Ringing in Ear From Head Slap

Hello everyone,

So about a month ago I was slapped in the ear by my ex girlfriend who has severe emotional problems. She hit me while I was looking away and not expecting it so I took a full force hit. The slap opened a 25% rupture in my eardrum and I experienced considerable hearing loss and tinnitus instantly. Fortunately now a month later my hearing is almost totally recovered and the rupture in my eardrum has closed. The bad news is the ringing in my ear has not gotten any better at all. It is very loud and hard to cope with. I have never had any ringing in my ears prior to the slap, so this high pitched sound is very intense for me.

There is only one thing that can alleviate the ringing. When I clench my teeth together very hard, the ringing stops almost completely. I find myself clenching my teeth for several minutes at a time trying to get a break from the ringing sound, but this solution will not last long, as my jaw muscles are getting exhausted and are starting to spasm from the intense strain I am putting on them to continue to clench.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of tinnitus? When will it go away? Does anyone have any other coping methods?

Thanks in advance,
Tyler M.

 

Hi Tyler and welcome to TT Talk. I'm so sorry you have this problem, and you have my sympathy and understanding. The constant ringing is a horrible thing as all on here will tell you.

As you know what caused your injury and noises, I think a visit to your GP may be a good idea. Tell him/her exactly what happened and they will examine your ear just to make sure that your ear drum has healed properly.
I have had countless ear infections which have damaged both my drums, and frequent slaps around the head which cannot have helped. I now have ringing in both ears which has worsened recently.

You will find lots of good advice here about how to cope with the tinnitus meanwhile.

My best wishes to you. I do hope you find relief soon.

 

In time your tinnitus might settle.
With you mentioning your jaw it could well be related to your jaw joint muscles .
Have a read up on Tempomandibular jaw joint problems TMJ for short ,basically inflammation in the jaw joint can cause tinnitus......lots of love glynis

 

Yeah I have always had problems with grinding my teeth and clenching my jaw. It's an obsessive compulsive thing. I have never had ringing before and the ringing started as soon as I got slapped. I wonder if TMJ has anything to do with it though. Thanks for the insight.

 

I'm not a doctor, but almost sure that you have a TMJ problem. The ringing maybe does not comes from your ear injury, but from your Temporomandibular damage because of the slap.

Go with a dentist specialized in TMJ, or with a maxillofacial specialist. Of course it would be very good idea to go first with your GP, as soon as possible.

Regards.

 

Hey Tyler, after 3 years of tinnitus my ENT believes my problem is due to my TMJ.
Starting treatment tomorrow.
Ive heard from quite a few people who's tinnitus cleared after treatment, including a woman who had it for 25 years. Definitely get it checked out.

 

His eardrum was ruptured and he had sudden hearing loss. I would say it certainly comes from the injury unfortunately. Many people can manipulate their tunnitus by jaw/neck movements, regardless of the ethiology.

 

If the T is solely from the injury, does it ever heal?

 

It depends of the extent of the injury (middle ear vs inner ear). If the hearing organs were injured than no we know it doesn't heal. Have you done a full audiological evaluation? If there's conductive hearing loss there are things that can be done but sensorineural, not so much.

 

I never got cuffed on the ear, but I've been punched in the mouth, nose, and head a lot working in a psychiatric hospital. It really aggrivated my T that's for sure.
Maybe deep down in the head our T is kinda the same, I don't know.
But I've had great success coping with it with a method I learned here on the forum - search "Back To Silence."