Is My Tinnitus Caused by Something Other Than Hearing Loss?

[bellecooper77]

Almost having tinnitus for 3 months, I have searched everywhere to find a cause. I am someone who likes to find the root of a problem and narrow it down, and my cause of tinnitus is driving me crazy.
I have scored a near perfect score on almost every hearing test I take, including ones for hidden hearing loss (seeing if I can hear noises in busy background noise), so I know that its probably not noise induced (yet it sometimes increases after I hear a loud noise, but even before tinnitus, my ears were very sensitive)

However, whenever I move my jaw, the sound shifts, either in pitch or loudness. Jaw goes forward, sound gets louder. Jaw goes backwards, pitch and loudness increases. Jaw moves from side to side and the sound increases whichever side I move it too. Whenever I swallow there is a crackling sound in my ear. There is a sound whenever I open up my jaw on the side where my tinnitus is worse, almost like a cracking. I always have to crack my neck and when I do, a loud sound comes from it.

I do suffer from allergies and my tinnitus started in April, when I usually get bad allergies, and it increased when I had a cold a couple of months ago. After a shower it tends to be a little bit better but then increases back to its normal tone.

I read about something called TMJ, and before tinnitus I had never even heard of it. Is this something that I might have?

I also read about Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. When I got my tinnitus, the doctor looked and saw that my ear was full of liquid, possibly causing the tinnitus. Even though I don't have any liquid there anymore (prednisone took care of that) could that have possibly caused it? It got better but was brought back to the normal level by an ambulance passing by in Times Square.

Sorry for all my rambling, just wanted some help to try to get to the bottom of this!

 

[Michael Leigh]

I have had "noise induced" tinnitus for quite some time. As I have explained to you on another thread, you have nothing to worry about, as your tinnitus is low and you are not deliberately trying to mask your tinnitus. Please don't worry and carry on as you are. Read my post on my started threads: The habituation process. I believe you'll find it helpful. If you have time, read my Article: Tinnitus, A Personal View, also on my started threads.

Michael

 

[JohnAdams]

So, is you tinnitus disturbing you just when in silence or even when masked?
Is your impression of habituation that it will silence your tinnitus?

 

[Michael Leigh]

Almost having tinnitus for 3 months, I have searched everywhere to find a cause. I am someone who likes to find the root of a problem and narrow it down, and my cause of tinnitus is driving me crazy.

The most common cause of tinnitus is exposure to loud noise. Before the onset of the tinnitus were you a frequent user of headphones/headset or go to clubs, concerts? If yes to any of these questions then it's likely the tinnitus was "noise induced". If it was then I advise you not to use headphones even at low volume.

Michael

 

[GregCA]

Have you followed https://www.tinnitusresearch.net/index.php/for-clinicians/diagnostic-flowchart?

 

[bellecooper77]

So, is you tinnitus disturbing you just when in silence or even when masked?
Is your impression of habituation that it will silence your tinnitus?

Its mostly disturbing when it is silent. Im sitting in my room right now and due to a lawn mower outside its less distracting/annoying as it usually is. But when that is not happening and its pure silence, it's annoying. I can also sometimes hear it when watching TV with my friends or if I'm at the movies and nothing is really happening in a scene, I can hear it, which is annoying, but usually after I focus back on the movie I will go minutes without hearing it.
Also my impression of habituation is when my brain doesn't recognize the noise as a threat anymore and I can not be overly overwhelmed by it. Yes, it would be amazing if this sound goes away somehow and I can hear silence again but for me habituation would be when it gets to the point where the sound is still there but I can easily move past it.

 

[bellecooper77]

Before the onset of the tinnitus were you a frequent user of headphones/headset or go to clubs, concerts? If yes to any of these questions then it's likely the tinnitus was "noise induced".

Yes, I did listen to my music at loud volumes at times (it was like my little escape, listening to music at loud volumes to drown out anything around me) and I did have tinnitus for a day after going to a concert without ear protection (looking back I really should have listened to my father, who has tinnitus and told me to use earplug), but it faded away. However, I have been tested both for regular and hidden hearing loss and I don't have enough damage to cause tinnitus, which is very confusing for me.

 

[JohnAdams]

Its mostly disturbing when it is silent. Im sitting in my room right now and due to a lawn mower outside its less distracting/annoying as it usually is. But when that is not happening and its pure silence, it's annoying.
Also my impression of habituation is when my brain doesn't recognize the noise as a threat anymore and I can not be overly overwhelmed by it. Yes, it would be amazing if this sound goes away somehow and I can hear silence again but for me habituation would be when it gets to the point where the sound is still there but I can easily move past it.

Sounds about right. Yeah, you'll get used to it more than likely. Sorry you're going through this.
It will more than likely always bother you just a little even if it goes down some. Just knowing that something is there that shouldn't be is a real pain in the ass.

 

[bellecooper77]

Have you followed https://www.tinnitusresearch.net/index.php/for-clinicians/diagnostic-flowchart?

I just looked it up, and it has been very helpful! My symptoms definitely seem to be that of a little bit of TMJ ("Immediate tinnitus change during active jaw movements") but I'm going to continue following it to see if there are any other possible causes. Thank you so much!

 

[Michael Leigh]

Yes, I did listen to my music at loud volumes at times (it was like my little escape, listening to music at loud volumes to drown out anything around me) and I did have tinnitus for a day after going to a concert without ear protection (looking back I really should have listened to my father, who has tinnitus and told me to use earplug), but it faded away. However, I have been tested both for regular and hidden hearing loss and I don't have enough damage to cause tinnitus, which is very confusing for me.

HI @bellecooper77

Thank you for this additional information. As I thought your tinnitus is "Noise induced". The clues were in one of your posts, where you said you were sensitive to certain sounds. It seems that you do not have severe intrusive tinnitus which is the norm for a lot of people with early onset of tinnitus. I will assume you want to keep it at a low level and eventually habituate to where the tinnitus is even lower or hardly noticeable at all. I believe this is quite possible but to achieve this, I suggest you follow the advice that I'm going to give you below.

Many people that have noise induced tinnitus do not have any hearing loss, so your hearing tests results are not a surprise. I strongly advise you not to use headphones even at low volume for at least 3 months or until your tinnitus reduces to a level were you are quite comfortable with it. To be honest, I would prefer that you never ever use headphones again even at low volume. Try to keep away from overly loud sounds such as attending clubs and concerts where loud music is played. If you do attend these places, then use "noise reducing" earplugs. However, you still need to be careful of loud sounds.

Carry on using sound enrichment at night and also during the day. Please click on the links below and read my posts. They have answers to some of the questions that you may have on tinnitus and the habituation process. It takes time to habituate and it's something that cannot be rushed.

You are new to tinnitus so just take things slowly and try to carry on doing everything as you would normally do.

All the best
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-habituation-process.20767/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

[bellecooper77]

Just knowing that something is there that shouldn't be is a real pain in the ass.

Yeah, it has been a rough 3 months. I learned that some things that I used to love doing, like jamming out to loud music in my room, isn't the best thing for me to do. In every room that I go to that I used to hear silence, I seem to look for the sound, which is something that hurts me since I hear it and try to remember a time when I didn't hear it.

But my best friend and father both have tinnitus (him from hearing loss and for her it's hereditary) and they both said that they habituated to it, so I'm maintaining hope that if it doesn't go away (my mom has a theory that this is caused by allergies, don't know if she is true on that) at least it will get better. I'm going to college as well in a month and a half, and if being distracted and having things to do helps me with it, I am about to be bombarded with things to do, which will be super nice for my tinnitus.

I'm grateful as well that it isn't at a level where most of my life is affected and I have to stop doing things I love - by reading this forum I realized that where I am now in terms of its loudness and pitch it takes people months, even years to get to. My heart goes out to everyone who has moderate and severe tinnitus.