Pulsatile Tinnitus After Dental Work

Hello all, glad I found this forum so I don't have to suffer alone. I believe a lengthy tooth extraction a couple years ago triggered my tinnitus. It's loud, and worsens when I open my mouth.

I have tried calcium carbonate with limited affect, had a hearing exam which showed "I'm all about that bass, no treble", and a normal inspection of my ears by a ENT.

The only thing that lessens the noise is upward pressure on my jaw. As a RN this impacts my job as I find it hard to concentrate when the tinnitus is screaming.

Thanks for reading. No one else understands how bad this is.

 

I do

 

@FlightNurse1
I promise you there are many people here that understand how bad it is.
My story is almost identical.
I am now nearly three years in.
When it hisssssesssss like crazy the best I can do is just try and stay calm (not easy) and ignore it. Just be BUSY with other things.

I usually find if it starts bad it stays bad until I next sleep - like sleep re-sets it.
It's weird....

My wife is an RN in the UK and has no understanding of how bad it is or how distracting it can be.
She thinks I'm fine as all my limbs are attached and I haven't lost Six pints of Blood
I hope you at least get some quieter days and can enjoy them X

 

It’s awful isn’t it. Doing regular duties and then noticing it’s really bad. Once it’s notice it there’s no going back. The whoosh I get at really regular intervals is exhausting. Ever since the pressure headaches that accompanied it I’ve had to start treatment for anxiety and depression. All because no one would take me seriously. It took me basically looking up every related problem under the sun to get here but I think I understand the problem. (I literally just woke up and connected the dots)

I think the dental work I had done last year around this time was the originator. I had extreme jaw pain and my bite was misaligned for months Causing much pain. I was down to soups for a while.
It did get better over time, but that was after Telling the doctor only to have them refer me to the dentist who shrugged and told me to buy a $200-300 mouth guard to stop grinding and that.
It made me clench my jaw all night and made it worse. So I stopped using it. Months later it went away. But then around February or March the pressure headaches stared. After fighting with doctors and everything I am here.

I think the dental work is the underlying cause. I’m not sure what it has done, but I believe it has been a sort of domino of effects that occurred because of the dental work.

I have both continuous and pulsatile tinnitus. I also get these weird clicks of which my audiologist says is probably air draining from my Eustachian tube. In addition, it gets really bad with the change in Air pressure. Specifically when the air pressure drops.

I just realized that some jaw positions stops the whooshing for a time. I wonder if this will help get me figured out.

Honestly some days it is so unbearable I just want to scream and scream until my lungs give out. I’m a student with ADHD and It’s already tough enough finishing assignments on time. Now I’m worried one of these days it’s going to be so debilitating that I just strait up can’t work on an assignment until it is too late.

I think the shift to fall has been the worst. Constant change in pressure = louder and more frequent tinnitus.

Now that I have connected my tinnitus to my dental work maybe I can get somewhere. I hope it won’t take months to get into an ENT I need help now and I’m on the edge of a break down. I will cry when I finally get relief. This has been the worst 13 months for more reasons than these constant issues but I’m hopeful. I will make the doctors help me. Even if I have to figure this all out on my own, they will help me. My sanity depends on it. I want to be back to normal again.

 

@Jordanmjk0

Ah, another ETD + TMD fellow. Join the club my friend. Pulsatile tinnitus probably from blood flow close to the ear but don’t know jack about the subject tbh. You probably need a splint, jaw muscle work and probably take a look at your neck too because TMD not only graces us with sounds only we have the privilege of listening to, it also messes up the neck (upper part mostly). You’ll beat it, don’t give up.

 

Yes, that can change or stop pulsatile sound for a time. Neither the jaw or Eustachian tubes is a physical cause of pulsatile tinnitus, but they can cause tinnitus.
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Emotions from concerns, including physical concerns or pain can cause sudden and brief moments of raising blood pressure with headaches or by intercranial pressure, where then pulsatile tinnitus can develop.

I would see an interventional radiologist. Hopefully, all you need is medication.