My story in a nutshell starts with bad dentistry. Five years ago I allowed a dentist to remove two crowns to replace them. He put temporary crowns on without properly adjusting the height of the crowns. I did not understand this at the time, but when your bite is off, it causes enough pressure to severely inflame the nerve of the tooth, especially if you grind your teeth at night.
I ended up in the endodontist office getting root canals. I had four separate root canals in less than one year. The tinnitus started right around the first root canal. I would have severe pain from my neck up through my ear, and the tooth would throb. And the ear would ring. The first root canal was in February and three more followed through out the year. I was too sick to think clearly enough to leave my very sweet, but unbelievably incompetent local dentist.
In the beginning, the ringing was lower pitched and very loud. I went to a older primary care physician who told me that I was young for tinnitus (40 years old), but that it happens. I went to a ENT who was gave me a half-assed hearing test (a good hearing test is given by an Audiologist and involves acoustic reflex, word repetition etc). This very bad ENT told me that I have hearing loss, and that there is no cure for tinitus and I should go home and live with it.
At this same time, I also started having bad neck pain. My chiropractor would adjust C1/C2. My C1/Atlas would get misaligned by the next morning.The ringing was worse when my neck was out of alignment. I changed desks, chairs, wore a posture corrector band, etc and nothing helped.
I asked my dentist to check my bite and he said it was fine. He suggested that I get braces, so I paid his office thousands to get orthodontic services. The orthodontist did adjust my bite some to begin with, but not very well. (never use a orthodontist that travels from dentist to dentist. You want one that has their own office.) In addition, after I got the braces off, one of the crowns came off (yes, it came unglued) and the dentist glued it back on, leaving my bite high on the left side again! Remember, I keep asking him to check the bite, and he says it is OK.
Over the years, I learned to control the tinnitus through, avoiding salt, alcohol, sugar, taking supplements, avoiding high stress, stretching etc. And contrary to what the first doctor told me, the ringing did become more bearable. It settled into a higher pitch and lower volume.
In March of this year 2013, I decided to make a list of all the possible causes for my tinnitus, and one by one get them checked out by specialists. It got off to a really bumpy start. I decided to have the root canals reviewed to make sure they were done properly. The first Endodontist that I went to told me that my tooth was fractured and needed to be pulled. I was smart enough this time to get two more opinions, and both the 2nd and 3rd Endodontists told me that the tooth was absolutely fine with NO fracture.
The last Endodontist was excellent, and spent 2 hours reviewing my teeth, and then recommended that I go to a Prosthodontist. I had never heard of a Prosthodontist.
A Prosthedontist is a dentist that goes to school for 3 extra years and is an expert at fixing your bite, crowns (and implants and dentures too). Adjusting a dental bite is an art, and the average dentist is not very good at it. Most patients bite down and immediate shift their jaw to try to get the teeth to all touch. And then the little blue piece of paper shows that all of the teeth are contacting. A proper bite check involves making sure that the patient is doing a natural bite to see which teeth make contact. All teeth should make contact at the same time.
This Prosthodontist was wonderful! He took 30 minutes and fixed my bite. For the first time in five years, my bite feel right. Within days, I realized that 90% of my neck pain had already diminished. My ringing has decreased further too.
The prosthodontist reviewed my night time bite guard and informed me that it had been created improperly. I am going in next week to have a new one made. My tinnitus has always been louder in the morning, which is a good indication of night time bruxism / grinding. And it also could be because the fit of the night guard has been incorrect.
I'm learning over and over that you have to ask in order to find the good doctors. If they are good, you find that their names come up over and over.
I saw an allergist too. This allergist told me that I had fluid in my middle ear. He gave me a shot of long lasting corticosteroid called Depromedrol. Within hours my ears were ringing twice as loud. It took two weeks for the effects of the Depromedrol to subside. I don't plan on going back to this allergist, but I may find a new one to get the allergy tests I originally intended. In addition, neck problems can cause blocked eustachian tubes and therefore fluid in the middle ears. Therefore if your bite is incorrect, then it can cause blocked Eustachian tubes and fluid in your middle ears.
I also switched ENTs and had a real Audiologist do my hearing test. It showed better results than the other one. This ENT did not tell me to 'go home and deal with it'. He confirmed that the muscles in the neck and jaw affect the ears.
I won't get back the thousands of dollars I spent on chiropractors, and acupuncturists. I won't get back the lost time or missed opportunities from not feeling well in the last five years. And I will always have these root canals which weaken the structure of the tooth. But I have learned valuable lessons about 1 out of 3 doctors being dead wrong on their diagnosis. And maybe posting my story will help someone else along the way.
I still have ringing, but it is less, and I have hopes that this will eventually disappear.
Thanks for reading.
I ended up in the endodontist office getting root canals. I had four separate root canals in less than one year. The tinnitus started right around the first root canal. I would have severe pain from my neck up through my ear, and the tooth would throb. And the ear would ring. The first root canal was in February and three more followed through out the year. I was too sick to think clearly enough to leave my very sweet, but unbelievably incompetent local dentist.
In the beginning, the ringing was lower pitched and very loud. I went to a older primary care physician who told me that I was young for tinnitus (40 years old), but that it happens. I went to a ENT who was gave me a half-assed hearing test (a good hearing test is given by an Audiologist and involves acoustic reflex, word repetition etc). This very bad ENT told me that I have hearing loss, and that there is no cure for tinitus and I should go home and live with it.
At this same time, I also started having bad neck pain. My chiropractor would adjust C1/C2. My C1/Atlas would get misaligned by the next morning.The ringing was worse when my neck was out of alignment. I changed desks, chairs, wore a posture corrector band, etc and nothing helped.
I asked my dentist to check my bite and he said it was fine. He suggested that I get braces, so I paid his office thousands to get orthodontic services. The orthodontist did adjust my bite some to begin with, but not very well. (never use a orthodontist that travels from dentist to dentist. You want one that has their own office.) In addition, after I got the braces off, one of the crowns came off (yes, it came unglued) and the dentist glued it back on, leaving my bite high on the left side again! Remember, I keep asking him to check the bite, and he says it is OK.
Over the years, I learned to control the tinnitus through, avoiding salt, alcohol, sugar, taking supplements, avoiding high stress, stretching etc. And contrary to what the first doctor told me, the ringing did become more bearable. It settled into a higher pitch and lower volume.
In March of this year 2013, I decided to make a list of all the possible causes for my tinnitus, and one by one get them checked out by specialists. It got off to a really bumpy start. I decided to have the root canals reviewed to make sure they were done properly. The first Endodontist that I went to told me that my tooth was fractured and needed to be pulled. I was smart enough this time to get two more opinions, and both the 2nd and 3rd Endodontists told me that the tooth was absolutely fine with NO fracture.
The last Endodontist was excellent, and spent 2 hours reviewing my teeth, and then recommended that I go to a Prosthodontist. I had never heard of a Prosthodontist.
A Prosthedontist is a dentist that goes to school for 3 extra years and is an expert at fixing your bite, crowns (and implants and dentures too). Adjusting a dental bite is an art, and the average dentist is not very good at it. Most patients bite down and immediate shift their jaw to try to get the teeth to all touch. And then the little blue piece of paper shows that all of the teeth are contacting. A proper bite check involves making sure that the patient is doing a natural bite to see which teeth make contact. All teeth should make contact at the same time.
This Prosthodontist was wonderful! He took 30 minutes and fixed my bite. For the first time in five years, my bite feel right. Within days, I realized that 90% of my neck pain had already diminished. My ringing has decreased further too.
The prosthodontist reviewed my night time bite guard and informed me that it had been created improperly. I am going in next week to have a new one made. My tinnitus has always been louder in the morning, which is a good indication of night time bruxism / grinding. And it also could be because the fit of the night guard has been incorrect.
I'm learning over and over that you have to ask in order to find the good doctors. If they are good, you find that their names come up over and over.
I saw an allergist too. This allergist told me that I had fluid in my middle ear. He gave me a shot of long lasting corticosteroid called Depromedrol. Within hours my ears were ringing twice as loud. It took two weeks for the effects of the Depromedrol to subside. I don't plan on going back to this allergist, but I may find a new one to get the allergy tests I originally intended. In addition, neck problems can cause blocked eustachian tubes and therefore fluid in the middle ears. Therefore if your bite is incorrect, then it can cause blocked Eustachian tubes and fluid in your middle ears.
I also switched ENTs and had a real Audiologist do my hearing test. It showed better results than the other one. This ENT did not tell me to 'go home and deal with it'. He confirmed that the muscles in the neck and jaw affect the ears.
I won't get back the thousands of dollars I spent on chiropractors, and acupuncturists. I won't get back the lost time or missed opportunities from not feeling well in the last five years. And I will always have these root canals which weaken the structure of the tooth. But I have learned valuable lessons about 1 out of 3 doctors being dead wrong on their diagnosis. And maybe posting my story will help someone else along the way.
I still have ringing, but it is less, and I have hopes that this will eventually disappear.
Thanks for reading.
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