Tinnitus Completely Gone with Eardrops After Over a Year Plus a New Discovery (Please Read!)

Makes sense. Tinnitus is such a strange animal. It hides when it needs to then comes back when least expected. For example I could notice for days where if I don't get a solid 8 hours, my tinnitus is worse. The day I purposely force myself to get less hours is the day where I have little to no tinnitus even though any other day I would have a siren in my ear. My tinnitus seems to respond to many new things I try. Initially with good results then back to baseline. Is this a placebo or does tinnitus actually respond to new changes then eventually creeps back? I haven't figured it out yet. All this seems to point to how complex and intricate the brain really is and it seems like each time we think we figured it out it's workings, there's a catch and what we thought was the case all along seems to be wrong.

I think I've observed people long enough to conclude that the less intelligent and less self-aware someone is, the better off they are health-wise and the more intelligent and self-aware one is, the more they struggle with illness and stress and this combination compounds and forms a self-fulfilling cycle. I've also noticed many of us who struggle with tinnitus are very self-aware people. I'm to the point where if I feel some change anywhere in my body, I have to know what the cause it or else I get bad anxiety and stress even though it's not warranted. I'm also a perfectionist and I'd assume this personality trait also fits into the issues I have. Being self-aware of your own flaws is also detrimental to your health since seeing them and failing to correct them causes you to feel like a failure which further adds to your overall problems.

 

A very smart ENT doc examined me and took some history and concluded my (sudden) tinnitus was TMJ-related. My physical therapist, who specializes in tinnitus and TMJ, confirmed this by moving my jaw and neck in certain ways and pressing certain muscles and bones and actually triggering the tinnitus. Ultimately, the audiologist who works with the ENT found my hearing to be excellent and my eardrums to be healthy.

My ENT made recommendations for not aggravating my TMJ, such as avoiding “hard” foods that put pressure on the jaw, such as nuts (I ate a lot of nuts), bread, crackers etc (I ate a lot of that, too) and to rectify my teeth-grinding at night. The PT gave me exercises to relax my TMJ and jaw muscles.

Try to find an ENT practice where the audiologist is on the staff so they can communicate more easily.

 

@MartinNYC Thanks for getting back to me! That was good info. My tinnitus goes away when I force my neck in certain positions. Sometimes when I move my head back the tinnitus goes down and while I am holding that position and open my jaw the tinnitus goes away completely again. The moment I release, tinnitus is back.

What treatment did you get on your TMJ and after how long did you notice improvement?

 

@M.K. -- You may want to check out this 17-Min Video. Unlike many Youtube videos, this speaker (doctor) is very easy to listen to. -- @Bob den Hartog @agal123

Best Treatment for Neck-Tinnitus -- Somatic-type

 

Very interesting! Sounds like you have TMJ issues. At the height of my tinnitus attack, I awakened in the middle of the night with the loud siren in my ears BUT when I turned my neck to try to get comfortable—complete silence, like I short-circuited it! This was my epiphany. When I told my ENT doc this, he said the tinnitus was clearly caused by TMJ, not by ear issues. When I started eliminating the hard foods (I forgot to mention apples with the skin, too) that aggravate my TMJ, the tinnitus began subsiding. The exercises my PT taught me further helped. Also, the PT recommended I sleep in a “neutral” position in which my neck/head are flat, rather than propping up my neck/head with more pillows—Very helpful in eliminating the tinnitus.

 

@MartinNYC nice! You’re so lucky you found the cause. My pt is convinced it’s musle problems in my neck and not my TMJ but my gut is iffy about it all.

Did you have pain in your jaw?

 

Hi @Lane, I’ve seen this video. I definitely qualify for somatic tinnitus. The problem is that PT work hasn’t helped

 

Neck and TMJ can be related since they’re connected and ultimately connected to the ears, causing the tinnitus. In my case, my TMJ and fatigued neck muscles due to incorrect posture etc caused the tinnitus flareup.

No jaw pain. My TMJ issues expressed themselves with the tinnitus

 

@MartinNYC Yes, they are definitely connected. Did you experience any pain symptoms as well as tinnitus?

 

I experienced no pain, which is a common symptom of TMJ disorders. Instead, my body alerted me with the tinnitus.

 

I should also mention that the ENT doc deep-cleaning a couple of sizable mounds of wax out of my ears helped, too, in reducing my tinnitus and giving me a sense of lightness in my ears and head. I no longer will use Qtips to try to clean my ears, which can actually push wax into the ear canal. I plan on having my ENT clean my ears every six months or so, as he recommended.

 

I definitely had a TMD disorder that involved my right TMJ joint. I had a one year treatment plan thst involved wearing custom day & night oral appliances, monthly adjustments, various injections & physical therapy sessions. The joint is back in place, the muscle pain is gone but the Tinnitus stayed exactly the same. My dental specialist had said there was a very slight chance the Tinnitus would improve and unfortunately he was right.

 

Update... I've stopped using the drops for several days now. However, on May 28th, I began taking a concoction of supplements on a daily basis. I'm super excited to say that I am seeing very positive results, however, I want to wait at least a full week before I do my final report so stay tuned!

 

I was... they did nothing to help me

 

For those interested in the supplements I have been taking, I created a new thread found here:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/found-a-set-of-supplements-that-reduced-t-more-than-70.34377/

 

Why did he say there was a slight chance? Did he think the tinnitus was caused by something else?

 

@MartinNYC
Would you mind sharing your doctor's name? I’m in NYC too and looking for a second opinion from an ENT and hopefully PT treatment.