Neck and Jaw Issues — Would Heat and Muscle Relaxers Be Helpful?

I noticed when I try to move my ear to touch my shoulder the range of motion is limited. I've used heat and muscle relaxers and this has helped, especially for the duration of a day.

My question is would heat and muscle relaxers help in the long run to free up my neck OR is it just going to help for the short term (day-by-day basis)?

 

Bump @Greg Sacramento

 

@Mathew Gould is your tinnitus somatic? Has it gotten better since 2017? I’m 4 months in. I tried muscle relaxers but didn’t seem to work. I tried Ice on my neck and still no.

 

A little of both for short and immediate term.

For your SCM muscles - this really works.
https://julstromethod.com/julie-donnelly-notes/tinnitus-causes/

Also a researcher told me for physical neck muscle related tinnitus that 400mg magnesium, 600mg NAC and 250mg vitamin C taken together with a full glass of water with no other vitamins will decrease somatic tinnitus by 10% for an hour or two.

I have been trying this for 3 days and so far my somatic tinnitus has dropped from a 10 to about 8.5 for two hours.

 

I've had a reverse curve in my neck probably since birth. Does this reverse curve make forward head posture more easily occur? Also wouldn't this lead to my somatic tinnitus?

 

Yes, a reverse curve with added injury - muscle spasms placing pressure to the C spine could lead to somatic tinnitus. Almost always from very intense forward head motion. I would not get surgery - use other methods.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14689631

Happens easier when one already has hearing loss or hearing loss tinnitus. Reason is loss of auditory inputs alters the balance of auditory somatosensory integration in a stimulus timing dependent manner, which propels the circuit towards hyperactivity.

 

What about no hearing loss/tinnitus before? My hearing checks out fine even in higher frequencies - but I did have temporary muffled hearing in one ear (earwax). This is when tinnitus trouble started.

I suffered whiplash/neck trauma, a cold of sorts and an earwax blockage in the three weeks before my tinnitus appeared. I've always had bad posture and my tinnitus is somatic to a degree. Multi-tonal but different in both ears too.

 

@Greg Sacramento yeah not ever getting surgery. When this virus goes away I'm going to a neck specialist that is more into PT... Yeah I don't think I mentioned my reverse curve to you. I'm wondering if it happened they this swing set fell on me and him me in the back of the head when I was like 7. It didn't hurt at the time, but who knows.... Any exercises I can do for this reverse curve or anything??

Also I do have an instability in my neck, not sure its the craniocervical junction that you're link mentioned.. Any physical therapy I can do for this??

 

@ASilverLight First consideration - ETD with nasal congestion and post-nasal drip.
You know if the ear becomes blocked by cerumen (ear wax) or by the fluid in the ear building up (endolymphatic hydrops), tinnitus can result, but often settles.

Second consideration - A misaligned atlas or a different part of the neck from years of forward head bending or whiplash can also affect the structures of the ear. The eustachian tubes in particular. As you know, these tubes drain away excess fluid from the ears so they can drain harmlessly. But if tube function is inhibited, fluid can build up and lead to tinnitus. So even when ringing in the ears is being caused by a blockage, the problem may still be in the neck - the C1 vertebra, lower vertebra or muscles. (This has been documented actually as mentioned in research and case studies a few times).

Whiplash causes tinnitus only 15% of the time and often 80% - it's temporary. This is different from neck injuries caused by forward head motion that causes neck muscles to spasm. So with having possible neck problems - having bad posture - could cause ETD which would be primary over whiplash. Whiplash may have broken the camel's back.

With no noted hearing loss or high pitched tones, but with having multiple tones - often in both ears, then it's possible that neck history is causing ETD, nasal congestion, colds and nasal drip. If whiplash then happens, ETD can increase along with congestion and drip. So I don't think whiplash began your problems - it may have added to it - but it could be that you may had ETD and neck problems for sometime. Whiplash could have kicked your ETD and other mentions into action and so tinnitus finally developed.

Your problems may settle down by practicing good posture.

 

@Greg Sacramento

Thanks, that's along the lines I was thinking too. I truly think that it was a sum of minor causes eventually leading to tinnitus, but few are actually related to loud noise. I'm currently in physical therapy to treat my neck and eventually my core stability, I'm practicing good posture as much as possible too.

Hopefully with time and good care I can reduce or eventually eliminate my situation.

I have various tones but few are completely tonal, those that are are intermittent. It's mostly mechanical hisses and water-y noises. Pretty strange.

 

@Greg Sacramento... The last 5 months since my neck slide out of place leaning over the sink I haven't had as many bad days with tinnitus and not as many great days. Since then I've had about 8 bad days per month on avg... This month (May) I've only had 1 bad day before today because I think turmeric and curcumin has been helping. My question is yesterday I started doing chin tucks to help my reverse curve. Today I woke up classify having a bad day of tinnitus. Is it normal that that the chin tucks or physical therapy would spike my tinnitus and give me "bad days" for a while??

Just after 1 day of the chin tucks and another "W" exercise I can feel my jaw feeling betting and my throat vertabrae feeling better.

 

How long are your physical therapy sessions each? Did your tinnitus get worse for a while when you started physical therapy?

 

What is SCM treatment? Also I had multiply X-rays at multiply places... None of these people know what they are doing. I would have to win the Mega Millions and have a team of experts to fix this... I will just keep doing the chin tucks until my tinnitus gets worse if ever.

 

I'm not Greg, so sorry for barging in: but I thought my experiences can be useful here.

Physio helped me get rid of half of my sounds after onset. My T is induced by neck trauma. My experience was that most exercises gave me a spike for a (short) while. Initially for a few hours, but the increase lasted less time every session, and gradually multiple sounds started reducing and eventually faded. Far as I know, a minor increase can be perfectly normal.

I haven't had experiences where the increase lasted for days though.

 

Usually around 30 minutes. We mostly focus on gentle massaging etc to try to get my joints and muscles to loosen up a bit since they're really tense and stiff. The hope is that, as they become more as they should be, my body will adjust and my posture will improve, which will hopefully also improve my other issues.

So far I can't really notice much of a change, except that it fluctuates less dramatically and doesn't get as loud as it used to, say, a month ago.

I notice a spike after doing my exercises. Some also give a direct increase until I go back to a normal position.

Note that I've only been having in-person sessions for 3 weeks now (3 sessions in total).

 

I bought a pro hand massager, I'm gonna try that when it comes. But yeah the neck tucks I've been doing 20-30 times a day already seem to streghthen my neck and align my jaw and improve the pain I have in my throat vertabrae.

 

Another weird thing I've noticed is that, if I do my exercises and some massaging, I almost always get ear pain. It's definitely not related to noise because I do these in complete silence, but stretching too much etc just gives a very uncomfortable feeling in my ear....

but that does tell me that in one way or another, my neck issues must be related to my ear trouble.

I'm doing chin tucks too, by the way! But for now not too many a day. I'll get to that when my neck is more stable and less stiff.

What helps me is doing my exercises followed by warming up my cherry pit pillow and using that to relax my neck.

 

Also check if your neck is permanently torqued or rotated to one side. This can also cause TMJ, ETD, sinus problems, etc... I have traced my patterns of misalignment from my feet all the way to my neck with involve compensatory internal and external rotations of several different muscle groups and other parts of the body and prominent torsions in my hips, torso, and neck. Tweaked my treatment to fix these problems and see if my tinnitus goes away. Only 9 days in right now.

 

Agree.
Sometimes one shoulder doesn't appear to be lower than the other.
Measurement of leg height can be done by a therapist.
Use a wall mirror for body examinations.
Have someone observe without you knowing when - if you tend to forward extend your head while standing still.
Have someone observe your posture at a computer without you knowing when.

With standing straight and looking into a wall mirror, check to see if one earlobe is lower than the other and if so, check the neck to shoulder curve and compare to other side.

Most likely the lower earlobe has less neck to shoulder curve. So changing posture from this can be more somatic and tinnitus often goes back and forth between ears.

If there's hearing loss, the lower earlobe side may have more loss. Often, other problems such as TMD is on the opposite side of a lower ear lobe.

Many people with somatic tinnitus tend to favor one side (often the left - heart) with walking pressure, sitting and head/neck angle.

Pulsatile tinnitus caused from anxiety - blood pressure often associates to those that favor one side and twist neck when under stress.

Up until last year, I talked to children with tinnitus that were in a particular school district. Many were exposed to noise, but also most had bad posture and prior anxiety. These were good kids where almost all had up and down life experiences. ​

 

What are you doing?

 

I have an earlobe that is definitely 1/2 inch lower than the other...

 

I've posted a number of times on this forum on how a technique called AtlasPROfilax was so helpful for my own structural issues (primarily neck). I thought this thread might be a good place to show some pretty revealing before and after pictures (below), which was at THIS POST (on another forum).

The link is to a fairly long thread on the topic, and would allow somebody who's interested in AP to get some good insights about this technique. -- BTW, I feel I've learned how to do this technique on myself (mostly daily deep massage on the atlas behind the ears), with pretty darn close to the same results as having a certified practitioner do it. I noticed benefits after about 2-3 days.

The comments below on how her sense of hunger was affected indicates (to me) that the atlas realignment released some kind of crimping or pressure on her vagus nerve. The VN is largely responsible for supplying nerve energy to the entire GI tract, modulating everything from digestion, to a sense of fullness, gagging reflex, to peristalsis, etc. I've seen a number of hunger comments similar to this--which was my experience as well.

The vagus nerve is also the primary "orchestrator" of the entire parasympathic system in the body. Whenever I see somebody struggling mightily with a sense of anxiety, dread, depression, and other fight or flight symptoms, I think they would do well to learn to stimulate their vagus nerve on a regular basis. And look into whether a misaligned atlas is interfering with normal vagus nerve function. -- It's sad for me to see people researching different kinds of drugs, while mostly ignoring some basic things like postural/structural corrections.

.....................................................................

experiences with Atlas Profilax treatment I thought. I had mine last Thursday. Look at these pictures:



First picture taken 6 months ago, second one last night. In both I am standing relaxed and straight up. Equal weight on both feet. Yes, I was a very zig zaggy person. And the rotation in my torso doesn't even show here.

The same day of the treatment I got muscle aches in shoulder and back. Suddenly I walked tall and wanted to dance all the time. I could turn my head much farther then ever. Since then the aches have gone, I still want to move and walk all the time. I have a strange craving for fish (stock) and sushi every day since.

My posture has improved much. I'm still adjusting. I hope it gets better and better. It won't cure ME or my CFS or busted adrenals but some huge body burdens have lifted. I have more energy, I've walked outside every day (!!)

My pelvis had tilted and suddenly my intestines are not dangling outside but are nested in my pelvis. Some digestion has eased. I've grown hungry. Sleep, hormones and the tendency to overdo things have not improved.

For me the treatment was painful. I got a vegetal reaction and I had to mentally coach my body to endure the five minutes the treatment lasted. Afterwards the strangest thing occured: my body was totally annoyed with me. Insulted even. I've never experienced such a divide between body and mind before...

 

This may associate to your reverse curve and below.

So your pitch and volume changes?

Why are you doing chin tucks? The nod method is safer which is slowing nodding your head one inch with good upright posture - 10 tens. Better for a reverse curse. This was probably caused from an incident. Getting hit on the head/neck may have caused neck muscle spasms that caused your c -spine to straighten. Or a lot of forward head posture.

To answer your question what are the SCMs - they are sternocleidomastoid muscles. I would start with warm compresses for a week - 10 minutes a couple times a day, use correct posture and then after a week - outward extension therapy on the SCMs - higher earlobe side - to get neck balance - only if you know for sure that your neck veins and arteries are remarkable. You can do all of this yourself. You got tinnitus and I don't think that intense therapy will do you good.

 

Yeah volume changed after my neck slide out of place while brushing my teeth leaning over the sink... Before I would have 15 great days a months and 15 annoying days a month. Now I have maybe 8 great days a month, 6 annoying days a month, and 15-17 good days a month... So i got lucky and it's an improvement...

Seen chin tucks help reverse curve online and I do other exercises to make neck stronger... It's all trial and error and nothing has really helped so far.

 

I have to go to Canada for the Atlas Pro because it is by far the nearest one from me being 2 hours away... Did the Atlas Pro help your tinnitus?

 

Mine do, too. Pitch not as much as volume and amount of tones. Again my tinnitus isn't necessarily high pitched, although occasionally I'll get a high pitched screech in either ear. It never lasts long.
Baseline on the left is some sort of humming, it almost sounds like an echoing hum, with a soft zsszsss kind of noise. Literally sounds like a radiator.
Baseline on the right is very different and sounds more mechanical, it's pretty uncomfortable and hard to describe, but there's also a sort of prickly-chirp type noise, along with something akin to nails on a chalkboard, but mechanical lol.

Both sides seem to have noises play on a loop.

At times they sound water-y rather than mechanical. My left ear also gets a very piercing tone that almost sounds like the echo/after sound of a tuning fork - this mostly happens after doing my exercises or sitting in the wrong position for too long; it also occasionally comes when I've been lying on my left side in bed. It decreases when I roll over to my right side.

Sorry to completely hijack this again. Just still looking for some answers. I did not have a noise trauma at the onset of my tinnitus and my loud noise exposure + headphone use was fairly limited, especially compared to a lot of other people here (I know that may not say much) + volumes genuinely kept low as I was aware that too loud music could cause tinnitus. Plus, standard hearing test checks out perfectly fine (no dips whatsoever) and doing some sweep tests etc from more reliable sources with quality headphones I've found no difference on either side and can hear up to 17 kHz with ease.

 

@ASilverLight
Your problems most likely does associate with neck injury.

One can research this and whiplash and find that an assortment of many different things may be contributing.

Cranial nerves. Facet joints - where movement is needed and neck muscles where movement is also needed. Movement refers to not keeping neck in one position for too long. Mostly only the most professional studies will mention not keeping the neck in one place for too long is the best therapy.

I placed YES- 4 times into quote.

So you know what happens and what you need to do - not keeping neck in one position for too long and careful movement that does not force range of motion (exercises) to the limits. I'm just agreeing with you.

In time - by doing this, sounds may decrease considerably with increased blood flow circulation.

 

@Greg Sacramento Just want to say I really appreciate your wealth of knowledge shared on the forum

2 months ago I had TTTS spasms in my left ear constantly, not anymore. During this time I heard a LOUD humming sound at one time, that slowly went away during 4 hours. Idling truck, low pitched light saber type noise.

Since saturday, the sound has been more persistent (seems to be gone today though, knock on wood). What gives me pause is that when the sound returned, I noticed that every time I chew/eat I hear my pulse in the same ear.

I have a history of bruxism, neck pain, tension and dangerous movements (standing on my head for instance). I also most likely have an acoustic trauma but this low buzz feels like it could be unrelated?

I have 3-4 sounds. These can come and go from day to day, some days my main high pitch tone is very silent but the morse code and buzzing sounds remain at the same level.

Thankful for any input on this

Best regards

 

@HeavyMantra
The eardrum has three bones behind it to sort out "Morse-code" sound. If the bones get stuck and the muscles that work with the bones, humming can also happen.

The mandibular sensory part of the trigeminal nerve has motor and sensory functions that helps a person to chew and clench the teeth and gives sensation to muscles in the tympanic membrane of the ear.

Your neck - atlas - C1 is probably causing this problem and also causing bruxism. Pressure from this seems to be tightening your bones directing behind the eardrum.

First, I would try warm moist compresses to upper neck and a dry compress to jaw area. Not to much compress for jaw and a cool compress may be needed afterwards for jaw.

For your neck, I would try nodding after warm compress use. Nodding is just like very gently moving your head up and down just a little when you are agreeing with someone. Try with good posture, nodding your head up and down - only one inch in movement and hold for 2 seconds in each direction. Start off doing this ten times over a course of a minute. Do this 10 times a day to start.

You should use a mouth guard when sleeping - a thin flexible one for top teeth may be better.

One of your other sounds - the high pitch may involve everything including acoustic trauma. If you don't have side effects to magnesium, NAC with a little vitamin C - I would try that. Magnesium might help to relax your neck, jaw and ear muscles. I would use 1/3 of a magnesium tablet 3 times a day.

 

@HeavyMantra -- I'm happy to hear your TTTS went away! -- I made a post about TTTS last year; below is a link if you'd be interested:

DMSO & Magnesium Oil for Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome (TTTS)