Help Me Solve This.

[Serzet]

I don't know why I have tinnitus and I have been to a few doctors but with no success.

I need some help determining the cause and likely cure for my tinnitus.

Here is my backstory:

Some time in June-July of 2016 while taking a shower, I suddenly felt my right ear clog up.

I tried putting my finger in my ear to see what it was and it got pushed in deeper.

For a few months, I lived with the feeling of my right ear being clogged BUT my hearing was and is still perfectly fine.

I go to an ENT and he says my right ear is swollen and I need to take drops.

I take the drops for a few weeks and nothing changes.

Skip all the way to sometime around April 14th-15th of 2017. (A stressful time for many college students)

I suddenly notice painful, high pitch ringing in my right ear.

It's so bad and disturbing I immediately schedule an appointment with a general physician on Tuesday April 18th.

The physician says there is some sort of tiny clear round object in my ear (wonder why my ENT didn't catch that).

We clean out my right ear and it no longer feels clogged. The object came out.

However the throbbing pain and high pitch ringing are still there.

I ask the physician to recommend me a new ENT.

On April 25th, I went to my appointment with my new ENT.

He says my ears are in perfect condition and that my ringing might be from stress, TMJ, or both.

He tells me to use Rhinocert Allergy Nosespray and try some TMJ exercises and see if that helps.

In short, It doesn't help or change anything.

After that day, the pain starts to slowly fade away and the ringing gradually moves around my head, though it always returns and starts with my right ear.

A little background info: my right jaw has always been clicking and popping since childhood, but I thought that was normal.

When I open my mouth wide, my right jaw clicks and pops loudly, but not loud enough for others to hear it.

After a few weeks of no change, I go to another appointment with the same ENT on June 6th.

By this time, the pain is completely gone but the ringing is still there and sometimes still moves around my head.

He takes another look and my ears and says there is nothing more he can do. My ears are in perfect condition and I have no hearing loss.

He recommends I take some physical therapy for my jaws so I scheduled an appointment for next Monday.


Can anybody tell me what they think is happening with my Tinnitus and what a likely cause and cure could be?

 

[Sam Bridge]

Have you ever used headphones or been to clubs/concerts?

 

[Serzet]

Have you ever used headphones or been to clubs/concerts?

Never been to a club or concert.

When I use headphones, I keep the volume at around 6-12 out of 100.

 

[Nikopol]

Jaw is a possible cause. Make an appointment with dentist and discuss TMJ possibility with him and try his recommended treatment. It is also possible that that physical object may have hurt your ear drum in some way, though I would figure that ENT would notice that. In that case it can take as long as three months to regenerate. Try magnesium as that has positive effects for regeneration.

 

[Applejuice]

My guess is as good as any. As determing where it comes from drives you mad and only results in feeling guilty.

But seeing you had an object in your ears plus pain and swollenness it seems like an inflamation that causes it. Tmj also causes small inflamations and stress overall weakens your body. But I am no doctor and it is hard to pinpoint. In someway it also is useless.

Whatever you do don't blame yourself. We've all been there and it does not help. Your reaction was a natural one and T just happens to some of us. And then we end up here.

Time is the best healer, we can't say if it will or will not heal. Eat healthy, protect your ears is all you can do for now. Some supplements like Gingko and magnesium also help a bit, drink lots of water and get vitamine C in your body.