Greetings

[beakerboy]

Hi All, I decided to sign up and join the site after browsing it every-so-often since I started realizing my tinnitus wasn't going away about a month after I got it in May of 2015. It has been a long road, but I am hopeful for remission, whether that be from treatment or habituation.

For treatments, I was in the AM-101 trial for 3 rounds, 2 open label. The treatments did not help. But the ENT did say they helped others in the trial. My tinnitus is a high pitched ringing, much like a computer monitor or other electronic device. During the trial my hearing was checked several times, I have above average hearing abilities and my hearing is not damaged in the least. But I hear this can be the case, even when your hearing has been damaged by loud music. Before the onset of my tinnitus, I was an avid concertgoer and probably have gone to around 20 concerts, all without any hearing protection.

At the onset of my tinnitus, I was also struggling with bruxism. It runs in my family and seems to be brought on by stress. I was struggling to the point of trying different mouth guards and homeopathic medicines to reduce my jaw tension and overall stress levels. I have no idea if this is related to my tinnitus, and frankly, the ENT for AM-101 and my other doc wrote it off as not a related issue. However, I would like to try prednisone and some other treatments to treat my jaw to see if that lessens my tinnitus.

I have tried acupuncture for my TMJ, but that has only help reduce my stress levels. It has not affected my tinnitus, for better or worse. Really I need to find out the cause of my tinnitus and then I can pursue a treatment. I feel like I am between a rock and a hard place, but am hopeful some future treatments will be developed to help us all with this wretched condition. I hope everyone well.

 

[beakerboy]

Just got back from seeing an ENT. Her opinion is that since the tinnitus doesn't change with jaw changes, and when she blocked the femoral artery in my neck, the tinnitus is not related to my bruxism and jaw problems.

She said that researchers basically gave up trying to treat tinnitus years back, when there were a bunch of studies that were not successful. Just learn to live with it, she said.

So, I guess SSRI's are my only hope, until someone finds a treatment, something that's probably 20 - 30 years off, if not more.

 

[glynis]

Sorry to hear ENT were not so supportive.
A refural for a routine MRI might have been helpful .
I would see if your dentist can check your jaw for TMJ also as they can tell better.
It was ENT who did my refural to the multiracial specialist who diagnosed it and my dentist.
Don't give up and push for answers if you need to .
If you have your mouth guards try them for a few weeks and see if it helps you....lots of love glynis

 

[beakerboy]

Thanks for the advice and good cheer Glynis. Unfortunately, I have not had the energy to do much in regard to my tinnitus.

A recap since I have not been on in a long while. Due to the success of some folks doing Tai Chi, I enrolled in a class and went through a 6 month course. Tai chi is an interesting practice, but it is really a long shot for curing your tinnitus. Lots of folks have turned to it, usually out of frustration and desperation, to cure all sort of ailments. I still think tai chi is great, but relying on it is about the same as praying for a miracle, but a little more proactive.

Julian Cowan Hill and some others may have been able to "cure" their tinnitus using alternative therapies, but these are mostly miracles, in my opinion. Other spiritually elevated folks that I know personally, as well as people like Eckhart Tole, have tinnitus, so the proposition that "loving/accepting/zenning out will cure tinnitus does not hold much water to me.

Other then the tai chi, I have taken a few supplements, gingko, coq10, vinpocetine, none of these has changed my tinnitus.

I did contact tinnitus treatment solutions (TTS) and ordered a pair of tranquil 2 maskers (~$950). The maskers do provide me relief, but it has been short term. The maskers tend to give me a ear canal pain if I wear them for more than 5 or so hours.

My current strategy now is as follows: habituate to sleeping on my back and follow other tips to treat TMJ that are found in The TMJ Healing Plan by Cynthia Peterson. Once my jaw clenching subsides, then I will now that my tinnitus is caused by another factor.

But even as a I type this out, I feel a wee bit foolish. As I talked with the neurologist who was my advisor/doctor with TTS, he coached me on the futility of looking for a cure. The truth is, if you have tinnitus for over a year, it is basically permanent, very few patients ever "return to silence." However, I guess I have been unable to accept this. Because, deep down, I really detest the constant ringing in my ears that distracts me from doing the many "quiet resting activities" I love. Hopefully tai chi and more reflection on life will allow me to change my perspective, as that seems to be the final stage for this tinnitus patient.

Moving on from tinnitus seems to be the trick, after all, most everyone develops tinnitus in a silent room, so that acoustic brain activity is always there, lurking in the background.

 

[beakerboy]

I also forgot to mention that I have done around ~12 rounds of acupuncture, using these acupoints,

http://www.healthcmi.com/Acupuncture-Continuing-Education-News/1598-acupuncture-quiets-tinnitus

did not help.