I'm Scared, I Don't Know Which Kind of Doctor to Turn to, I Have So Many Questions

Hi.

My name is David and I'm scared. I have attended a lot of loud concerts in my life and up until maybe six months ago everything was fine. My right ear would be very sensitive to noises, sometimes, especially if I was anxious. I get anxious a lot.

About a month ago the always super faint ringing in my ear amped up a tiny bit. Just the littlest bit annoying.

Then one night maybe two weeks ago I accidentally ingested a bunch of highly potent THC oil. 24 hours after that my right ear was making a high pitch sound like crazy. Over the next week it diminished. 2 days ago I used a Dremel tool with earplugs in, but the result was that the noise in my ear increased a lot. It hasn't really diminished over the past two days.

I also have TMJ — without using either a mouthguard or muscle relaxants, I grind my teeth at night. A *lot*. This is probably a result of chewing so much gum every night for about a year to prevent myself from eating.

My primary care physician told me not to take the muscle relaxants that the dentist told me to take. So right now I am just using anti-anxiety meds and a cheap mouthguard. I will try to get the dentist to talk to my PCP and solve this.

I met with an ENT but they just did a regular hearing test and I don't have any hearing loss. I have an appointment with an ENT who specializes in tinnitus next month.

I — am so scared an so alone. I'm afraid for the rest of my life.
I want to believe that just like after the THC overindulgence, the current volume will decrease.
I think I need to do something to relax my facial muscles at night.

Please—comfort me. I am scared.

I have a flight coming up — should I get noise canceling headphones? How many dBs do they really help?

Can anyone with similar experiences talk to me? I get so anxious, so afraid.

Please?

 

Relax and protect your hearing. I use NC headphones in airplanes. They work great and I make keep the volume at reasonable levels.

Your T is very new and can vary a lot. In many cases, it just fades naturally with time. You'll see what the Tinnitus ENT says.

Good luck!

 

Greg — Please tell me more. So many people say NC makes it worse. Some say better. Some say use that and earplugs.

Do you know anything about TMD/TMJ whatever it's called? What about teeth grinding or muscle relaxants or anxiety being a trigger?

 

What about different models of NC headphones? Bose has some for 150 and some for 300ish.

 

I usually keep a small fan on in the background right now or listen to a podcast on my phone's speaker. It keeps my mind away from the sound. I feel like I'm running away from myself. Is this good? Bad?

 

I'm scared that one day I'll just hate living so much I'll try to like cut my ear off or something. Just.... it's something I have no control over and feel so alone about. I don't even want to read the forums because other people are posting about how bad things are.

 

I don't know much about TMD/TMJ but you'll find a lot of info on this forum if you use the search feature.

I use the Quietcomfort line. I really like them.

Getting some sound to let your brain move away from your T isn't a bad idea, as long as you keep it at low volume.

Cutting your ear off is likely to make things worse unfortunately.

To feel better I suggest you take a look at the success stories section of the forum, as well as the research section so you can see the ongoing efforts towards a cure.

Good luck!

 

that's the main cause of tinnitus

do you have burning ear pain?

just quoted for reference.

yes, you do. Anyone who sticks around on this forum knows audiologist are notorious for being ignorant about research.



Recent research indicates that hearing test used at most audiology clinics and ENTs are inaccurate. Tonal audiogram test only check for hearing loss within the human voice range, learn more here about hidden hearing loss and how hearing in noisy environments and music perception is not tested on standard hearing test.

http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/






https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378595516302507
Study on "hidden hearing loss"

 

The noise isn't coming from your ear, it's your audiotory brain. Cutting off your ear would cause total hearing loss making it worse. You have to cure the hearing loss, which you can't. (not yet anyway)


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4208401/
Study on the pathology of Tinnitus

 

Quit seeing ENT's and audiologist they can't help you and just want $$$, the only thing they can to do help is give you a predisone steroid, and take over the counter magnesium it may be beneficial to restore some hearing and improve tinnitus.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8135325
Studies why you should take magnesium after hearing damage

 

The most common themes among tinnitus sufferers is hearing damage and TMJ combined. How exactly they relate at a neurological level is being pieced together by researchers and hopefully they do find treatments one day.

 

I don't have burning ear pain but sometimes, when my tinnitus spiked a little, along with the TMD/TMJ, along with the anxiety, there will be a little pain in my right ear. not a lot.


One thing I am really afraid of is doing the wrong thing in the next week or two and it somehow making my life so much worse.

 

Contrast — do you have any supportive things to add right now? I am just really scared and reading about how bad everything is is kinda freaking me out. I just am pretty alone.

 

This is called "noxacusis" or "pain hyperacusis" same thing. It means noise causes pain. Most people just ignorantly call the condition hyperacusis which can mean many things.

noxa (noxious/painful)
acusis (to hear)

noxious hearing

The only real advice is to your ears heal as much as possible, this is the same condition that can lead to burning ear pain if you keep damaging it. Don't chance any loud noise and consider sound therapy but be cautious.

Pain from noise after a history of noise abuse is never a good thing, it's a sign that the cochlea is f**ked, avoid headphones and all loud noises, music for now, and You should never go to a concert or exposure to very loud noises again for the rest of your life, but the good news is you don't have to give up music if you let your ears heal.

Some people on this forum did go to concerts or continued to abuse their hearing when their noxacusis went away, then it came back and worse. Now they can never listen to music again.

Every piece of medical information I give will be backed up by a referenced study or resources to show

https://www.pnas.org/content/112/47/14723
https://www.ata.org/news/news/hyperacusis-related-damage-nerve-cells-inner-ear
https://www.statnews.com/2016/02/18/noise-induced-ear-pain/

I'm not deceiving or being a quack, I am not a medical professional or anyone that researchs tinnitus or the inner ear. I am just a laymen that use to suffer with pain hyperacusis, tinnitus, and I have muffled hearing in one ear from abuse. If you want to seek medical help please see an Otologist or Oto-neurologist (inner ear doctor) (inner ear brain doctor) I understand real professionals would not want random people like me be parroting their knowledge.

 

you can talk to me in a PM. I do believe if you take magnesium and correct your TMD you may get better, but there is no cure sadly.

 

How do they heal? I have a flight coming up on the 20th. I'm going to get noise-canceling headphones.

 

I don't know exactly, but some nerves must repair on their own if I recall one of Charlie Liberman's studies I came across. In my own case of hearing improving as well as others so it has to be possible.

Sorry, I don't have any studies regarding how the ear partially repairs itself.

What's more important is that you rest your ear rest so it can do the best job, if one were to listen to music with headphones or go to a noisy bar it may not repair at all.

 

I am reading the posts you linked and they are scaring the shit out of me. Please just tell me I'm going to heal and eventually something will get better.

 

If you let your ears heal you won't end up as bad as most of the fella's here that never listened. That's the trick, you might recover enough on your own, tinnitus can fade to very mild, and if don't abuse your hearing ever again you could be in a healthy scenario.

Also clinical trials to restore hearing (which will also treat tinnitus and maybe pain from noise) may be available in 5-10 years if the community is persistent and gives off the vibes of activist.

Amazing Research is already happening now! Science could bail us out entirely!

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/frequency-therapeutics-—-hearing-loss-regeneration.18889/
Frequency Therapeutics regenerate cochlear hair cells (active now) using a tool of activating existing progeintor cells in the cochlea to duplicate and transform into new hair cells

Science they are using to regenerate hair cells https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5395286/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/otonomy-oto-413-—-treatment-of-hidden-hearing-loss.26091/
Trial begins later this year, Otonomy and their trial to regenerate cochlear ribbon synapses which attach to hair cells using neurotrophin-3 and some other proprietary elements. They are also focusing on hair cell regeneration in a distant trial.

Science they are using to regenerate cochlear ribbon synapses are much higher density then non-therapeutic scenarios.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4842978/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/decibel-therapeutics.33207/
Decibel-tx is working on medicine which will regenerate cochlear ribbon synapses using neurotrophin-3 and other proprietary elements and rumors are going on that this may even repair and other aspects of auditory nervous tissue, it is also hinted that they are going to start a trial on hair cell regeneration somewhere down the road.

Science they are using to regenerate cochlear ribbon synapses are much higher density then non-therapeutic scenarios.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4842978/

(Decibel and Otonomy are using a similar method to repair nerves, I do not know the properitary aspects of it obviously)


https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/audion-therapeutics-trial.21830/page-8
Audion Therapeutics has an active clinical trial happening now using a gene therapy to regenerate cochlear hair cells.
(sorry I don't have the study because I'm not a reseacher just a nobody on a tinnitus forum)

 

I'm honestly sorry you are scared and tramatized, it's just my nature to bombard people with cold hard logic, I have empathy and care and I really do hope you make the best recover possible and protect your hearing for life.

 

I think Contrast gets a weird, sadistic kick from all this. I mean, just look at all that. The guy needs to calm down and quit the zero sum rants of grim warnings that a few bad synapses are going to kill us all.

You'll probably get better. You just need to take it really easy for a while (ie. many months, maybe over a year). That means making some lifestyle changes to accommodate the injury, because ears are notoriously slow healers for some people. Unfortunately super duper loud concerts are probably out for good, but you'll still be able to do almost everything else.

 

nah bro, I just want to live to see treatments and not this reality.
https://www.audicus.com/who-warns-900-million-at-risk-for-hearing-loss-by-2050/

 

Contrast, I can't pm you. Have you read of my recent experience in a store? I usually have hearing protection on but I didn't then - I was foolishly following an audiologist's advice. Some people here would say I was over protecting before that point. I am scared that it might have made things worse - no one I talk thinks so, though. It was not a gun shot or something loud like that but how many decibels would a grocery store intercom be? If it screeched? Sorry, just rambling and apologies to the OP for interrupting... :-(

 

I didn't take muscle relaxants last night but I did sleep with a store mouthguard and anti-anxiety meds.
There was no real pain in my ear when I woke up. I think there is the feeling of light pressure in it. I think it comes when I focus on it with lots of worry too.

 

This is actually pretty bad that a lot of people really desperate and suffering are viewing me like I have all the answers when I'm desperate and suffering myself. I just keep up to date with research and basic advice.

I am nobodies savior.

 

I also have TMJ — without using either a mouthguard or muscle relaxants, I grind my teeth at night. A *lot*. This is probably a result of chewing so much gum every night for about a year to prevent myself from eating

You are not alone. Many people like myself suffer with tinnitus and TMJ disorders. Nightguards aren't scientifically proven to be effective for TMD and can make bruxism and grinding worse. There are TMJ specialists, do your research around your area. It can be costly, I know of a specialist in California who guarantees successful treatment. And the ringing, painfully you are going to have to manage your way through it and have to learn to tune it out. It is not a simple process to rid of even though its what we all wish for. I used to indulge excessive amounts of weed and it would worsen my ringing. You will be alright friend.

 

May I ask everyone if there TMJ/TMD worsened after onset of acoustic trauma or hearing loss?

 

This happened to me before. It did gave me a spike but lasted only a couple of days...wether it was the screeching sound or my anxiety, I dont know...but thankfully it settled.

 

@SecretDoubleCat One way to get an idea if noise/medications ------- or if something physical - neck/jaw/oral cavity/facial as cause would be sinus problems. Sinus problems can also develop from other physical problems. If you are having to blow your nose then it's probably physical.

TMJ problems almost always associate to the C1 and C spine. Neck problems can be a little complex, but often with association to tinnitus it's the following and any of this can lead to TMJ.

- A straightening C spine due to injury and made worse by unbalanced posture and forward head bending.
- Muscle spasms of neck can also cause the C spine to straighten. All that's needed is a quarter of an inch.
-When the C spine is under pressure from neck muscles, artery and cranial nerves can then have involvement. Most common is the vertebral and occipital arteries when blood flow decreased due to neck muscle/C spine trauma pressure.
-Often with TMJ even developed from clenching of teeth, there's probably been trauma to C1 and C spine. This trauma can go back 15 years.
-When one problem starts any where at the shoulders or above it can cause effect to other areas above the shoulders in a thousand ways. For the jaw it could be arthritis travel from a C spine injury.
-Any physical problems above the shoulders can cause sinus problems and sometimes TMJ/clenching.
-With mention to muscle neck trauma, the sternocleidomastoids can associate to any problems of facial. Facial and jaw problems can also lead to this muscle.

The sinuses can be a clue if your tinnitus has association to physical.

It's said that 70% of those with hearing loss tinnitus also have physical associations, but that's another discussion.

 

@Greg —everything you said seems important. I don't know what to do about it or with that knowledge though.

What now?