Poll: Do Somatic Elements Play a Role in Your Tinnitus?

Explanation:

Many people have tinnitus that changes from day to day, or is worse during specific times of the day. Some will have worse tinnitus after waking from a nap. Others will be fine on awakening but the sounds get progressively louder during the day.

Some will experience increased tinnitus if they move their body, head or jaw in a certain way.

Somatic Tinnitus
Somatic tinnitus is a condition where the sensory system in the body can cause, worsen, or influence tinnitus in some way. The word somatic is from the Greek meaning “of the body.” Somatic signals are sensory signals and are generated from muscle position sensors in the face, neck, head, trunk, arms, tongue, and the temporomandibular joint (TMJ).

 

5 answers

 

Interest in somatic tinnitus seems to be low.....

 

My T has probably something to do with either a car accident or a cold.

I can modulate the very mild T in my left ear by turning my head left and right, yawning, pushing neck and jaw forward or clenching my teeth.

The mild T in my right ear doesn‘t change as much.

However the right ear fluctuates on a hourly basis from silent to mild to maybe moderate and back.

 

More than half of those with T, also have somatic issues.

@Deamon22 masseter - jaw
https://thewellnessdigest.com/masseter-muscle-jaw-eye-ear-pain-sensitive-teeth/

 

Thaks Greg, very interesting. My masseter hurt a lot during the last treatment, also i bite my nails and chew a lot of gum. Interesting, maybe it‘s time to stop also these things.

 

All 18 respondents reported somatic elements.

Unfortunately, the term "somatic tinnitus" does not distinguish whether the tinnitus is caused somatically or whether an existing tinnitus is only influenced somatically.

It would also be interesting to find an answer to the question of how the affected person became aware of the somatic modulation of his tinnitus.

 

I'm amazed at how much my tinnitus has morphed into this somatic thing that reacts every time I move almost. The ENT doc says it's my bruxism that has sent it that way. It's almost a relief when I get my steady dependable eeeeeee and oooooo sounds back, rather than all this electrostatic snow. At least I can turn the pure tones down with neuromodulation/residual inhibition, but this somatic stuff just comes and goes as it chooses, so it seems. I have it for most of the day now.

 

My tinnitus is not somatic modulated and not noise-induced.

 

How and when did you discover that you can somatically influence/modulate/trigger your tinnitus?

 

Mine is not somatic and it is noise induced. Seems I am the only that has this kind :/

 

I was researching and came across the UMich device and how they were wanting people who could somatically modulate their tinnitus for their clinical trials. I tried the movements and found they did affect my tinnitus. Increasing volume and pitch. Never decreasing it.

 

Did your ENT suspect TMJ and cochlear damage have a unknown connection? Until doctors recognize this we are going to be in the dark.

 

Hi Contrast
One ENT successfully diagnosed my bruxism and said I should address that. Not sure about the TMJ connection but going by his follow-up letter he seems to have completely missed what I said about my acoustic traumas coinciding with the onset of my tinnitus.

 

My ENT doc tried to tell me that, because my tinnitus is somatic, it couldn't be noise induced.

My ENT doc knows nothing, even though he claims to have a special interest in tinnitus.

 

Very interesting. My tinnitus also "morphed" to that "somatic thing". And I also would describe my somatic tinnitus as "hiss" or "electrostatic snow". O.k., white noise matches, too.

The basic idea is actually not bad and was also a reason to start this survey...

 

Hazel, thank you very much for your answer!

In order to answer the question whether somatically influenceable tinnitus is an indication that the cause was not a noise trauma, more original data would of course be needed.
But it is already becoming apparent that somatic manipulability is apparently widespread among all tinnitus causes.

The most valuable contributions could be made by people who have really experienced a clear, immediate noise trauma, e.g. soldiers at an explosion, rifle shots without hearing protection ...e.g.