23 and New to Tinnitus

[Anna_01]

Hi everyone,

I am very new to tinnitus and am looking for advice/support.

History:
My tinnitus started a couple days after a visit to the dentist. I just went in for a clean, was there around 10 minuets. The descaler was loud, but I didn't notice any abnormal pain in my ears. A few days past and I started to notice a faint buzz in my ear (thought it was coming from appliances in my bedroom). I started to notice hearing the buzz in the day time and thats when anxiety hit! Prior to this I had a rough 5 weeks where my partner and I were dealing with a lot of issues so I was under some emotional stress at the time.

Current day:
I've been experiencing T for 2 weeks now. I went through the whole anxious/crying/depressed stage last week. Was certain I could have had hearing loss as I do use headphones during travel to school/work. Audiologist revealed I had very good hearing, near perfect for my age range so I am confused! I thought I might have TMJ, as I clench a lot, hear clicking in my jaw and get face/ear pain at times. However my GP/dentist doesn't think I have that. I also have shoulder/neck muscle pain for around 1 year. My T has gotten a little quieter, last night I could barely hear it, but it varies a lot throughout the day. I only hear it in quiet rooms, seems to be coming from mostly my left ear, but often switches to both.

1. Can anyone suggest what I should do? Who I should go see?
2. Am I safe to go to bars/loud events? I have a friends birthday this weekend, but I am terrified of going out in the chance of worsening my ears. I have some Noizezz ear plugs that block out up to 17bz at the moment. Do I need to get stronger ones?

Thank you all for any help/support you can offer. It has been a hard two weeks and Im very afraid I will be stuck with this for life.

 

[robHing]

2. Am I safe to go to bars/loud events?

Hi... Welcome ...
You should protect your ears and stay away from loud environment.
If you have to go then please wear earplugs and stay away from speakers.
Tinnitus is a brain neuron problem. It is very important not to aggravate it.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

@Anna_01 Hi Anna: It could be the cleaning noise, or because your mouth was open wide during the cleaning. This can have relation to clenching your teeth where even without TMJ - your jaw joints may be or have become a little stressed. Your neck could have involved as well.

Stay active, but try to use correct posture. A thin mouth guard may help if you don't already use one. You may want to try something warm like a compress on your neck before activity for 5 - 10 minutes and something cool after activity for a couple of minutes. Wrap anything cool like a bag of frozen peas with a towel or cloth. Maybe consider a small pillow under your neck for support while sleeping.

 

[Anna_01]

Hi... Welcome ...
You should protect your ears and stay away from loud environment.
If you have to go then please wear earplugs and stay away from speakers.
Tinnitus is a brain neuron problem. It is very important not to aggravate it.

Thanks for your reply! I know I should be avoiding loud environments. I've been wearing my ear plugs in noisy areas like the train. I don't want T to rule my life and miss out on events because of it either. I will take not to stay as far away from speakers as possible and listen to my ears if I get any pain whilst i am out.

 

[Anna_01]

@Anna_01 Hi Anna: It could be the cleaning noise, or because your mouth was open wide during the cleaning. This can have relation to clenching your teeth where even without TMJ - your jaw joints may be or have become a little stressed. Your neck could have involved as well.

Stay active, but try to use correct posture. A thin mouth guard may help if you don't already use one. You may want to try something warm like a compress on your neck before activity for 5 - 10 minutes and something cool after activity for a couple of minutes. Wrap anything cool like a bag of frozen peas with a towel or cloth. Maybe consider a small pillow under your neck for support while sleeping.

Hi Greg, thanks for your message. You provided some really good input! I never thought about my jaw could be stressed. I actually woke up this morning and realised i was clenching! Im going to have to get a mouth guard. Is it worth seeing an ENT? I've already seen an audiologist and he recommended I wait it out a couple weeks to see if my T would relax.

 

[fishbone]

Hi everyone,

I am very new to tinnitus and am looking for advice/support.

History:
My tinnitus started a couple days after a visit to the dentist. I just went in for a clean, was there around 10 minuets. The descaler was loud, but I didn't notice any abnormal pain in my ears. A few days past and I started to notice a faint buzz in my ear (thought it was coming from appliances in my bedroom). I started to notice hearing the buzz in the day time and thats when anxiety hit! Prior to this I had a rough 5 weeks where my partner and I were dealing with a lot of issues so I was under some emotional stress at the time.

Current day:
I've been experiencing T for 2 weeks now. I went through the whole anxious/crying/depressed stage last week. Was certain I could have had hearing loss as I do use headphones during travel to school/work. Audiologist revealed I had very good hearing, near perfect for my age range so I am confused! I thought I might have TMJ, as I clench a lot, hear clicking in my jaw and get face/ear pain at times. However my GP/dentist doesn't think I have that. I also have shoulder/neck muscle pain for around 1 year. My T has gotten a little quieter, last night I could barely hear it, but it varies a lot throughout the day. I only hear it in quiet rooms, seems to be coming from mostly my left ear, but often switches to both.

1. Can anyone suggest what I should do? Who I should go see?
2. Am I safe to go to bars/loud events? I have a friends birthday this weekend, but I am terrified of going out in the chance of worsening my ears. I have some Noizezz ear plugs that block out up to 17bz at the moment. Do I need to get stronger ones?

Thank you all for any help/support you can offer. It has been a hard two weeks and Im very afraid I will be stuck with this for life.

The cumulation of all the sounds, possibly might have caused the tinnitus. Since you do have it now, take great precautions when you are near loud environments. Make sure that you control your emotions and stress. Tinnitus can come and go due to the stress alone and it can get worst.

Try to remain calm, try to not dwell or obsess over the noise. Try not to scan/listen for it. Try to shift the focus away from the tinnitus to an external noise that is calming and soothing. This is a new journey and do your best to protect your ears.

Bless.....

PS- lay off the headphones. It has irritated my tinnitus before and it has done that to many folks.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

@Anna_01 Getting an ENT connection going is good if only because of any future needs such as medical test approvals. Having seen an audiologist was a good move. Lets us know how things go. It look promising for you. You can get a mouth guard made by a dentist, self mold - online or from a store. Even a small one that doesn't cover all teeth for either top or bottom should help.

 

[just1morething]

@Anna_01, Here is a good link on TMJ/neck caused tinnitus. I hope you find relief! We all need some relief.

https://managebackpain.com/tmj-pain/tmj-tinnitus

 

[Bill Bauer]

There is still a good chance that your T will fade.

2. Am I safe to go to bars/loud events? I have a friends birthday this weekend, but I am terrified of going out in the chance of worsening my ears. I have some Noizezz ear plugs that block out up to 17bz at the moment. Do I need to get stronger ones?

Give your ears some time to recover. You might consider avoiding moderate noise like that of a vacuum cleaner or a blender for the next year or so.

Earplugs (even the ones with the highest noise reduction rating) can give one a false sense of security.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/learn-from-others-mistakes.29437/

 

[Rinz]

Hello Anna,

First of all, I am sorry to hear about your distress. Its very familiar to us as we have all gone through it.
The most important (but most difficult) thing is not to panic and stress out. I know its easier said than done, but please trust me when I say that it will help you a great deal if you can keep calm.

If you are afraid of loud noises and places (with good reason) I recommend making custom mold ear plugs. These are earplugs which have the same form as your ear so they are very comfortable and easy to put in and protect well (depending on the filter). I have the Elacin ER-25 myself which dampens most of the frequencies but allows me to hear speech quite well, but you can also look for other brands (they may be similar, just check it out). Custom ear plugs are a little bit expensive (~130 EUR), but you can't set a price on worsening of your hearing (or T).

No idea about the dentist, its of course possible that that has triggered something, but it might also be the relational stress or the fact that you use ear buds when traveling. In reality, it does not really matter what it is, you are in this situation now and you will have to deal with it. I would avoid going to very loud venues or wearing ear buds (music) but try to live your life as normally as you can.

Please trust me when I say that your life will go back to 'normal' (whatever that is). Most people have had this experience (start of T and spiking) and found a way to cope with it and you will too. With this I mean that even it is the worst situation and you're "stuck for life" with it, you will very likely find a way of dealing with it. The brain will at some point tune it down when you are not actively listening to it the whole day (at least this has been my experience). This is called habituation, its like the refrigerator in your room, it makes a lot of noise, but only when you are being told that you will hear it, the rest of the time your brain is ignoring it. It does not work for everyone (especially those with very very loud T) but for many it does. You can also put a noise generator (app). I use "sleep pillow" myself.

There is also the chance that once you relax and give it some time it may completely go away as you are just in your beginning stages.

Good luck!

Rinz

 

[Contrast]

Standard Audiograms are inaccurate, they only test the human voice range and slightly above it. It's a common theme here for people to have acoustic trauma, muffled hearing and get told they have no hearing loss such as myself.

source (skip to hidden hearing loss) http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/

TMD is also a culprit.

https://www.tinnitus.org.uk/tinnitus-and-tmj

I'm suspecting your tinnitus has more to do with TMJ.

 

[Yoshi]

It could be the ultrasonic scaler that caused your tinnitus. The day after an hour-long appointment for dental cleaning my hearing threshold permanently dropped by some decibels, but interestingly enough didn't cause a spike or new tone. But again that was an hour-long appointment, so it may not possibly be what caused your tinnitus. What you should do though is avoid loud noises for a week or two to give your ears time to rest, no parties, concerts, or listening to loud music. If your tinnitus is mild as you imply there's a good chance it may go away completely. Even if it doesn't millions of people have mild tinnitus and they quickly habituate to the point where they don't even notice it within a year or two--even moderate to severe sufferers can habituate to the noise given time. It really sucks that this happened to you and without any clear reason, but you'll definitely be okay.

 

[Anna_01]

It could be the ultrasonic scaler that caused your tinnitus. The day after an hour-long appointment for dental cleaning my hearing threshold permanently dropped by some decibels, but interestingly enough didn't cause a spike or new tone. But again that was an hour-long appointment, so it may not possibly be what caused your tinnitus. What you should do though is avoid loud noises for a week or two to give your ears time to rest, no parties, concerts, or listening to loud music. If your tinnitus is mild as you imply there's a good chance it may go away completely. Even if it doesn't millions of people have mild tinnitus and they quickly habituate to the point where they don't even notice it within a year or two--even moderate to severe sufferers can habituate to the noise given time. It really sucks that this happened to you and without any clear reason, but you'll definitely be okay.

I went back to my dentist when I noticed the ringing but obviously she denied the descaler could have done the damage as I was only in 10 minuets and she has never heard of that happening.
I've been trying to avoid loud environments, unfortulantrly I work in one though (retail) so I just wear my plugs during work hours.
My T has been more quiet lately, and I know my T won't kill me so I'm trying to be more positive. Thanks for your advice and kind words.

 

[Anna_01]

Standard Audiograms are inaccurate, they only test the human voice range and slightly above it. It's a common theme here for people to have acoustic trauma, muffled hearing and get told they have no hearing loss such as myself.
View attachment 21196
source (skip to hidden hearing loss) http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/

TMD is also a culprit.
View attachment 21197
https://www.tinnitus.org.uk/tinnitus-and-tmj

I'm suspecting your tinnitus has more to do with TMJ.

I'll get onto seeing a TMJ specialist and start ruling things out.

 

[Anna_01]

Hi everyone,

I am very new to tinnitus and am looking for advice/support.

History:
My tinnitus started a couple days after a visit to the dentist. I just went in for a clean, was there around 10 minuets. The descaler was loud, but I didn't notice any abnormal pain in my ears. A few days past and I started to notice a faint buzz in my ear (thought it was coming from appliances in my bedroom). I started to notice hearing the buzz in the day time and thats when anxiety hit! Prior to this I had a rough 5 weeks where my partner and I were dealing with a lot of issues so I was under some emotional stress at the time.

Current day:
I've been experiencing T for 2 weeks now. I went through the whole anxious/crying/depressed stage last week. Was certain I could have had hearing loss as I do use headphones during travel to school/work. Audiologist revealed I had very good hearing, near perfect for my age range so I am confused! I thought I might have TMJ, as I clench a lot, hear clicking in my jaw and get face/ear pain at times. However my GP/dentist doesn't think I have that. I also have shoulder/neck muscle pain for around 1 year. My T has gotten a little quieter, last night I could barely hear it, but it varies a lot throughout the day. I only hear it in quiet rooms, seems to be coming from mostly my left ear, but often switches to both.

1. Can anyone suggest what I should do? Who I should go see?
2. Am I safe to go to bars/loud events? I have a friends birthday this weekend, but I am terrified of going out in the chance of worsening my ears. I have some Noizezz ear plugs that block out up to 17bz at the moment. Do I need to get stronger ones?

Thank you all for any help/support you can offer. It has been a hard two weeks and Im very afraid I will be stuck with this for life.

Update: it's been 5 weeks now. T is still there but has turned into a more high pitch hiss/ running tap type of noise.
I went to another dentist- she noted my jaw pops on the right side and it deviates to the right when opening.
Visited an ENT today- he said it's unlikely the drill caused any permant damage as they aren't that loud (compared to concerts etc) and it was a short cleaning (10 minuets maximum most likely).
He thinks my stress/sore neck and jaw have likely caused this. Hoping it will fade in the coming weeks/months

 

[Greg Sacramento]

Anna01 I've always liked the article (link) that poster just1morething has provided to you - above. Almost one in five with tinnitus has this same process take place, but now just think of treatment. Bill Bauer mentions to be careful with loud noise. Fishbone provides good advice. I would still use the care instructions that I gave above. Also be careful of extreme forward head bending. Lower your body to pick something up from the floor.

One harmless neck exercise to try - sitting or standing. Relax shoulders - bring head back very slowly, about a half inch, then inhale and raise head. Then relax movement while exhaling. This exercise takes about 9 seconds, Repeat 4 or 5 times and do this as wished throughout the day.

Say in touch.