TMJ and Neck Problems Causing Tinnitus

I posted on here several months ago when i first got tinnitus. I went to ENT's, docotors etc said nothign was wrong with my ears. Went to physcologist and they tried me on anti depressents but they made me worse. I got bad enough i ended up ina mental health hospital wanting to kill myself to get the ringing to stop. Its very high pitched and in both ears. Its been going on for 4 months now. It makes my aniexty go bat shit crazy and its hard for me to shake it. The ringings so loud i hear it over tv, music etc.

I noticed it started shortly after i had my wisdom teeth pulled, and i started lifting weights and was doing various excersizes like shoulder shruggs. about 3 weeks after all of this i noitced a faint ringing. Didnt pay it much attention. Well it gradually got louder and louder to the point to where its all i heard and focused on it. Now its all i think about. Doctors cant help.

My shoulders and neck are always sore and tense. They ache all the time. My jaw is sore as well and clicks and pops when i open it wide. I have headaches alot. It also feels like when i clench down that my teeth dont line up like they use to. I also know when i clench my jaw that the ringing will spike while clenching. Also if i turn my neck certain ways the ringing will spike as well.

I have been to a chiropractor and he took xrays and said my spine has a curve to it right around the heart area which i could see in xray, and my neck is out of aligment, its straight instead of having a arch to it like a normal neck i could tell from the xrays as well. He did an adjustment and it felt great, but didnt do anything for the ringing, but he said it would take several adjustments to try to get everything back in line. Its hard for me to afford to keep going to know if its going to help or not.

I also have an apt to go to the dentist to have him do a xray of my jaw and check my bite to make sure its not messed up. I have done countless ours of research and from what ive read if ur spine/neck/jaw is out of alimgent, that this will cause tinnitus. I just cant afford to keep going and hate to pay for all these xrays and not even know if its going to work. Also heres a very intrestign video to watch about how ur spine connects to ur head, and if its off aligment, it can cause virtgo, tinnitus, etc which i all have

San Diego Tinnitus Care & Relief

 

bump

 

It def can and you should def get it checked out I have heard of people getting better after chiropractors or osteopath. Also I see you don't want to take meds for anxiety ir depression I think you should address those issues it was a problem for me to and I'm glad I got help for it. Good luck

 

Hello. I'm the worst teeth grinder and headache sufferer you'll ever meet. I also have T, have had it for 40 years.
See if this helps, .. try it for 3 nights and see what happens.
Go to sleep on your back withOUT a pillow. Just roll up a thick towel and rubberband it so it stays round. Put it behind your neck. Kick your head back, open your mouth and go to sleep. See what happens after a few nights.

 

San Diego Tinnitus Care & Relief

Thanks @Tattoosteve1987

 

ill let u know how i make out at the dentist tom to see what they say if i am grinding my teeth. That video sounds like theres alot of truth to it and maybe more people should look into it. i guess ill try the chircopractor again. Also i always hear a high pitch ringing over everything its very loud, but i also hear a humming sound alot of the times to, sometimes its louder than the ringing. is this common. at times it sounds like there is 3 or 4 sounds going on at the same time

 

I couldn't tell you if it's common but I have a few different sounds I'm slowly learning to block them out. I'll prob see a dentist soon as well might be a good idea

 

I have spent weeks doing research and i do honestly believe that this is why alot of us have tinnitus. Please watch this video and let me know what you think

San Diego Tinnitus Care & Relief

I also believe tmj has a major role in it as well. I believe that alot of us end up with our spine out of aligment due to injuries, poor posture, how we sleep/sit, straining from lifting something such as weights, stress and nervous twitches/habits over a long time, etc.

 

Hi Steve. You have been spending weeks doing research on this subject, and I have spent some twenty years doing research on the subject. It is not surprising that we have come to different conclusions. In fact, it would be surprising if we didn't, no?

Seems to me that tinnitus has absolutely nothing to do spinal misalignment. Moreover, even if it did ... there is not a single reported case in the juried scientific literature of lasting resolution of tinnitus as a result of chiropractic adjustment. Same for TMJ, incidentally.

I have come to look at this problem pragmatically. There are two reasons folks go to their doctors because of tinnitus. The first, of course, is that their ears are ringing. The second is that it makes them feel bad. If they did not in some way feel bad, they would not seek help. In fact if they did not feel bad, they wouldn't have a problem at all - all they'd have is tinnitus.

Turns out that while you really cannot do much about the tinnitus sound itself, you can do a whole lot about the feel bad part. In fact, you can actually convert tinnitus that makes you feel bad into tinnitus that doesn't make you feel bad.

And until research comes up with a cure, the type of strategy I referred to above may be worthy of consideration.

As I see it anyway.

sp

 

so should i not waste money going to a dentist to check my tmj and a chiropractor? im just desperate to try to get some kind of relief. mine is very loud and high pitched around 11k.

 

Steve, I cannot tell you which avenues to pursue and which not to. Besides, if you don't check into these things, you'll always wonder. I'm just giving you another way to look at the problem. Perhaps Google "Letter to a Tinnitus Sufferer" and see if what the author has to say has any appeal to you. If not, just file it away. You never know.

All the best -

sp

 

how loud is yours string player. is it just when its dead silent u hear yours, or u hear it all the time over everything like the tv, music, people talking etc.

 

Steve, my tinnitus sounds like a cross between a screaming teakettle and a roaring jet turbine. I can readily hear it while riding in the Maid of the Mist boat at the foot of Niagara Falls.

Why do you ask?

sp

 

im always curious how loud peoples is. Compare mine to others i guess. Do you not have aniexty issues like me, is that why you can live with it easier than i am at the moment

 

My daughter developed mega T and tried everything and nothing worked. Finally she went to a dentist who specializes in TMJ Problems.. He fitted her with an appliance that she wore 24/7 and after 6 months her T started to fade and now after 1 year it is gone, totally gone. The mouth device slowly moved her jaw back into place. She had lots of chiropractic before she got to this dentist but it helped only a little. I strongly urge you to see a dentist but go to one who specializes in TMJ disorders.

 

Tattoosteve1987, you are absolutely right about two things. First, the example about being a burden to family is not helpful to you. Second, if you catch yourself thinking your ears are ringing louder than a week ago, and your tinnitus really is louder, it would be hard to challenge that.

With tinnitus, some things you think about will be accurate. They may be negative, but they may still be true. And that's fine. It really isn't about trying to challenge every negative thought you have.

Other things you think will be negative, but they won't be accurate, and the idea is to recognize those thoughts and challenge them rather than buy into them. You will get the hang of it with practice.

Let's use your example of how you are never going to get better. That is a thought masquerading as a fact. It is powerful because you buy into it and because it is right up there with your worst fears. But think about it. The thought "I am never going to get better" is nothing more than a guess about something that hasn't happened. The thought seems real because there is so much riding on it, but it isn't real. And that's the sort of thing to challenge.

here2help

 

@Isabella 123
What is the technical name for the appliance they mould and put in your mouth, is it a mouth guard? I know it usually brings the mouth forward and down, and relieves pressure on the tmj joints/ears.
Also, how do you go about finding a neuromuscular or tmj dentist? It is a specialty, right?
Thanks, Isabella. I have clicking, and my bit is often off. Plus I think I may grind at night.

 

Lisa I'm not sure what its called but it isn't a mouth guard, I do know that. It's custom made for your jaw. You go back every few weeks and the dentist makes a tiny adjustment to move your jaw another fraction. My dtr explained to me that she would go, he would adjust it and then her jaw would ache for a few days, then get better, then she knew it had adjusted "that far" so it was time to have it adjusted again. It's not the same as the mouth guard you wear to stop grinding your teeth.

I think my dtr googled dentist and TMJ and then got on some websites? Then she called some of them to ask more about it. If they really do TMJ therapy they will be knowledgeable and be able to sound informed , versus somebody who says, um, well, yeah we can do that. I've found in my area that the ones who do TMJ work have it prominently listed on their sites.

If you have a good ENT (do they exist?) or audiologist, he/she might be able to refer you to a dentist who does TMJ therapy. Let me know how it goes, my dtr is totally T-free but it took almost 2 years. But hers was reallllly bad.

 

Lisa it's called a Bite Splint.

 

i went to the dentist and he did a xray and said my bite and teeth line up great, but said i had some inflamation in the jaw and said im prob clenching and grinding at night, so hes making me a nightguard. he also said to keep seeing the chiropractor so they can get my back and neck back in aligment. hope this will give me some reliefe

 

Sounds great, you are making some positive progress! I'm planning to see a dentist myself soon. I want to rule out all the possibly "fixable" things before I agree that I have to learn to live with it.

I'm fairly new into this so I understand your sense of despair. I did have a revelation of sorts though. I've been struggling with the idea of how the heck to "habituate" and it suddenly occurred to me: when I moved into this apt last year I heard the elevator go CLUNK every time it opened on my floor. (It's near me) honestly it just about drive me crazy, the clunk and also the little bell that rings. I considered moving even though I love where I live except for that.

Well last night I heard it go CLUNK and was surprised to realize that I Don't ever hear it anymore! I think I have habituated to the elevator doors! So, it's still doing it but I don't hear it. Maybe that's how this works with T.

Keep us posted on how you are doing.

 

Lisa: further correction it's a repositioning splint. Hope that helps....

 

The OP post reminds me a lot of myself
Experienced almost all of what OP said, the neck issues, the same clenching of jaw making the ringing louder, the misaligned spine, the jaw changing when I was younger dew to braces & getting teeth pulled. Chiro visits, with the adjustments, did nothing for me. I did it about 5 times. My neck snaps every single time I turn it to the right. I am in a extremely similar position as tattoosteve. In the end I went to the dentist and they gave me something to wear at night, a night guard. I haven't picked it up yet but I will see if it does anything for TMJ, which I may or may not have.

 

Thanks Steve for the video! I suspect I have very similar issues. My T is clearly connected to neck and sternocleidmastoid (SCM) muscles. I posted this trigger point massage video recently here. Have you tried this yourself and especially the SCM muscle trigger point release? If not, give it a try. The first time I did it myself, I could sense radiating pain all over my head, eyes and ear and remarkably the T got MUCH quieter for several days.

Home Trigger Point Therapy for Tinnitus,...

 

Just wondering g how you doing and progress?

 

Careful buying into that adjustment. The wrong move and your brain step could snap/tear. It will leave you paralyzed if it does. I contemplated atlas orthogonal at some point until I heard it was just all a hoax and could do more damage than before.

 

I just got a bite splint 2weeks ago . hoping this will eventually lower my tinnitus..

 

@jeannie How is your bite splint working out?

 

Hi! Well. My ears are still ringing. And have had a little jaw pain. Lots of neck pain beginning to wonder if splint is making tinnitus worse??? at least I had a little lower and sometimes none, but now its always there. it was better the first 10 days, then I got splint adjusted and its been worse..

 

I agree completely Dr nagler. I think Tmj specialists are a little cottage industry and that there is no real cause/effect between Tmj and t. Neck issues might be related to t but most of the Tmj stuff on the Web is just to make money for the Tmj specialist who just give u a pair of badly fitting splints.