brighterdays

After 15 years of not managing stress well and constantly in and out of flight or fight the stage was set for tinnitus. I would hear ringing every now and again but thought it was from emf's. Sept of 2017 I had a root canal procedure done and the endodontist used an ultrasonic instrument to clean out the canal. I heard a very loud sound each time he used the instrument but said nothing to stop the procedure. (I lave learned that the vibrations of the ultrasonic instrument likely travelled through my jaw bone and irritated my inner ear.) It was after the root canal and my stress response to it that my right ear had constant tinnitus. After getting habituated to the tinnitus it subsided over time and was manageable. But, 5 days ago I made the mistake of going to an ENT at a naturopathic college. I was going for symptoms unrelated to tinnitus but mentioned the tinnitus to give them ample information. Before I met the ENT, one of the students began the pre-exam by shoving an otoscope way to far into my better ear . I asked her not to shove it in so far when she checked my ear with tinnitus. She still shoved it in too far to that ear as well. Then the ENT came in and asked me a few questions and then told the students to "get the machine". This ended up being a tympanometry machine. I did not want the testing and was unsure of why he wanted to do it. I asked if it was going to make loud noises and he said no. He ran the test 3 times in each ear until he got back a favorable result. Immediately after the testing I began to worry that the testing may affect the tinnitus. I knew better than to stoke the fears by looking up information online once I got home but couldn't resist. Sure enough, many people have had tinnitus spikes after tympanometry testing. I recommend that anyone experiencing tinnitus stay away from ultrasonic instrumentation at dental appointments and also from tympanometry testing at ENT or audiologist appointments.