Need Some Positivity from Folks with Jaw/Somatic Component to Their Tinnitus

Hey all, I’ve recently undergone a horrendous spike from jaw prolotherapy. I’d say this tinnitus is much worse than the acoustic trauma-related tinnitus I’d acquired some 2.5 years ago.

My acoustic trauma-related tinnitus’s intrusiveness, and later volume, faded over time.

For anyone with a clear jaw/somatic component to your tinnitus, did the intrusiveness and/or volume waiver after a period of time?

I need some help here, please. I’ve had to go back up to my starting dose of 250 mg Seroquel I started 2.5 years ago, and I’m still waking up spiking 4 hours later, presumably because of my clenching.

Brightside

 

I clench too. I am 100% convinced I have TMD. I wake up with jaw pain and have it throughout the day randomly. My jaw gets tired after barely any chewing of food. In the cold weather my jaw goes into intense pain.

My tinnitus, actually, has subsided a ton. All that I did do was help treat my anxiety and remove stressors from my life which is what was probably causing me to clench.

Not sure if this is the case for you at all but I thought I would share

 

That’s incredible. When did you notice tinnitus and your likely TMD? Can you modulate your tinnitus at all? How long did it take for you to experience relief?

Sorry for the gauntlet of questions, I’ve been at this new spiked level for about a month and a half. I didn’t freak out at the beginning, and maybe I ought to have.

My TMD doesn’t manifest with any pain at all, which is the most frustrating part. The prolotherapy made me clench a TON over the month of November and I have no real clue what has happened but I’m assuming my jaw is now in a more tense/fragile environment. I only think I’m clenching because I wake up like clockwork 5 hours after I go to bed, spiking hard as hell. My sleeping meds are so high that I can shrug it off after a while and fall back asleep. When I actually wake up, the tinnitus has diminished from its prior spike, but is much more intrusive than it used to be (new extremely high-pitched tone in left/central).

 

No problem at all, ask all the questions you'd like answered! I noticed the tinnitus before the TMD. It was on July 7th, 2020 that I woke up to fullness and a roaring/whooshing sound in my right ear only. The next day, I had an insanely intrusive high-pitched ringing in that ear. Eventually it had spread to my left ear but much much quieter.

With numerous testing to my ears like hearing tests, MRIs, allergy tests, and checking my eardrums... nothing was wrong. I was hopeless until I met another ENT for a second opinion. She had an MRI done and nothing was the matter. She suspected I had TMD and suggested I received treatment for it.

In desperation and in need of help, I went to my local dentist who I'd been seeing since a young child. She told me despite telling her about my clenching, easily tired jaw, tinnitus, and pain at the location of my TMJ that I wasn't an obvious TMD patient in her eyes. All I needed to do in her expert opinion was remove my wisdom teeth as she suspected that was causing my issues.

I went to an oral surgeon who actually took X-rays of my jaw and mouth. Through these images, he found that the tip of my jawbone on the right side (interesting how my right ear caused me most issues and where it all started ) was flat rather than rounded from persistent clenching. Not only that, but my teeth were starting to wear down from the pressure.

Despite this, he only treated me for my wisdom teeth and sent me on my way. I never got help since then as I assumed it wasn't much of a concern and wasn't related to my tinnitus as many experts weren't concerned about my jaw at all.

Yes, I can manipulate my tinnitus on the right side. If I move my head quickly to the right or move it that way and stretch my neck while doing so, the sound increases in both pitch and volume. I can also do this by pushing my lower jaw forward or extending my lower jaw downward to its limit.

I have experienced severe mental health issues that i will spare you the time of reading... but in summary, I suffered from severe anxiety and panic attacks which ultimately caused me to become depressed and suicidal from dealing with it for almost a year on end. Every day was a waking nightmare of constant fear.

It was only until September of 2021 that I had reached out for intensive treatment as my meds and weekly therapy proved to be useless. I went through inpatient, outpatient, intensive psychiatry and therapy. After using the coping mechanisms and lifestyle changes taught to me, I experienced immense improvement in my tinnitus. I only hear it at night and it is very very quiet. Weirdly enough, though, my jaw pain has increased. Maybe it is the cold weather (never went out since the tinnitus started in 2020 because of COVID-19) that has caused this. i will be seeking more medical advice for this pain, however

Sorry this was so long, I have a tendency to over-explain/share. If you have any more questions, ask below!

 

Can I ask what prolotherapy is?

I also have super high-pitched tinnitus and my ENT and physical therapist both agree that it’s from my jaws and my neck. My jaws are frequently tight during the day and I think in addition to clenching at night I secretly tense them when I’m under stress. I’m not even aware of it. I’ve had months where I’ve just woken up with brutal headaches. I don’t really get those so much anymore. I’ve had some chipped teeth from clenching. I also have a crown with a root canal through it and that was the beginning of my high-pitched tinnitus. It started not too long after the advent of that dental work. However, it was really mild at first. This past summer it got worse. Louder and higher pitched. I still think my bite is off even though the dentist has tried to adjust it several times.

Right now I’m in physical therapy for my jaw and my neck. The high-pitched tinnitus is like no other. I’ve had tinnitus related to hearing loss before and this is nothing like it. And my tinnitus changes within the hour. And some days it’s super quiet and for months on end I can go without barely noticing it and then I go through 5-6 weeks of hell. I also get a feeling of pressure in my left ear, which is the same side of the face that my crown is on. I don’t think it’s an accident that I get that as a result of clenching. But ironically it is my right ear that is louder than my left.

I have had some decrease in my hearing in the high frequencies, particularly in the right ear, however it is all still within normal limits, it’s just not as good as it used to be. But I’m 55 so I guess that’s to be expected.

I’m very sorry that you’re going through this. I can tell you that my high-pitched tinnitus, when it’s really, really loud, drives me right out of my mind.

Is it possible that you can stop the prolotherapy?

 

Prolotherapy is the injection of an irritating solution into a compromised ligament or tendon to force an inflammatory cascade which should ultimately conclude with collagenic remodeling (stronger tendon/ligament). I stopped the Prolotherapy after I got worse from the single shot.

You say your tinnitus got worse over the summer last year, but that you’ve had months where it hasn’t bothered you. Do you mean in between now and last summer you’ve had months where it hasn’t bothered you, or only before last summer?

Thank you for taking the time to provide such a detailed explanation. I’m so glad your tinnitus and your life improved over time.

 

Mine is really bizarre. It started in May, 2020 - very faint but high pitched and I could hear it. It got a little worse over the summer of 2020 where it was more of a loud hiss that would come and go. I wouldn’t have it all the time. Come fall it just stopped and then it didn’t come back again until March, 2021. Since then it’s been on and off. But it worsened over the summer of 2021 where the pitch got much higher. I was never able to mask it from the beginning thought due to the frequency. That has probably been the worst part.

It Improved early August after a few weeks of hell. Then got worse again the end of September through most of October. Then improved early November and stayed fairly improved and quiet until early January. Then I went to Disney World for a week and I only really noticed it because I had earplugs in constantly due to the noise levels. When I took my earplugs out it wasn’t so bad.

Since I’ve been home it’s been more elevated with some horrible days where it had been off the map. The last couple of days I’ve been OK. It is quieter. I’m afraid to even say that. By 10 o’clock this morning my ears could be screaming.

I cannot find any rhyme or reason to its fluctuations.