Tinnitus with a Movement-Based Bonus Sound

Some background first (sorry this ended up kind of long) -- I've had some tinnitus for about 1.5 years now, though it's gotten worse in the last six months or so. I have developed some unexplained symmetric high-frequency hearing loss in the same timeframe (~30 dB at 4 kHz dropping off to ~75 dB at 8 kHz), which I'm sure is the root cause of my tinnitus, even though only being 43 years old and never having much acoustic trauma the hearing loss is kind of a mystery.

Generally my tinnitus is a high-pitched hiss, though when it gets worse it resolves into more of a tone. It ranges from "can notice it if I pay attention" when it's well-masked to "right at the foreground of my hearing" when it's bad or quiet. It also pretty often features somewhat of a morse-code beepy layer, and probably a couple time a day I'll get a couple clicks that sound sort of like someone tapping two cheap metal coins together, kind of a higher-pitched ear-popping sounds, which is pretty weird. Also have "fleeting tinnitus" multiple times a day in both ears where everything will muffle for a split second, then a loud pure tone will swell and recede over the course of 5-20 seconds or so, and then I'm back to my normal background tinnitus. So I've got a lot going on.

I got some hearing aids last week which definitely help with the higher-pitched sounds that I was missing before but unfortunately hasn't helped the tinnitus at all yet. Also had a MRI but everything looked 100% normal.

Aaaaanyways, the oddest part of the tinnitus, and the part that has every ENT/audiologist that I've talked to pretty baffled, is that I can cause bursts of tinnitus by moving my head. Not by moving my head/neck/jaw to particular positions, and not by flexing muscles like by pushing my head against my hand or clenching my jaw. Rather it's the actual head movement itself that causes a hiss of tinnitus, almost like sliding one piece of paper over another. And specifically, if I tilt my head left or rotate it right, I get this burst in my left ear. If I tilt my head to the right or turn it to the left, I get it in my right ear. And if I tilt my head backwards, I get it in both ears. I get nothing if I tilt my head forward. This is true whether I actually curve my neck or not -- if I keep it rigid and straight but I'm-a-little-teapot my upper body to the left or right, it happens just the same as a head tilt. So there's something about the actual physiological movement of my head that's actually triggering this hiss, which is sort of a louder version of my background tinnitus. This is 100% repeatable at any time, and it always sounds exactly the same, and has been true for many months at least.

It's pretty annoying, because just doing things like nodding in normal conversation will trigger little burst hisses. And I have to think that this phenomenon and my overall tinnitus are related, if not caused by the same thing. Though no doctor I've talked to have seen this kind of movement-based tinnitus related to hearing loss, and from what I've read it doesn't really fit the typical descriptions of physical-based tinnitus like somatic or pulsatile.

Does anyone else have this kind of thing, or have heard of anyone else having it? I have good days and bad days of dealing with the tinnitus and hearing loss, but having some better idea of what was going on with the movement-based element I think would help my mindset some. Thanks everyone!

 

Mine is the same. Only 6 months in. It’s very somatic. Any head movement causes extra sounds. Even walking. It’s crazy.

 

Mine increases with neck movement and moving my jaw from left to right but I think that's pretty standard.. I do get the occasional freakish burst from no where.. Like last night when I touched my tongue with a pill... lasted like 3 seconds. I can certainly reduce the amount of sounds moving my neck and jaw make with diet. Baked beans fermented up in the gut reduces it for example.

 

Hello Chris, Do you still get the hissing sounds with head movements? I have a normal tinnitus, which isn't really a big deal. But what is bothersome is this hiss I get with head movements/ducking/neck movements. I'm trying to pin down the source.

Have you gotten used to it, has it gotten better? Please update us.