Neck and Jaw Issues — Would Heat and Muscle Relaxers Be Helpful?

[HeavyMantra]

@HeavyMantra -- I'm happy to hear your TTTS went away! -- I made a post about TTTS last year; below is a link if you'd be interested:

DMSO & Magnesium Oil for Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome (TTTS)

I think TTTS is what it was. I still have occasional ear pain and now this new humming sound that fluctuates chaotically, it could be related. I'm going to look at your link and perhaps try it.

 

[HeavyMantra]

@HeavyMantra
The eardrum has three bones behind it to sort out "Morse-code" sound. If the bones get stuck and the muscles that work with the bones, humming can also happen.

The mandibular sensory part of the trigeminal nerve has motor and sensory functions that helps a person to chew and clench the teeth and gives sensation to muscles in the tympanic membrane of the ear.

Your neck - atlas - C1 is probably causing this problem and also causing bruxism. Pressure from this seems to be tightening your bones directing behind the eardrum.

First, I would try warm moist compresses to upper neck and a dry compress to jaw area. Not to much compress for jaw and a cool compress may be needed afterwards for jaw.

For your neck, I would try nodding after warm compress use. Nodding is just like very gently moving your head up and down just a little when you are agreeing with someone. Try with good posture, nodding your head up and down - only one inch in movement and hold for 2 seconds in each direction. Start off doing this ten times over a course of a minute. Do this 10 times a day to start.

You should use a mouth guard when sleeping - a thin flexible one for top teeth may be better.

One of your other sounds - the high pitch may involve everything including acoustic trauma. If you don't have side effects to magnesium, NAC with a little vitamin C - I would try that. Magnesium might help to relax your neck, jaw and ear muscles. I would use 1/3 of a magnesium tablet 3 times a day.

Thank you Greg,

Can anything be done about problems with C1, apart from what you suggested? I will try the compresses and I already take the supplements you suggested. Any particular type of healthcare professional I should see about this? It would be good to know IF there is a problem or not.

Could these problems be caused by forceful stretching of neck muscles? I always get the same "roaring" sound that is heard when yawning when I've been stretching the neck muscles connected to the ears.

Since I once again find myself thinking if I should just give up on music altogether, I would really want to know if this humming sound was caused by music or not. It seems hard to nail down causes of individual sounds like this. Both my ear pain, TTTS-like symptoms and now this humming sound came after I bought speakers and started using them occasionally. The pain and TTTS is much better currently, but I heard the humming sound the first time when my TTTS spasms started. Same ear.

But I've also had persistent neck pain aggravated by most types of exercise for 2 years. Bruxism and holding tension in jaw area. Long history of muscle twitching in my right hand and groin area, aggravated by stimulants, stress and poor sleep. Lifelong history of depression and anxiety.

I have been using a mouthguard for a year now. Since I've never had any reason to go to dentists, I didn't realize I had bruxism until my teeth were so ground down they started hurting. All better now though. My tinnitus has not improved since I started using this.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

@HeavyMantra It does seem like all problems, everything word that you mention, including that of the hearing complex stems from an existing spinal injury or head injury that happened in childhood. This would most likely be level 1 - not a major issue as you don't have vertigo.

I would stop exercises. A neurosurgeon might want to do a MRI of brain and entire spinal column. From findings, careful noninvasive treatments may help. If you have concerns with MRIs, then consider starting with neck X Rays.

Is your humming constant? If constant, ultrasound duplex for the neck to start with.

Treatment for now. Try warm compresses on entire neck and shoulders, if any discomfort then switch to slightly cool compresses.
Use correct neck, shoulder and spine posture.
Ears - Avoid anything that causes echo and high base sounds.

 

[HeavyMantra]

@HeavyMantra It does seem like all problems, everything word that you mention, including that of the hearing complex stems from an existing spinal injury or head injury that happened in childhood. This would most likely be level 1 - not a major concern as you don't have vertigo.

I would stop exercises. A neurosurgeon might want to do a MRI of brain and entire spinal column. From findings, careful noninvasive treatments may help. If you have concerns with MRIs, then consider starting with neck X Rays.

Is your humming constant? If constant, ultrasound duplex for the neck to start with.

Treatment for now. Try warm compresses on entire neck and shoulders, if any discomfort then switch to slightly cool compresses.
Use correct neck, shoulder and spine posture.
Ears - Avoid anything that causes echo and high base sounds.

Well that sounds scary. I didn't have any neck or head injury as a child as far as I remember?

I have a small spiral injury from weightlifting 5 years ago, all good now pain-wise.

The humming sound started at a 10/10 two months ago, and slowly faded over 4 hours. It did not return until 1 week ago at 10/10 for a few minutes, then became a 3/10 and has been at this level persistently for a week. Three days ago it became 10/10 again suddenly and faded back to 3/10 after 15 minutes.

Yes, I don't always aggravate my neck pain when exercising but I avoid any movements that do aggravate it. I only do very gentle movements now for other reasons. I have undiagnosed joint pain as well.

The hum is a murmuring, very low-pitched "bwoh.. Bwoh bwoh.. Bwoh.. Bwoh bwoh bwoh bwoh"-sound. It's different from the TTTS spasm sound

Thank you so much for your time

 

[Greg Sacramento]

The humming sound started at a 10/10 two months ago, and slowly faded over 4 hours. It did not return until 1 week ago at 10/10 for a few minutes, then became a 3/10 and has been at this level persistently for a week. Three days ago it became 10/10 again suddenly and faded back to 3/10 after 15 minutes.

The hum is a murmuring, very low-pitched "bwoh.. Bwoh bwoh.. Bwoh.. Bwoh bwoh bwoh bwoh"-sound. It's different from the TTTS spasm sound

Blood pressure change of the carotid artery - pre hypertension moments that usually only last a few minutes.

Constant worry and anxiety about loud noises can also cause the tensor tympani muscle to become overly active. This is supported in almost all newer studies.
https://study.com/academy/lesson/tonic-tensor-tympani-syndrome-causes-symptoms-treatment.html

 

[ASilverLight]

My left ear also gets a very piercing tone that almost sounds like the echo/after sound of a tuning fork - this mostly happens after doing my exercises or sitting in the wrong position for too long; it also occasionally comes when I've been lying on my left side in bed. It decreases when I roll over to my right side.

@Greg Sacramento

I'm actually wondering whether this one could be from blood pressure or blood flow or something along those lines as the pattern to it is quite random. I often end up with the tone loudly after a shower, however I can hear other noise and not be affected whatsoever (my showers usually aren't too long). I tend to shower quite hot. I also notice the tone increases when I'm really upset or warm in general.

Perhaps some muscle reduces blood flow here? I dunno. It's the worst of all my tones by far, most of them do drown out with low background noise but this one is piercing and awful - audible over nearly everything when it's present.

(I'm also going to check my vitamin and hormone levels as I'm fairly sure something is going on there due to other symptoms I have and have been suffering since right around my tinnitus onset).

Also, in another thread you mentioned whiplash victims should be as careful with loud noise as those with noise induced tinnitus, why is this?

 

[Greg Sacramento]

@ASilverLight

Also, in another thread you mentioned whiplash victims should be as careful with loud noise as those with noise induced tinnitus, why is this?

Whiplash may include mental fog, cerebellar or brain stem injury, concussion, and most notable is vertebrobasilar insufficiency. So with a head injury, noise can be a problem for the brain. The vertebrobasiliar plate can associate to vertebrates rubbing together causing tuning fork sounds. Motion X Rays for this. Also the occipital nerves can cause tuning fork sounds when pressured.

 

[Mathew Gould]

@ASilverLight

Whiplash may include mental fog, cerebellar or brain stem injury, concussion, and most notable is vertebrobasilar insufficiency. So with a head injury, noise can be a problem for the brain. The vertebrobasiliar plate can associate to vertebrates rubbing together causing tuning fork sounds. Motion X Rays for this. Also the occipital nerves can cause tuning fork sounds when pressured.

I think I need motion XRays. If I got motion XRays and an MRI would that definitely see what in my neck or jaw is causing my tinnitus?

 

[Mathew Gould]

@HeavyMantra It does seem like all problems, everything word that you mention, including that of the hearing complex stems from an existing spinal injury or head injury that happened in childhood. This would most likely be level 1 - not a major issue as you don't have vertigo.

I would stop exercises. A neurosurgeon might want to do a MRI of brain and entire spinal column. From findings, careful noninvasive treatments may help. If you have concerns with MRIs, then consider starting with neck X Rays.

Is your humming constant? If constant, ultrasound duplex for the neck to start with.

Treatment for now. Try warm compresses on entire neck and shoulders, if any discomfort then switch to slightly cool compresses.
Use correct neck, shoulder and spine posture.
Ears - Avoid anything that causes echo and high base sounds.

@Greg Sacramento do you believe in these posture devices?

https://www.amazon.com/Corrector-Cl...id=1590279815&sprefix=posture+,aps,963&sr=8-6

 

[Greg Sacramento]

do you believe in these posture devices?

I don't know - maybe.

 

[ASilverLight]

@ASilverLight

Whiplash may include mental fog, cerebellar or brain stem injury, concussion, and most notable is vertebrobasilar insufficiency. So with a head injury, noise can be a problem for the brain. The vertebrobasiliar plate can associate to vertebrates rubbing together causing tuning fork sounds. Motion X Rays for this. Also the occipital nerves can cause tuning fork sounds when pressured.

Thanks for the explanation. My whiplash was fairly mild and mostly resulted in physical trouble. Researched the things you mentioned and they don't seem to apply to me. Doesn't mean I'm not still careful with noise, same as I always have been.