Diagnosis and Management of Somatosensory Tinnitus: Review Article

[Greg Sacramento]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3129953/

Includes a good overall description with some treatment suggestions

The government site above has many good articles on tinnitus. There's a few more with links on the right side of the article above.

I have received links for the best articles on all types of tinnitus with possible treatments. These highly professional medical articles were given to me by a clinical trial researcher. The list of articles were composed by hundreds of tinnitus clinical researchers. These articles were sorted from many thousands of articles on tinnitus. As we know, most articles are not professional, so this list doesn't contain any run of the mill same old stuff. Most of these articles have treatment suggestions that may help to lower the noise. I will post links from time to time.

The only problem for me is that my tinnitus and hyperacusis is so complex, that I have not been able to develop a design course of treatment. I will need to study these articles more. This researcher works 14 hour days and sometime thru the night, so I really don't want to take some of his valuable time away from his research. Although he has said that the sooner that I start treatment - the better the chance I will have in going back to base line. He said seeing a multiple of professionals such as dentists, ENT's, chiropractic care, etc; all at the same time has draw backs. It's a money game.

 

[reeax]

6 weeks ago, the pulsatile tinnitus started one night. Hoped it would go away quickly, but no chance. It started improving 2-3 weeks ago, slowly going down to almost 0 often light but then up (though less intense) etc.

I think that it is definitely a somatosensory tinnitus because it is extremely easy to modulate / even stop completely by manipulating jaw, neck, face pressure points. I got it the week when I was lifting some pretty heavy weights - and at the same time I had a mild pharyngitis (and I am lucky to be within 25% of people that carry staph in the nose). I was thinking infection / inflammation so I tested 2 weeks of Augmentin 2g/day AND chirotherapy.

Maybe it worked, maybe the healing was "natural" (so placebo) but the tinnitus very significantly improved to almost nothing - with cyclic variations (yesterday was bad).

Reasons of my post:

i) Know that ENT don't give a crap about somatosensory tinnitus

ii) I would like to share this very good article about somatosensory tinnitus (and treatment options) with you guys: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3129953/

iii) I would like to say how much I am sorry for everybody here, 99% people don't understand the psychical impact on sufferers and it is very hard to bear 24/24.

 

[Theres]

I have the same problem as reeax! My PT began (I think) with a sinus infection and heavy weight lifting. I remember, when it began I went to a massage therapist and she remarked on how the muscles in my neck on the affected side felt "soft". The softness has since gotten better, but I still have some swelling in my neck, which leads me to believe the problem is muscular. Have you found anything in particular that helps? I've been using stretching and massage, which helps, but as you said, there are cyclic variations and some days it's bad. Thanks for sharing the article! It's comforting to know there's someone with a similar PT origin story as me.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2760229/#R37

Some with tinnitus may tend to move their lower lip, lower teeth, gums, tongue, chin and jaw around. It's interesting how that connection is made to the C2 pathway that inhibits neurons in the DCN.

I was led to this article from researching Susan Shore's earlier studies. So I still believe from discussion within the University of Michigan study thread that her next study will involve stimulation of brainstem nuclei, stimulation of the scalp and auricle and all the muscles within the neck and jaw.

From having talked to a pain rehab doctor months ago, I think he may be correct that light stimulating touch finger movements over the back of the scalp, down and around the neck into the shoulders. 10-20 minutes, twice a day over one year may lower tinnitus including those with DCN origination hearing loss. Over 2 to 3 years, maybe substantial results. I listen to pink rain while I'm having this done from my computer without headphones. I'm also taking vitamin A and C. So far I only get temporary results of 10 -20%, but I tend to spoil my progress by bad posture.