Noise-Induced Tinnitus — Recent Massage on Ear Area Caused Jaw Pain, Ear Pressure and Worse Tinnitus

Well, I'm pretty upset, more so than any noise trauma because this is something I'm unfamiliar with and now the unknown has me concerned.

I have noise induced T and my father decided to buy some massages from a pretty decent place. More high end, private room and consultation type of place. I knew this would not help my T as it's noise induced but he wanted to try something, hoping it could relax that area, help bloodflow ect..

I wen't along with it and now sadly, I'm suffering for it. The massage therapist knew I had T and I pretty much told her just focus more on back and neck. She did so, and at the end she worked on the ear areas a bit. She used her thumbs and started to push in on 3 different areas, with a good amount of force for 15-20 seconds. Right below the earlobe where jaw meets the ear (which is now very sore and hurting, since it seems to have irritated and hurt a tmj injury from like 15 years ago that I've rarely even thought about until she has caused pain to it, as it it healed and never bothered me much many years later), right next to the tragus, that little flap in your ear, and then slightly above the tragus at the mid top of your ear, which she pushed in hard enough so it almost closes in your ear canal.

Now, while she was doing this, I was pretty dazed from the back/neck rub and it felt a little tough but I wasn't feeling pain. But, when I left and got home, no more than 30min after I've had pain in my jaw area, my ear feels different like there's something inside blocking something and OF COURSE, now my T is different. Noticeably. It's higher in freq. and sounds different. It's causing me SERIOUS emotional stress as I was fine the day before.

Is anyone familar with these regions of the ear. Is there a chance some perm. damage has been done? Clearly the haircells/neural transmitters ect. couldn't be affected by this, right? So could a nerve or something been touched causing this? Could the pain in my jaw where the lower ear connects be causing the disturbance to my ear and T? Pain clearly means inflammation.

I'm in disbelief this happened. I thought I was going to get some massage around there just smooth type of rubbing over areas, not this deep pushing in on those 3 key areas I listed above. I'm terrified this has caused some type of damage. It's pretty awful feeling even 24h after.

 

It should go away. She probably just caused some inflammation in that area which is making your T temporarily louder.

 

Sounds like TMJD. Inflammation on the jaw/ear from massages can cause this to happen. Should be temporary. Even stretching your jaw is bad and should be avoided.

 

Thanks for the reply. Since the under ear/jaw area is sore, I definitely think it's inflammation. What concerns me is why would that affect T when it's noise induced. Can things like this still affect T even if it's from a different reason?

I definitely agree that it's inflammation there. But when I got injured when I was young on my jaw area, I didn't have T. Not even when I reached adulthood, only noise damage gave me T. So my concern is even if she hurt something in this area and it's inflamed, why would it then affect T from a noise induced?

 

Many people can change the volume of their T by moving the jaw even if it's noise induced.

 

Good point. So it's probably not farfetched to think that her irritating something which has made the ear area/jawline painful/inflamed could of had some affect on even noise induced T.

I guess the question to be answered is if it caused a perm. change, or will it go away once the area is fully healed. Another time will tell scenario while I suffer, the worst of all.

 

I can't imagine this caused permanent damage. Like others said, it could be related to TMJ. I know when I move my lower jaw forward, it increases my T immediately, and then the increase goes away as soon as put my jaw back in place.

I was also hit in the ear area about a year ago similar to the same area you had your massage. I had a spike in my T for a couple of days, and it then went away.