Help with What I Think Is Pulsatile Tinnitus

[nuno1976]

Good morning to all forum members.

I'm 40 years old, and I started with sporadic episodes of Tinnitus.
Always a slight Tinnitus, coming and going. For some weeks disappeared, to always return.
In addition, I had a very pronounced exostosis in the right ear, according to my ENT, the ear canal was very close to be fully closed (95% blocked).

I had clogged ear regularly, just by wax accumulation or after some swimming at the beach. I remember to have 1 or 2 otitis in the last 4 years.

That being said, after visiting 3 different ENT, all recommending me the exostosis removal surgery on my right ear.

The surgery was done on October 13, according to the ENT went pretty well.
The postoperative was horrible, essentially due to a very pronounced Tinnitus, I would say at a level 7 or 8.

After the last visit, made on November 13th, the ear canal was cleaned, all wax and foam cleaned and I got my hearing back to 100% I think.

However my Tinnitus remain, on much lower levels, I would say at level 3, but still persistent and annoying.

It is a "whooshing" Tinnitus, at level 1 a continuous sound, with a level 3 pulsatile sound.
When strongly clenching my teeth I am able to cancel this tinnitus almost 100%.

Just one more piece that can help understand my situation. I suffer from bruxism, as long as I remember.
My wife thinks I am not grinding my teeth at night anymore, but is not absolutely sure.
I remember my dentist mentioning 2 years ago, that I seemed to have a slight misalignment of the jaw.

What do you guys advise me to do? What steps should I take to permanently resolve my tinnitus, or at least prevent it not getting any worse?

Thank you and have a great day.

 

[glynis]

Time is a great healer and can take your ears a few months to settle after surgery so try be patient and stay calm and relaxed.
The dentist can check your jaw or a Maxillofacial specialist but I think at the moment your still healing inside from your ear opperation.
Love glynis

 

[nuno1976]

Thanks for your feedback!

Yesterday was my last postoperative appointment (45 days after the exostosis removal sirurgy).
He did an exhaustive cleaning of my ear canal. According to him, the operation went very well, from the surgical point of view, everything looks perfect. Regarding my Tinnitus complaints, he he just shrugged his shoulders and told me to keep calm and try not thing about it.
Eventually T will go away, he said.
Anyway, I mentioned to him, the possibility of my T being caused by a jaw joint. He said it's a possibility, and gave me a Maxillofacial specialist contact.
What puzzles me, is the fact my Tinnitus is unilaterall, only on the (right) ear that underwent surgery.

Well, I am scheduling an appointment to middle December, to the Maxillofacial doc, to see if there is anything wrong with my jaw.

Meanwhile I will try to keep calm. I have the impression that I could be improving, but is a subjective feeling. It might be my brain couping with T, not sure.


Thanks for your help and the best to you. God Bless you.

 

[nick-tko]

where did you grow up? I have exostosis in one ear. I grew up in Ohio and work offshore as a diver. My diving doctor told me that cold water promotes bone growth when your younger. His wife works for sea world and he does all their physicals and he told me most of the workers that are in the water all the time have it. I still have T in both ears so for me I don't think it makes a difference. It is harder to clear when diving and if I get an infection its always in that ear.

 

[nuno1976]

where did you grow up? I have exostosis in one ear. I grew up in Ohio and work offshore as a diver. My diving doctor told me that cold water promotes bone growth when your younger. His wife works for sea world and he does all their physicals and he told me most of the workers that are in the water all the time have it. I still have T in both ears so for me I don't think it makes a difference. It is harder to clear when diving and if I get an infection its always in that ear.

Hello,

I am from Portugal. I don't have any activity related to the sea or cold waters.
Well, I go alot to the beach on my vacations, and I have made spearfishing when I was young. But that does not justify the exostosis.
It is just a case of bad genes, I suppose.

If I knew I would end up with this annoying Tinnitus on the my right ear, for sure I wouldn't proceed with the sirurgy. The sympthoms from exostis were easily manageable, T is 1 million time worse.

Anyway, this should not have happened, I still don't know why I ended up with a persistent Pulsatile Tinnitus on the operated ear.

It's almost 2 months since I had the surgery, I am losing the hope to see T disappear by itself.
I am going to a ENT with expertise on Tinnitus next Thursday. Maybe the surgery messed my jaw joint, which wasn't the most healthy one, since I do teeth grinding when sleeping (bruxism).
However, from what I have read on the forum, Tinnitus coming from Temporomandibular Joint Disorders, is not on Pulsatile form. I also does not have any pain on my jaw.

 

[nick-tko]

Good luck too you. I've been struggling with bad T for over 2 years so I've already lost hope

 

[nuno1976]

Short update to my situation.

I went to a ENT with spetialization on Tinnitus.
I described my situation to her (I remember I had a exostosis removal 2 months ago).


Basically she explained two lines of diagnosis.
1- Tinnitus may be a surgery side-effect, since my right ear was exposed to a loud noise for a considerable long time (30minutes - 60 minutes).

2- Tinnitus can be explained by jaw misalignment. She confirmed that something is not right with my jaw joint

For hypothesis 1, he scheduled new hearing tests and audiograms .
For the hypothetesis 2, I will have an appointment within 1 week with a Maxillofacial dentist.

In addition, and more at my request, she prescribed a anti-inflammatory drug. 75 mgs of Deflazacort during 8 days, which is a steroide/corticosteroids. It's something similar to prednisone I suppose.
I am on the fourth day of Deflazaort and I think it had a positive effect. Tinnitus appears to have dropped the intensity. On the first two days, I almost forgot T for a couple of hours.
I just hope this is a sustainable effect and my T will keep improving ....

 

[nuno1976]

Hi,

I will keep updating my journey.
I fell good sharing. It might help someone, and maybe I can also receive good advise.

Ok, so at 19th December I went to a dentist.
I explained carefully my situation, emphasizing that my main purpose was to check for any problem on mandibular joint or jaw misalignment.
He checked carefully my jaw, and took the x-ray to my temporomandibular joint.
He could not find anything wrong with my jaw or TMJ.
He said, it could be a good idea to extract my wisdom teeth (from the side I have the T) and work on teeth alignment.

Overall, he think my Tinnitus does not look to be related with TMJ, must probably it was worsen by noise trauma occurred on the exostosis removal surgery.

I am not totally convinced, so I have scheduled a consultation with a maxillofacial surgeon (9th January), in order to be 100% sure, there isn't anything wrong with my TMJ.

Next week, I am going to have my 2nd consultation with my Tinnitus-expert ENT. I will do some audiograms too. Let's hope for the best.