Somatic Tinnitus

Is there a way to identify whether somatic T is caused by muscle tension versus neck/spine issues? If I have some trigger points, does it mean muscle tension?

 

Afraid not. I spoke to Professor Dirk De Ridder who published a lot of papers on tinnitus. He says that (no matter what the origin of tinnitus is), 70 % of tinnitus patients have a somatic component, i.e. flex their jaw, press their face, flex their neck to make tinnitus louder or quieter. I guess we'd have to take his word for it.
I was hoping he would examine the right side of my face where I can press it to make my tinnitus much louder and quieter if I release the pressure with my finger.

For a solution you have to try long periods of physical therapy to see if it has an effect on tinnitus. Both neck and face (if the muscle tension is coming from there). My T started to lower after 3 quarters of a year of bi weekly therapy. Still isn't gone.

 

Thanks for the response. I feel I have more extreme somatic symptoms (neck stretch/rotation, bending forward/backwards, talking, face massage all increase my tinnitus, some causing a spike). I also have bilateral tinnitus, indicating systemic issue. I was wondering whether to check out a physical therapist or chiropractor. I called a few physical therapists, they are not aware of trigger point massage for tinnitus. 3/4 of a year...that is good to know.

Does exercise help to reduce the symptoms, or worsen them?

 

I would start light physical therapy at home... If you experience more pain or worse tinnitus, stop.

 

Yes, try the short nod 3 x 10 times a day.
It's only a few centimeters you have to tension.

Or try massaging your face. There are also various neck training exercises but it all comes down to strengthening your upper back and shoulders so your neck does not get overloaded.

 

That's a very good question.

For me the beginning (the discovery) of the somatic manipulation of tinnitus was more a curse than a blessing.

 

I see a certain contradiction in the statement.
For tinnitus sufferers whose tinnitus has a somatic origin all should be able to influence their tinnitus somatically.

But the thought fails already because nobody knows if there is tinnitus with a somatic "cause" or origin at all.

 

Is somatic tinnitus also common when the cause is noise?

On days when I don't have tinnitus, I can still produce tones by turning my neck in different ways. I can also make a tone appear in my right ear which is usually completely silent.

Does this suggest that my tinnitus could be caused by anything other than noise?

 

It is not uncommon for a tinnitus disease to develop a shift in attention that causes sounds to be heard that were not noticed before, but were probably always there.
It's like a ticking clock whose ticking never caught your attention - and now it disturbs...

 

True and also with PT. We need to talk more about the philological reasons why.

 

If you talk to my T physchologist she would blame you are somatizing your diseasse and you need to stop looking.
But yeah we all know how strange it can be. Even on days when I have high T, I cannot control it with my neck and sometimes I can.

 

She's probably right. I'm going to have to eliminate all causes before I finally can accept this as permanent. The cause of my T is yet unknown, and I can't let it go. My T came along with neck pain. I'm very curious about being in my body and I was moving my neck this way even before tinnitus.

 

Hello all

My girlfriend has told me for many months that I often clench my jaw in my sleep. I've never experienced it while conscious until I became afflicted with tinnitus. During one of my restless nights I half woke up during a clenching episode and was truly shocked at how hard I was clenching my jaw shut.

When I’m in a quiet room or when I'm chewing food, I've noticed that my jaw movement changes the pitch of my tinnitus every time it’s extended. Is this a sign that TMJ might also play a role in my tinnitus? Or that there’s at least a muscular component?

 

A lot of people with noise induced tinnitus (including myself) can modify their tinnitus's pitch with jaw movement. i.e. yawning makes it louder.

A prominent neuroscientist and tinnitus researcher named Susan Shore explained it has something to do with pathways in the auditory brain neighboring parts of the brain associated with jaw movement. I'm sorry I don't have the study to source.

 

I wonder, if jutting out your jaw makes your tinnitus louder, couldn't there be some answer hidden in the reversal of this process? Not that you could push your jaw inward the same way really, but, whatever is physically moving inside must have some effect. Mind you my tinnitus is noise induced....

I mean it's the only thing I know of that is immediate in its reaction.

 

Hi guys!

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

I went to a specialist and he said that my hearing results were fine, there wasn't any hearing loss.

So I was wondering if it was hidden?

Or if could be caused by tense muscles or something similar?

Symptoms include:

My tinnitus increases if I put pressure on my jaw in all directions, or if I move my neck (as far as you can go).

Even if I put pressure on the side of my head with my palm and push there's a tinnitus increase. This is for both sides.

Sometimes a second frequency shows up if I do so. The tinnitus goes back to normal once I stop applying pressure.

If I massage the sides of my face with my palm I notice that the tinnitus changes to more of a empty vibration instead of an actual frequency if that makes sense.

For those with that have noise induced, do you have similar symptoms if you do the same thing? I was reading that some do and don't...

 

Ok this is a general question for somatic tinnitus... does it ever go away completely after treatment ??? Everyone seems to complain from it yet no one has said they've cured it

 

I've seen an excellent ENT in Brisbane he said straight away it's musculoskeletal bruxism and neck tension. This doctor is the best his name is Andrew Lomas.

 

I wake up with an alarm ringing in my right ear but as soon as I get up and stretch my neck it goes away or dies down to a faint hiss. Definitely tension in the neck from bad sleeping position or jaw clenching ... who knows what I do when I'm asleep

 

I hear one sound continually, a high pitch that I always describe as a "ballast going out in a fluorescent light sound". I have noticed when I bend my neck forward toward my chest, that sound gets louder. Anyone have any idea what that could mean? Or, does anyone share these same symptoms? Thanks.

 

Literally 80% of us have the same thing :0. Although mine comes from moving my head back rather than forward. I know what it means in basic terms.. It means your central nervous system is picking up sound from your nerves in the upper neck. After 4 months I've been able to stop the continuous sound for large parts of the day but only when I'm taking supplements so far.

 

thanks for the response. my post was moved to this thread and after reading it guess I now realize how common this thing actually is...you mention you have been able to stop the continuous sound for large portions of the day with supplements. May I ask what supplements were able to do this for you? I am open to all suggestions. thxs

 

Hi, just wondering if anyone with their noise induced tinnitus or acoustic trauma experience louder tinnitus when they tense up the muscles in front of the neck or inside the mouth (hard to explain).

I find this weird as my tinnitus was definitely caused by an acoustic trauma...

 

It is actually an absolute catastrophe for a "tinnitus expert" not to know which people are affected by "somatic" tinnitus.

I belong to the group of "tinnitus sufferers" in whom any pressure on structures of the left half of the head supplied with N. trigeminalis generates a much louder "beeping" than other measures.

And the "permanent tinnitus" is somehow only a subset of the "nerve hissing" that can be achieved by stimulation of head nerves.

 

A short one (e.g. explosion, gunshot) or a longer lasting one (e.g. music, concert)?

 

Does it mean anything or totally irrelevant that my tinnitus only increase in volume by movements when I tilt my head hard to the right and forward, but the sound is not changed if I tilt my head to the left and backwards? My tinnitus is changing ears a lot and lot of the times I cant really tell which ear is involved. It's probably noise (earbuds) or stress induced, but could be drug induced as well. My neck also has been cracking for years, but I never gave it too much attention.

 

Does your TMJ click or make crunching sounds? I'm pushing for an TMJ MRI to be done ASAP. I hate this noise. Have to be proactive. Sleep apnea needs to be checked out as well.

 

Not always. Sometimes with sudden movement my jaw feels to be a bit misaligned and funny, but I don't think that there is anything wrong with that. And I can't modulate tinnitus with jaw movement, only with my neck. I do have overbite though. And I'm deadly afraid now of MRI, because the brain MRI (or the anxiety around it) spiked my tinnitus. Went down in a week or so, but was not a nice experience.

 

So when I tense up my head and neck the tinnitus in my left ear (the only one that rings) gets much much louder.

If my tinnitus is somatic and related to my neck, has anyone done anything for this that worked? I’ve seen a chiropractor and an upper cervical chiropractor. I’ve also gotten several massages.

 

Hey guys,

I've originally only have pure tone tinnitus on my right ear due to ear infections two years ago. My symptoms have gotten worse. Left ear has both pure tone tinnitus and reactive TTTS popping noises since middle of August. Right ear has developed an additional electrical hiss since July.

I can't do much about the pure tone on both ears since it's most likely sensorineural.

However, I'm trying to tackle the electrical hiss since I noticed I can modulate the hissing volume by 50%-100% depending on the strength of using my neck muscles. If I tuck my chin downwards or force my head backwards (like a chin tuck but forcing my head back), my electrical increases in volume by a lot. It used to be very minor increase but now it's extremely noticeable and very disturbing.

I've gone to a dental surgeon and gotten a dental CT scan on the jaw. It seems that I don't have TMJ. The only issue the scan showed is my left jaw starting to develop arthritis. However, the somatic tinnitus is on the right so I'm ruling out TMJ.

I've read briefly in the past that some people can decrease their tinnitus volume doing certain head/neck movements. I've tried many movements about the neck, but it seems to only increase it.

So anyways, I was wondering for those you who has somatic neck tinnitus, what is your advice? Has any head/neck exercises help you (i.e. chiropractor)? Any advice much appreciated. Thanks guys.

EDIT:
I remember reading some cervical adjustments on certain vertebrae to treat somatic tinnitus. What was that adjustment technique call again?