Pulsatile Tinnitus? Somatic Tinnitus? I Have No Idea What I'm Dealing with!

Hi friends,

My tinnitus came on all of a sudden a week ago. I'd sum it up as:

-Right ear only.
-Sounds like air escaping a vent. If I listen closely, I can hear a rhythm to it, but the rhythm is too faint to know if it matches my pulse. I'm not sure if it does.
-I almost can't hear the tinnitus if I'm outside.
-I have jaw pain and neck tension (on the right side). Seeing a chiropractor for this.
-I'm able to modulate (usually in the mornings) with my neck and jaw. Some angles make it disappear completely, but only for a moment.
-Sometimes taking a low dose benzo improves it a little bit, but that might just be my perception since it also calms me down.

I'm worried I might have pulsatile tinnitus but I'm not sure. I figured with PT, the pulse thumping would be unmistakable. I've seen two GPs already and have been referred to an ENT but was told that it might take months to see the ENT, due to the backlog of patients.

Anyways, just looking for some support and to see if anyone else has had something similar?

Amir

 

Welcome to the forum. Look like your tinnitus is mild as you said you could not hear it outside. Also you can't trace the pulses of heart beats to your PT. These are all positive signs. Take that as a positive as positivity will help the recovery by lowering stress and anxiety which are bad for tinnitus. ENT generally will check hearing and other inner ear problems. But they generally can't help our tinnitus. Take care. God bless.

 

I think you're right. Thank you for the response and the support

 

That's actually what you need to do. Work on getting your mandible to open, but not wide with posture. This will decompress the joint and area nerves. What happens is the maxillary artery becomes compressed within the lateral pterygoid. With this, blood pulsatile pressure will flow thru the anterior tympanic artery which is the cochlea supply. Not quite as common is when the tympanic artery becomes compressed by the mandibular condyle which will cause more of a blood flow pulsatile sound.

Use good head posture to shoulders with mandible exercise. Place shoulders back a little with arms down. Don't turn head when doing this and don't overdo mandible exercise in one session. Can be done 30 minutes after getting up in the morning. Keep a little space between teeth and use a spilt at night if you grind or clench your teeth.

For the neck, your therapist may include work on your longus colli and longus capitis muscles.

Good luck and take care.

 

I'll try to remember this. Thank you for the guidance.