Tensor Tympani Syndrome???

[d@ve]

TL;DR Bubbling/vibrating senation in my ear in response to bird song (TTS?). Currently have mild tinnitus and in my left ear, dulled hearing. What can i do to regain hearing/remove this annoying bubbling sound!?

Hi all, sorry for the wall of text.

Thought id join and ask here if anyone could help me work out whats going on with my ears.

A quick history of my auditory health;

• At ~6-7 i had to have grommets in my ears due to poor hearing and what i can only asume was some case of Otitis Media? Apparently my hearing was awful, but i cant really remember that.
  
  
• Following that my ears were fine! For years anywho. I actually had pretty good hearing following the grommets, really good in fact.

Now, im 27 and things have been getting worse and worse for the last few years. I definitely have a very mild level of tinnitus (just a constant high pitch ring but its quite quiet), probably from going to concerts etc. but honestly, thats not what bothers me so much.

My main problem is bird song! If i hear bird song, my left ear uncontrollably vibrates in response to it, usually quick bursts of like 6-7 vibrations per bird call. If theres multiple birds, its just constant buzzing. This vibration started intermittently probably a decade ago, but it was only in the past 3 years i made the connection with bird song due to its increasing occurrence. Now I can literally turn on a youtube video with birds on and it has the same effect. This for example.


The second i press pause, it stops instantly.

Its only ever in my left ear. It feels like vibrating or bubbling, a similar tone to the whooshing noise you can make if you stretch your Tensor Tympani. Could this be TTS?

Now on top of that, the same ear has been going through bouts of intermittent deafness. Since December 2015, ive had dulled hearing in my left ear for probably 80% of the time, but the deafness dates back probably on and off since 2013. Its a loss of high frequencies, which are also the same frequencies in bird song i assume which trigger this myoclonus within my ear.

If i hold my nose and blow air into my Eustachian tube it provides relief and my hearing returns to near normal, which leads me to believe its not a psychosomatic experience. Also when im coming to the end of a bout of deafness, this can POP the ear into un-muffled, proper hearing.
I dont know if the dulled hearing is related to what i believe could be Tensor Tympani syndrome, but im quite certain its not due to wax buildup. If i stretch my tensor tympani, sometimes it feels like it starts to crackle and crunch, sounds which i commonly hear before my ear pops back into proper hearing. Likewise if i get one of those kinda pressurization burps, i get a booming sound in my ear, crackling and popping and sometimes that can clear my hearing too.

Ill add that my voice seems loud within my head and chewing etc. too, which im pretty certain is a symptom of TTS? Furthermore, ive never had any pain in my ears. Well, ive been plauged with otitis externa on and off for the past few years, so they have been a little sore externally, but never any inner ear ache. Just from my own irritation of the ear due to the damn itchyness! Finally, i had problems with my jaw when i was younger on the same side as the problems with my ear currently. I had to see an osteopath after being kicked in the face as a 8 year old kid, as my jaw was clicking and clonking every time i ate. I dont know if this could be related.

Anywho. Im basically just wondering if anyone else has any advice for me. I would love to know if theres any way to allow me to regain the hearing in my left ear without it going again the next day for weeks at a time and stop this annoying reaction to bird song which has made being outside really irritating.

TL;DR Bubbling/vibrating senation in my left ear in response to bird song (TTS?). Currently have mild tinnitus and also in my left ear, dulled hearing. What can i do to regain hearing/remove this annoying bubbling sound!?

 

[japongus]

TL;DR Bubbling/vibrating senation in my ear in response to bird song (TTS?). Currently have mild tinnitus and in my left ear, dulled hearing. What can i do to regain hearing/remove this annoying bubbling sound!?

Hi all, sorry for the wall of text.

Thought id join and ask here if anyone could help me work out whats going on with my ears.

A quick history of my auditory health;

• At ~6-7 i had to have grommets in my ears due to poor hearing and what i can only asume was some case of Otitis Media? Apparently my hearing was awful, but i cant really remember that.
  
  
• Following that my ears were fine! For years anywho. I actually had pretty good hearing following the grommets, really good in fact.

Now, im 27 and things have been getting worse and worse for the last few years. I definitely have a very mild level of tinnitus (just a constant high pitch ring but its quite quiet), probably from going to concerts etc. but honestly, thats not what bothers me so much.

My main problem is bird song!

Now on top of that, the same ear has been going through bouts of intermittent deafness. Since December 2015, ive had dulled hearing in my left ear for probably 80% of the time, but the deafness dates back probably on and off since 2013. Its a loss of high frequencies, which are also the same frequencies in bird song i assume which trigger this myoclonus within my ear.

If i hold my nose and blow air into my Eustachian tube it provides relief and my hearing returns to near normal, which leads me to believe its not a psychosomatic experience.

Myoclonus or myotonus how it probably should be called usually strikes younger people than those with neuropathic issues. Specific sounds have also been linked to TTTS by Marsha Johnson

Sound sensitivity, ''hearing loss'' that might be conductive that's confused with sensorineural in the tests doctors do, and high pitched and low pitched tinnitus have been linked to TTTS and not the inner ear or the brain. This paper does a good job of speculating that unlike in ears with negative pressure, a tympanogram won't show anything. We people that feel things in our ear, as opposed to people that have neuropathic pain elsewhere, might be the ones for whom tenotomy or botox works. For more info about the pros and cons, read my other posts.

 

[whale]

My Tensor Tympani events are surly related to my jaw. I got a jaw (TMJ) splint that I wear 24/7 and my daytime Tensor Tympani spasms are almost gone. I now only get them waking up a night. This is because I clench my jaw as I sleep. Sleep apnea is causing me to clench even when my splint is in, so I wake, heart racing, gasping for breath and Tensor Tympani going off the charts. Hopefully I can find a way to get my apnea and night clenching under control I think this will eliminate my Tensor Tympani. I also read of people getting their Tensor Tympani cut and getting cured without issues, But if you have Tensor Tympani Syndrome, go to a neuromuscular dentist and get you jaw, tmj check and get a sleep study to check for sleep apnea, if you have these they could be the root of the issue.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3629860/

 

[volsung37]

I have strange tensor tympani issues. Normally I get the thudding in the left ear but if I've just drunk a bottle of wine or overindulged in beer I get the thudding in the right ear while the left remains quiet. This happen to anyone else?