My Brilliant Success Story

[Jonson]

I live in London, UK, and have suffered with tinnitus for the past eleven years. It takes the form of a white noise that can be very very loud in deed. In fact, it has taken me to some dark places over the years and reached its all time high a couple of years back.

That was for me a really low point in my life - which is otherwise I am pleased to say, blessed in many ways. I had been to the audiologist, worn a hearing aid, a masking aid, seen neurologists, taken all kinds of ridiculously bad prescribed drugs for migrainal tinnitus, all of which were completely ineffective. I had many sessions with a osteopath whom I know is very gifted practitioner, all with no effect. I tried TM, Alexander Technique, Chinese Tadional Medicine (£8000 worth) but nothing worked.

About four months ago I happened to be switching my dental practitioner to a dentist who practises non invasive dental work. I simultaneously had been given by another osteopath recommendation by a guy I know who's opinion I have had to value over the years because he is so often right about very many matters.

So, on visiting my new osteopath he says that: -

1. Using a stethoscope, he can actually hear my tinnitus, (interesting as he wad the first person to actually try and hear it)
2. That it may be related to the rather smaller than usual gap between my mandible (jaw bone) and my skull. (The ear canal being just 1cm away)

Would you believe it but the dental X-ray from my new dentist confirmed that the aforesaid gap was apporimately 1-2mm as apposed to being 8mm which is more normal. I have worked as a bond trader for 25 years and am an habitual tooth grinder and generally pretty stressed out for 10 hours plus each day. (Not any more - left the biz 5 yrs ago)

We have been working hard on improving that gap with different exercises, change in diet and osteopathy every two weeks.

The result is that over the last 4 months, I have gone from someone who virtually never had a good day to someone who has four out of seven very good days and no really disastrous days. I am now leading a life that I could not have imagined this time twelve months ago.

I wanted to share my experience with everyone because I know how tough this affliction can be. I still have tinnitus of course. And if you gave my tinnitus now to a person who has never had it before they would probably still freak out like we all did when it first showed up, but it is about 80-90% better than I could ever have dreamed of.

Good luck to everybody.

Jonson.

 

[Richard zurowski]

How strange is that!.. And good for you you must be over the moon I know I would be.

 

[Tamalak]

Wow, a medical professional actually took an intellectual interest in your condition and figured out how to make it better. What a rare story.

 

[Uniqdzign]

I wanted to share my experience with everyone because I know how tough this affliction can be. I still have tinnitus of course. And if you gave my tinnitus now to a person who has never had it before they would probably still freak out like we all did when it first showed up, but it is about 80-90% better than I could ever have dreamed of.

Good luck to everybody.

Jonson.

Hi Jonson, what an incredible story, and it's so good to hear - pun intended - of a success story coming from an unusual starting point. I'm using a chiro-masseuse, who is working on my neck/skull and jaw. I have to say that I have improved too. The 'jaw' connection is certainly part of the problem - I hasten to add - for some of us, as t seems so often to stem from a selection of variables.
Thanks for posting, as it's information like this, that continues to give hopeful options to a more comfortable life style - and of course less t.

 

[Jonson]

Thanks Richard - I am over the moon mate

 

[Jonson]

Thanks Tamalk

 

[Jonson]

Cheers Uniqdzign - good luck with your osteopath-massage root. Really hope the progress continues.. My exercises involve opening my mouth as wide as possible for 120 seconds a day and placing a tissue behind my teethe and pulling my jaw down fir 25 seconds a day. The second exercise should not be too aggressive as otherwise your body will resist the exercise and defeat the object.

 

[LadyDi]

Great story, @Jonson. Thanks so much for sharing.

 

[Sailboardman]

Jonson,

Could you increase your T by simply clenching you teeth, chewing, jutting your lower jaw out and swallowing? I can. I'm a teeth clencher also and wear a night guard. Before T, I used to have a clicking noise whenever I chewed, right side only. That's the same side as my T. After T, the clicking stopped?

I had two extractions and bone grafts, right before my T started, prepping for implants, also. Still haven't proceeded getting those implants installed.

I'm wondering if I have a similar condition as you?

Sailboardman

 

[Jonson]

Hi Sailboardman,
No, I can't alter my T in any way that I'm aware of personally. My T did start very soon after some root canal work that I had on my lower right jaw (I also have/had 90% of my T in my right ear). I would rather my children lost a tooth than put themselves through that process which although they say they have no proof that root canal work causes T I know that my father's triple bye-pass was attributed to root canal work permitting an infection to enter his nervous system directly in that manner so I am sceptical of the doubters on this one.
I clench and grind my teeth and retain a lot of tension in this manner. I'm also a toe clencher which has less relevance directly but is demonstrative of how tense I've been in the past.
I believe that it took a long while for me raining on my system working in a super highly stressed environment before it came out.
Ask your dentist to take an X-ray to examine the gap between your mandible (jaw bone) and your skull. That may give you some indication as to the similarity of our conditions.

 

[gary]

I live in London, UK, and have suffered with tinnitus for the past eleven years. It takes the form of a white noise that can be very very loud in deed. In fact, it has taken me to some dark places over the years and reached its all time high a couple of years back.

That was for me a really low point in my life - which is otherwise I am pleased to say, blessed in many ways. I had been to the audiologist, worn a hearing aid, a masking aid, seen neurologists, taken all kinds of ridiculously bad prescribed drugs for migrainal tinnitus, all of which were completely ineffective. I had many sessions with a osteopath whom I know is very gifted practitioner, all with no effect. I tried TM, Alexander Technique, Chinese Tadional Medicine (£8000 worth) but nothing worked.

About four months ago I happened to be switching my dental practitioner to a dentist who practises non invasive dental work. I simultaneously had been given by another osteopath recommendation by a guy I know who's opinion I have had to value over the years because he is so often right about very many matters.

So, on visiting my new osteopath he says that: -

1. Using a stethoscope, he can actually hear my tinnitus, (interesting as he wad the first person to actually try and hear it)
2. That it may be related to the rather smaller than usual gap between my mandible (jaw bone) and my skull. (The ear canal being just 1cm away)

Would you believe it but the dental X-ray from my new dentist confirmed that the aforesaid gap was apporimately 1-2mm as apposed to being 8mm which is more normal. I have worked as a bond trader for 25 years and am an habitual tooth grinder and generally pretty stressed out for 10 hours plus each day. (Not any more - left the biz 5 yrs ago)

We have been working hard on improving that gap with different exercises, change in diet and osteopathy every two weeks.

The result is that over the last 4 months, I have gone from someone who virtually never had a good day to someone who has four out of seven very good days and no really disastrous days. I am now leading a life that I could not have imagined this time twelve months ago.

I wanted to share my experience with everyone because I know how tough this affliction can be. I still have tinnitus of course. And if you gave my tinnitus now to a person who has never had it before they would probably still freak out like we all did when it first showed up, but it is about 80-90% better than I could ever have dreamed of.

Good luck to everybody.

Jonson.

Jonson, that is a great friend & Dr you have. I am so very happy for you. Yes some one who never had T would think how yours it would be if they had it. I get a break every once in a while and am grateful for those. Those good days are what get me through these very bad day's, like I have had the last 10 days, at least I know sooner or later I'll get a day or two of low T. Better than nothing....

 

[Martin69]

Jonson,

Could you increase your T by simply clenching you teeth, chewing, jutting your lower jaw out and swallowing? I can. I'm a teeth clencher also and wear a night guard. Before T, I used to have a clicking noise whenever I chewed, right side only. That's the same side as my T. After T, the clicking stopped?

I had two extractions and bone grafts, right before my T started, prepping for implants, also. Still haven't proceeded getting those implants installed.

I'm wondering if I have a similar condition as you?

Sailboardman

Yes, clenching teeth, chewing etc. makes it louder.
Probably this is only for high-pitched T, but I don't know.

 

[Sailboardman]

Thanks Jonson! I'm going to have him do just that. I've had a TMJ specialist referred to me, but have heard, it's an expensive witch hunt, which may yield zero help with T.

Martin, you too! Have you Every had an x-ray done, as Jonson has recomended I do?

Sailboardman

 

[billie48]

Welcome @Jonson and thanks for your wonderful success story. Sometimes some doctors are doing the right job and you are obviously one who has the luck to be treated by a good doctor who cares about you and knows his stuff.

This post should be in success story so we can have a reference to help those who may have T caused by the same jaw bone issue. Congrats. Perhaps you can explain the exercises better. I don't understand the purpose of the tissue behind the teeth in the 2nd exercise. What has it to do with pulling down on the jaws? Isn't the first exercise of opening the mouth as wide as possible already involving dropping the jaws which is the 2nd exercise?

 

[Jonson]

Gary, I totally hear what you're saying. Even now with my T so much better: If I have a bad day I still find that I get freaked out by it. All be it that the very bad days are now almost non existent compared to 12 months ago; T is an affliction which makes you react to it in the constant. It what is happening right hear and now in this precise moment in the present that is of the paramount importantce, everything else seems to be irrelevant. Of course that is not true if your T is improving but if it is getting worse or staying the same then that is how we feel about it.

 

[Jonson]

Hi Billie48

Sorry for not making it clear what the exercises are all about - I'll try and explain a little more clearly.

The point of the exercises is to cause the gap to widen between my mandible (jaw bone) and skull. This is the gap that is approximately 1 cm further forward on you head from your ear canal and where your mandible is 'connected' to your skull. In a healthy person I am told that this gap should be about 8 mm. In my own body it was roughly 1 mm, i:e, 7 mm too short.

Both exercises are designed to stretch that gap and that gap only.

The first exercise whereby I open my mouth as wide as possible for 120 seconds is an exercise that by definition is just about stretching my mouth open without any pressure from an outside source, so naturally, I am pushing against my own physical limitations and so the body is not tightening and resisting against any external factors or levers. That is why I have been told to stretch as wide and hard as I can for the whole 120 seconds.

The second exercise which involve my placing a tissue behind my bottom front teeth and pulling my jawbone down so as to again widen the aforementioned gap; but this exercise is using my hands to pull on my jaw via pulling on my teeth. It is natural for one's body to react to pressure with resistance otherwise every time someone bumped into us in the street we would end up falling on the floor. To avoid this resistance in the exercise I have been told to; -

• Be aware of this and consciously offer as little physical resistance as possible when doing the exercise,
• To achieve this, pull lightly at first, stay relaxed and allow the benefits to accumulate over days, weeks and months.

These exercises are something that I have been told that will need to do for the rest of my life.

I hope that makes it clearer for you. There is no tissue behind the teeth. The teeth are just your lever to pull your jaw down to hopefully extend the gap I mentioned earlier.

Hope this is clearer Billie48.

 

[ruben ruiz]

Wow an osteopath and a dentist. Another statement that ENTs are not worth a grain of salt!

 

[Jonson]

Sameness Ruben

 

[click]

Hi Sailboardman,
No, I can't alter my T in any way that I'm aware of personally. My T did start very soon after some root canal work that I had on my lower right jaw (I also have/had 90% of my T in my right ear). I would rather my children lost a tooth than put themselves through that process which although they say they have no proof that root canal work causes T I know that my father's triple bye-pass was attributed to root canal work permitting an infection to enter his nervous system directly in that manner so I am sceptical of the doubters on this one.
I clench and grind my teeth and retain a lot of tension in this manner. I'm also a toe clencher which has less relevance directly but is demonstrative of how tense I've been in the past.
I believe that it took a long while for me raining on my system working in a super highly stressed environment before it came out.
Ask your dentist to take an X-ray to examine the gap between your mandible (jaw bone) and your skull. That may give you some indication as to the similarity of our conditions.

@Jonson

Really pleased for you. Can you say exactly where he put the stethoscope when listening for your T? Thanks.

 

[dan]

@Jonson

Really pleased for you. Can you say exactly where he put the stethoscope when listening for your T? Thanks.

You cant hear neurons with a stetoscope!!!

 

[click]

You cant hear neurons with a stetoscope!!!

Well Dan... if they told Jonson they could hear it then let's keep an open (even if screeching) mind.

I'd still like to know where they put the stethoscope though...

 

[Neil23]

Does the 'toe clenching' affect the tinnitus? or is that simply a symptom of being tense...

 

[Dana]

Ask your dentist to take an X-ray to examine the gap between your mandible (jaw bone) and your skull. That may give you some indication as to the similarity of our conditions.

Thanks you very much for posting. I will do such an x-ray also shortly. I also suspect that the mandible bone can screw the middle ear, causing T, when it is close enough to bother it. Putting a finger in the ear in the ear canal you can feel in there the movement of the mandible, so the lower jaw position definitely affects the middle ear.

 

[Path Maker]

Wow - hey yes! You CAN feel the mandible moving! Didn't know this and it's very interesting. Thanks, @Dana !