One Sided Hyperacusis and Tinnitus: Am I Alone?

[David Vance]

Does anyone have hyperacusis and tinnitus mostly in just one ear? Mine is mostly on my left side and when it's really ramped up... my neck, and behind my ear hurts a lot.

Could this perhaps be a vestibular problem, or cervical or neck issue? I also have a misaligned bite and 2 missing back molars on the left side. I have facial pain, and my occipital head nerves are inflamed.

Anyone with a similar experience or a somewhat similar experience?

Thanks!

 

[Aaron91]

I'm in a similar boat.

I have tinnitus and H in both ears, but my H is significantly worse in my right ear. In fact, I'd say my left ear is at a point now where I could have close to a normal life if the right ear was the same. I also have a misaligned bite and definitely have necks issues from too much screen time/stress. I imagine hyperacusis makes any pre-existing neck/jaw issues worse as our nervous system is continuously on edge and it's tensing our muscles all the time. I know that I clench and grind at night as well. At the moment, my symptoms seem to be a sensitive right ear, a slight feeling of fullness and an achy/sore/painful jaw on my right side, which is mostly triggered by certain sounds, such as artificial noise sources.

I'm currently in the process of putting together a self-treatment protocol that is based on some of the potential pathologies identified in models outlined in a recent post made by @100Hz. It's effectively an extreme diet/lifestyle/supplementation approach for a fixed period of time (at least 2 weeks, possibly a month) which is designed on suppressing inflammation while calming down and repairing the central nervous system. It's a long shot but one I think worth trying. When I feel like I've got the protocol to where it needs to be I will run it on myself and update accordingly - hopefully before Xmas.

 

[David Vance]

I'm in a similar boat.

I have tinnitus and H in both ears, but my H is significantly worse in my right ear. In fact, I'd say my left ear is at a point now where I could have close to a normal life if the right ear was the same. I also have a misaligned bite and definitely have necks issues from too much screen time/stress. I imagine hyperacusis makes any pre-existing neck/jaw issues worse as our nervous system is continuously on edge and it's tensing our muscles all the time. I know that I clench and grind at night as well. At the moment, my symptoms seem to be a sensitive right ear, a slight feeling of fullness and an achy/sore/painful jaw on my right side, which is mostly triggered by certain sounds, such as artificial noise sources.

I'm currently in the process of putting together a self-treatment protocol that is based on some of the potential pathologies identified in models outlined in a recent post made by @100Hz. It's effectively an extreme diet/lifestyle/supplementation approach for a fixed period of time (at least 2 weeks, possibly a month) which is designed on suppressing inflammation while calming down and repairing the central nervous system. It's a long shot but one I think worth trying. When I feel like I've got the protocol to where it needs to be I will run it on myself and update accordingly - hopefully before Xmas.

Yeah hyperacusis definitely makes things worse in those areas, when we stress and tense up. I'm currently living under someone and the noise makes me cringe a lot, in turn I tense right up making my face and jaw etc worse.

I'm interested in hearing what your treatment protocol is, I do also suffer from GI issues and I am on ototoxic meds right now too, and in withdrawal the auditory system is getting worse.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Aaron91]

Yeah hyperacusis definitely makes things worse in those areas, when we stress and tense up. I'm currently living under someone and the noise makes me cringe a lot, in turn I tense right up making my face and jaw etc worse.

I'm interested in hearing what your treatment protocol is, I do also suffer from GI issues and I am on ototoxic meds right now too, and in withdrawal the auditory system is getting worse.

Thanks for the response.

Have you noticed any kind of inflammation on one side of your face? It's something I hadn't noticed until a friend of mine took a photo of me a couple of days ago. I can't really see it in the mirror, but in the photo it's very obvious. I've been wondering since whether this gives further weight to the inflammation models in understanding the pathology of hyperacusis, or whether this is unrelated TMJ disorder

 

[Ben Winders]

Have you noticed any kind of inflammation on one side of your face? It's something I hadn't noticed until a friend of mine took a photo of me a couple of days ago. I can't really see it in the mirror, but in the photo it's very obvious. I've been wondering since whether this gives further weight to the inflammation models in understanding the pathology of hyperacusis, or whether this is unrelated TMJ disorder

Yup - I have inflammation in the neck (red rash spots) and behind the ear where I have my tinnitus (right side) - not sure if related though as I have had it for most of my life.

 

[100Hz]

Both my ears are different @David Vance. My left ear is my main noxacusis ear with really bad facial, jaw and neck pain symptoms etc. and the tinnitus goes up and down with the pain / setbacks. If ever it's doing really well the tinnitus gets very quiet and manageable but after a setback (which never takes much) it's like a pierced boiler again, with screaming pure tones to go with the pain.

My right ear is very different though, I think my right ear has a much milder case of noxacusis, barely noticeable but it's there. It never suffered an acoustic shock like my left ear so I think my right side doesn't have a sensitized trigeminal nerve like my left side does. It has a morse code tinnitus that fluctuates with noise exposure but it doesn't bother me much at all though compared to the left ear.

Have you had an acoustic shock that you know of in your left ear? Was it actually even noise induced or caused by something else?

 

[cls]

Yes, I have it only on one side (right), and it is affected by posture and posture alone. I see a chiropractor and RMT regularly, and recently went through a month of wearing a posture brace for 10-12 hours a day. I just started wearing a night guard and thinking of looking into cervical collars as well. Audiogram shows no hearing loss and I do have tinnitus as well. It's really strange because it can be very quiet, but when it ramps up, it REALLY ramps up to the point of it being debilitating. Unfortunately, the ENT said there's nothing they can do, but I'll be getting an MRI anyways just so I can convince myself I've tried everything.

I have random bouts of dizziness too, but it's pretty infrequent and relatively mild. Unfortunately, I can't answer what it might be because I'm also looking for an answer, but the ENT said "muscular" for my case. I don't quite buy it because RMT appointments have been of some help, but it's the chiropractor that can make drastic differences (btw, I'm not advocating or recommending them, simply saying that it works for me, so that's what I'm going with) temporarily, and the posture brace radically reduced the amount of debilitating episodes I've had along with quieting the tinnitus quite a bit.

 

[Nobody19]

I have TTTS mainly in my left ear. My T is worst in my right ear though.

 

[Relatz]

I have H only in my left ear from an airhorn

 

[Marin]

My hyperacusis started on my right side which is the side that has hearing loss. Eventually I developed hyperacusis in my left, but it is not quite as bad. My right (worse) side is the only side with trigeminal irritation, too.

My hyperacusis was sure a lot easier to deal with when only one side was effected, sigh.

 

[MrCrybaby]

You're not alone. Around 4/10 hyperacusis patients have asymmetrical symptoms. Generally this is due to the noise from the initial injury being louder on one side than the other.

 

[Shizune]

It's definitely worse in my left ear. I only have TTTS there too.

 

[Trisoloran]

In my early days/months and even for a few years, this was the case.

As hyperacusis is complex and not entirely related to the actual functioning organs of the ears, eventually sensitivity came in both ears. This of course will not happen to everyone.