Pulling Out Teeth to Avoid Tinnitus Due to Dental Drills

Several weeks ago I was told that one of my filling needs to be replaced as there is a small cavity underneath it. Now that tooth began to hurt. After reading the horror stories on this site about people's tinnitus getting worse after dental treatment, and taking into account the fact that my ear hasn't had a chance to recover after my acoustic trauma, I am leaning towards pulling out that tooth instead (instead of replacing the filling).

Has anyone here done this?

 

Bill: Regardless of what anyone says, wear hearing protection. Do not blend your neck forward. There are long articles on why not to bend your neck with a running drill. Have them give you a small pillow to rest your head on. Don't keep your jaw open for long periods. Have them drill off and on. Have that tooth filled, less chance of nerve or bone damage.

 

Are you saying that pulling a tooth can aggravate T?

Thank you, Greg. I wonder whether the actions above reduce the risk, or completely eliminate it. Is there anyone who did the above, and ended up with a permanent spike?

 

For a filling - by doing the above stuff, you will be OK. Tell the dentist your instructions. If he won't drill off and on, then walk out and get a new dentist. Pulling a tooth could aggravate T. Check the tooth number on a detailed dental tooth and mouth chart and view the nerves under and around that tooth.

 

For me it is the second tooth and the third tooth from the center.

How was the procedure that caused your spike different from a filling?

 

My radiologist told me that a wide open mouth with continuous non stop drilling even with a low tone drill and neck bend is a "highway to tinnitus" There plenty of professional sites that talk about dental and tinnitus. Many of these articles are written by dentist.

 

I had a front lower dental implant.
Quote from private radiology report.
"An implant is present at site #24. It is labially positioned in the alveolar bone and is touching adjacent roots. Slight violation of the mandibular incisive or inferior canal is noted."
Under doc notes: "Implant relation to IAN has given patient somatic tinnitus."
The doc who examined the dental, mouth and jaw per radiology report was a private dentist - dental examiner for my 3D CT scan studies.

 

@Bill Bauer

Read my post above again as I added final sentence.

 

@Bill Bauer:

Not only have I studied every single professional article on Tinnitus and hyperacusis on the interest, I have read hundreds of medical books that usually appear as refs or notes to professional articles on the internet. I have read hundreds of medical books on the eyes, as my dad was going blind. He ended up going blind. He was treated at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear. I can name every nerve, vein, muscle, joint and bone in the ear, eyes, mouth, jaw and neck and their functions. I could walk thru ENT medical school without much study. I did skip the chapters on sound therapy for the ears. I have not kept on drugs for tinnitus, but there's no approved drugs by the FDA for tinnitus. I also have studied for a hundred hours per level of noise and decimal value for normal hearing and those with tinnitus.

 

Is it the case that there is no research about dental procedures causing or aggravating tinnitus?

 

Greg, please clarify, what kind of hearing protection is suitable? Are you aware of the occlusion effect? I really want to know what kind of hearing protection works for dentist drilling. I've been putting off dental work because of my hearing condition.
Thank you.

 

I understand your concerns about the noise level of the dentist's drill and you are contemplating tooth extraction instead of a filling. I have never gone down this route and I once had very severe hyperacusis and have never had problems at the dentist even when I have had root canal and crown on more than one occasion. I advise you to think seriously about what you're doing.

 

@SilverSpiral: http://drcharlierocks.com/tag/tinnitus/

 

Thank you for the link, Greg!

I saw links on this site to a pdf file on American Tinnitus Association's website with the information that dentists are to drill for 5 seconds and pause for 10 seconds, but those links are now dead. If I don't extract the two teeth, tt will be good to give my dentist a printout of your article, justifying my request to drill for at most 5 seconds. I am having second thoughts about extraction, as (according to your article and other sources), extraction might also aggravate T...

 

Are you talking about two of your front teeth ?

What will you do to replace them ?

Don't extract them because of small cavities or fillings, please.

 

@Bill Bauer I understand your fear as I faced the same situation recently, and did a lot of reading. The option I decided on was laser dentistry. That would minimize the drilling to just the adjustment after the filling is done. There was a thread on this, and I thought to report back after I have done it. Fortunately, I manage to avoid having a filling done. The dentist said the filling came off but there's no decay and it is not deep so I just need to maintain proper oral hygiene.

In the course of my reading, I also came across articles such as this:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-02-cavity-treatment-drilling.html
http://time.com/money/4143324/do-i-need-a-filling/

We might eventually be able to have fillings done without drilling if the treatment mentioned in the article comes through.

Do explore all options before going for extraction as that also brings about a different set of issues that might affect your T.

Take care.

 

My experience has been similar to Michael's. I've had lots of dental procedures - replacement fillings, crowns, etc. and it never affected my tinnitus. I even had an implant - which sounds like a jackhammer in your mouth - and the initial implant failed (rare and traumatizing) so they had to do it again! More jackhammers. However, this all happened when my T was at baseline but I think it's interesting that it was unaffected. Now that my T is currently louder, I'd probably alert the office and wear some kind of protection.

 

You two didn't have trouble. I did. This is not really significant. The point is, we have to be extremely cautious : H + dental work are not really the best friends. But there are solutions to do it properly.

 

I think you'll be just fine as before @Rosemerry My tinnitus increased in 2008 and I've been to the dentist numerous times and haven't had a problem. However, I appreciate this may not be the same for everyone.
Michael

 

What happened? Did you wear ear protection? Did your dentist agree to not drill for longer than 5 seconds? What dental procedure resulted in a spike? Is it the case that the spike ended up being permanent?

Thank you. I will look for a dentist who uses lasers. But it is my understanding that this won't work for replacing a filling, as lasers work on teeth, and not old fillings...

 

Drilling or having teeth pulled can in rare cases impact T, but ignoring dental abscesses can straight up kill you, so...

 

There are so many threads about dental work here... I told my story several times I think. The way you ask several questions so quickly shows that you are very stressed about the situation. It's normal.

But there is no point in comparing, my situation was different than yours.

All I understand is that you need a little filling replaced on a front tooth. Find the right dentist and it will be ok. You can't loose that front tooth for that.

 

From the article:

"Dr. Jack Vernon, of the Tinnitus Center at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), states that the best way to avoid hearing loss and tinnitus is to ask the dentist to drill in short spurts. Drill for five seconds then stop for ten seconds, drill for five seconds and stop for ten seconds, and so on. “The exacerbation of tinnitus by sound is a time-intensity function and by reducing the time of each drilling episode, the degree to which this kind of insult will influence the ears is also reduced.”"

 

I've been doing a little research and found out about a technique called "chunking", which is used by mercury-free dentists.

http://www.mercuryfreenow.com/freeservices/amalremov.html

"Most mercury free dentists use a removal process that’s commonly referred to as chunking. This involves less drilling, because the dentist only drills enough to cut the filling into chunks, which can then be easily removed by a hand instrument or suction."

https://iaomt.org/safe-removal-amalgam-fillings/

"The amalgam should be sectioned into chunks and removed in as large of pieces as possible, using a small diameter carbide drill."

So a combo of laser drilling and chunking could be a good way to go.

 

Thank you!

 

I have a dental cleaning and exam tomorrow and I'm worried about this too.

I don't think I have any cavities, but it's always in the back of my mind that I might and that the drill will severely worsen my H and T.

 

Mate

some dentists have laser drills, jus ask for them supposed tobe quieter

 

Yeah I'll ask for the quietest option for sure.

 

I don't think lasers can be used to take out and replace a filling...

 

This one can...