleviate or aggravate either side with the night clenching. The whole thing makes sense. Thanks Jesus.

I prayed so hard, and I felt that God said to trust him and that healing would be a process. Just cooperate with him each step at a time. Well, I think I see everything that needs to be done here. Now I just need to work with my dentist and doctor (and maybe even a specialist if necessary) to find a way to fully stop the clenching and to relieve the stress. I need a really good industrial strength mouthguard, because the ones at Walgreens are a weak piece of plastic that do nothing to prevent serious clamping of the teeth. And while I hate taking medications, I might need to take something to calm my muscles and prevent clenching while I sleep. And before COVID-19, I was in mens/recovery groups which used to help me with stress. But after COVID-19 I have been isolating and sitting at home worrying about everything going on in the world. I need to get unplugged from all the news (which has become nothing more than 'fear porn' to be honest) and I need to reconnect with my support groups and friends to unload some of the stress.

Still some work to do. And I will report back on the progress. But from this experience, perhaps I could encourage others to check if you are clamping down like I did. Perhaps even put something safe in your mouth when you sleep... maybe even a lopsided mouthguard or something that lets you isolate whether you are clamping on one side or the other.

I'm sure tinnitus can have other causes than this. So my other encouragement would be to ask God for healing, and also ask him for wisdom. I know he can miraculously heal. But sometimes he gives us a process. And all we have to do is ask and cooperate with whatever he reveals to us. And then continue to ask for wisdom and healing in each step along the way. Left to my own devices, I wouldn't have figured out what was going on. I was messing with my neck and started looking into chiropractic, medication, and all kinds of other stuff that wouldn't have helped one bit. So I am grateful that I finally have an answer. Even if there is supposedly no human cure for tinnitus (which I don't fully believe anyways)... Jesus can still heal no matter what. He designed our bodies and knows how they work. Take care all.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." (James 1:5)

All About The Relationship Between Bruxism And Tinnitus

 

@michaelwriting I'm glad you were able to discover what may be the cause of your tinnitus. May God go with you and grant you peace of mind.

 

Is your tinnitus somatic, meaning your tinnitus changes in pitch/volume when you yawn, make neck movements, stretch, etc?

 

Good for you. People whose tinnitus is due to teeth clenching often report complete recovery.

 

Tone and volume is pretty constant. But I am able to slightly change the tone and volume by manually wiggling one of my rear teeth. So I'm pretty sure that particular tooth is the culprit. That tooth must be pushing down on the nerve down there or something.

 

Experienced this ringing for about three weeks now. I know it is mostly related to clenching my teeth. I was biting so hard that I must have been impacting one or two of my teeth into the nerve in my jawline or something.

While I have stopped biting down during the day, I am still looking to stop biting down at night. Doctor prescribed Hydroxyzine, which is a muscle relaxer. It helped to relax my biting, and the ringing went down to almost nothing the following day. But then I had mixed results on the following nights, and it just generally makes me feel like garbage.

I am typically waking up at 2am with ringing. Sometime I go back to sleep and then wake up later to the ringing. Each morning I pray several times for the ringing to resolve and for things in my body to be corrected. And the ringing goes way down or goes away. Most of my days have been 'ring free'. But then at night I am still obviously biting down because I wake up to the ringing again.

So that is where I am at. Mouthguards don't seem to help. They just complicate where the pressure is going in my mouth... possibly moving more pressure more into my jaw. Doctors are pretty much useless with helping with this. They just got lucky with the meds, because they throw drugs at pretty much anything without really knowing how to fix the cause of the problem. Even if they do intermittently work for me, that is not a long term solution.

I am looking at more natural forms of anti-inflammation, stress reducers, and muscle relaxers. I got some Magnesium glycinate because it is supposed to relieve teeth clenching. Tried one time so far, and not much difference.

It is pretty obvious that the clenching is the cause of this problem. If that can somehow get resolved, I pray that will permanently resolve the ringing for me.