Trying to Understand Hyperacusis or TTTS (Tensor Tympani Syndrome)

Alright, so I developed hyperacusis immediately after my head on collision on June 19th of this year. Ton of jaw/ear/cheekbone pain. The tinnitus came the next month when I fell asleep on the affected ear.

Personally, I’d rather have the tinnitus gone because I prefer isolation. However, the gym is a very important part of who I am and after a four month layoff I was cleared to lift.

I have misophonia now too (my dad breathing heavily from COPD, chewing sounds are annoying.

Now, the point of the matter: my ear/jaw spasms/pain are both set off by loud, unexpected sounds—mostly from the gym but can also be from nebulous sources like doors shutting (even the microwave). The nerves flare up and it worsens my tinnitus. It feels like something is contracting inside my ear, but it’s not rhythmic or anything—it’s just pulling tight, and all of the muscles and nerves around it contract/flare up.

Is this textbook hyperacusis, or am I going into more specific territory like Tensor Tympani Syndrome?

 

Sounds like TTTS to me. I have H and TTTS. This stuff is all so complicated. The H in my left ear is worsening whilst my left ear is getting better. My TTTS is slowly getting better and setback encountered impact mostly H. I have never had a setback cause an increase in TTTS.

 

Yup, I'm going through something similar right now. Was exposing my ears to lots of 'normal' sounds this weekend, along with plug / muff use, and my ears (left in particular) feel clogged / swollen, with increased T.

But I know it's my middle ear muscles contracting / over-reacting, and it should settle down in a few days.

 

Hey @mrbrightside614 how is your tensor tympani doing now? I think I have the same problem (but mine’s grouse noise trauma) And I don’t really know how to take care of it... what have you found works? I was doing really well, but then after going to a bar my ear felt totally stuffed and sore again. Back on the mend again now though!

 

Honestly, I did nothing. I tried to avoid people slamming stacks of weight at the gym. I think the startle reflex is still sensitive, such as when people begin to raise their voices, my left ear begins to perk when my right one won’t. I’ve had tinnitus for 5.5-6.5 months and hyperacusis for 6.5 months, so time probably helped. That and more consistent sleep. It can still act up with acoustic insult, though.

 

Thanks for getting back to me! Hopefully just living life and taking it easy on the ears will give me a steady recovery too.

 

how much improvement would you say you had? Do you no longer have the ear spasms? Feedback is really appreciated. 5 weeks for me and no improvement. Seems to be getting worse. My ear thumps (fluid like sensation) to point it feels like my eardrum retracts. Causes a fullness and pain sensation. My ear will thump to doors closing, microwaves, unloading dishes, alarm set off, faucets turning on etc.

 

You are wearing earplugs at the gym I hope?

I get sharp pains when I take my supplements every morning from the pills rattling around in their bottle.
It’s so sad, it’s comical.

I still never got a reliable answer... so in my example... it’s maybe 65 dB with the pills being dispensed... no where near a normal damaging threshold. Therefore... I have pain, but there is no damage being done right?
I guess I just need to suck it up and deal with the pain.

 

Honestly I had a setback on December 27 even with hearing protection due to someone dropping 425 lbs. from a distance of about 4 feet, 20 feet away from me. Both of my ears are sensitive but the left one is especially sensitive to doors closing, etc. It took about 5 months for the TTTS symptoms to recede, still have hyperacusis but that was receding too. It’s not as bad as the first 3 months when I had withdraw socially and tell my parents to be super quiet around me for me to see any progress.

 

I'd guess that there is no damage being done, but I'm not very well read on pain hyperacusis.

 

The spasms/thumping better? Completely gone? Notice it not doing as much to like doors closing, dishes being placed or weights stacking together at gym? My ear goes crazy at gym. Been hard to refrain from it due to it irritating my ear. Can’t tell if mine aligns with hyperacusis or TTTS. I notice my ear gets amplified/reactive when I turn on the faucet.

 

I still get the spasms, but they don’t last as long. Oddly enough I get random thumping in my right (healthy ear) but it’s completely unrelated to noise exposure.

 

So you still get spasms in reaction to sounds or is it out of the blue? Mine reacts to sounds, when I touch side of my head or finish a yawn. Feels like a thump and as if fluid is pushing against eardrum then goes back to its position. Causes the fullness feeling in my ear.

 

Hyperacusis/TTTS is a tricky beast. I've had hyperacusis since 2016 - when it first surfaced the symptoms were pretty intrusive for a good few months but died down after a while. Since then, my hyperacusis has only really surfaced in fairly noisy environments (e.g. a party) but I've had several 'mini-spikes' since then. Tinny laptop speakers turned up high are one of the most lethal triggers of my hyperacusis I've found lmao. My last spike occurred two months ago following being exposed to a car stereo for like 3 hours - I was wearing earplugs and at the time thought everything was fine albeit perhaps a bit too loud (wasn't my car lmao) but suffered the dreaded delayed spike.

Since then it's been up and down - I thought it was improving but suffered a further setback a month ago from my laptop speakers even though the volume was set to like 14/100. There's just something about the sound quality that just wrecks my ears if they've not fully recovered from a spike and I guess I misjudged it. Again - delayed reaction and for the past two weeks even going outside and running errands w/o plugs has resulted in a delayed fullness/warming sensation. I get intermittent sharp 'pricks' of pain but my H is more characterised by discomfort from the fullness and warm liquidy sensation which feels like fluid in the ear. One of my ears is more affected than the other too.

In the past few days, things seem to be improving slowly but surely. I'm still getting delayed fullness but it's milder now and doesn't tend to escalate to intense inflammation. My ears always get better overnight though but I reckon I've been stuck in a cycle of inflammation and just need to ride it out. The weird thing is I don't really tend to perceive sounds as louder or have an immediate adverse reaction to sound, it's primarily a delayed reaction that slowly builds up like extreme ear fatigue or something.

This is probably the longest setback I've had in a while (2 months) so I've been feeling pretty on-edge and anxious but it seems to be clearing up. It's just difficult to gauge what exactly is going on - whether it's middle-ear inflammation caused by TTTS or the nerves in the inner ear are going haywire.

 

I've been asking this same question and the answers are... maybe or maybe not.

 

How is your TTTS?

 

It still gets aggravated with doors closing slightly too loud etc. but the spasm doesn’t last as long as it did in the beginning.