Sudden Unilateral Tinnitus for No Known Reason

[squidstephen]

Hello everyone.

I figured I should post something here to document my tinnitus. It could be useful for other people.
I'm 35 y/o, male. Perennial pollen allergies, Obesity, HBP, Prediabetes and anxiety issues ... great.

It all started 10 days ago, in the middle of night. As I was going back to bed after waking up (nothing unusual here), I experienced a very very loud high-pitched sound in my left ear. It quickly settled to fairly present ringing which has not left me since.
I'm 90% percent it originates from the left ear, but it does feel sometimes like it "spreads" to the other ear.

Cause
Absolutely no idea. I don't listen to loud stuff. I have not been in a concert in 15 years.
I do have dental issues (lots of implants due to genetic issue, but nothing recent). Dentist did diagnose me with bruxism 6 months ago.
I also experienced fleeting tinnitus somewhat regularly over the past few months, so I guess I'm going to blame my jaw.
I am/was taking Bupropion XL (150mg) for more than a year, so it could be a cause - unlikely though.

Doctors & Medications
I had an appointment with my Primary Care Physician. Nothing obvious. I also went to see 2 ENTs (because why not...) and they did not find anything obvious. No hearing loss - everything is as expected on that side.
PCP suggested stopping Bupropion, in case it's the cause, which I did. I guess we are going to have to wait a few more days on that side.

I also got a prescription of sleeping pills (If there's anything that makes my day bearable, it's a good night sleep) - Dayvigo. It's been working great.
My PCP also suggested a week of Prednisone. I started the first dose today.
Finally, I'm lucky enough to have an already scheduled dentist appointment tomorrow, so we'll see...

What a day feels like
My tinnitus is actually quite quiet when waking up. It get louder within a hour after getting up.
I've had some success using podcast and other spoken content to "mask it". I typically only need to do it on my left ear. Not much luck with white noise/pink noise and other. It actually seem to make it worse. Showers/water do seem to help though.

Jaw pain has actually become worse as time goes and my left ears feels very tense. I'm also slightly more sensitive to sounds, but it's not that bad.

What's next
I have a feeling it's related to the jaw. I think I can alter the tinnitus by clenching my jaw, but it's not conclusive.
I'm going to have a serious discussion with my dentist and see where we go from there.
I also quickly found a therapist with some experience with tinnitus sufferers, and I scheduled an appointment.
It may get better in a few weeks/months or it may not. I just don't know.
I'm trying to focus on my sleep and dealing with the disruption this has caused in my day to day life.

 

[squidstephen]

An update.

Dentist did confirm jaw problems, but we just don't know if it caused the tinnitus or is due to it.

In any case, she prescribed a very short course of Cyclobenzaprine. I was on a high dose for a couple days and it dealt with jaw reduced the tinnitus significantly. I started tapering off both jaw and tinnitus came back.

Kind of back to square one. My dentist wants to attempt a full course of Cyclobenzaprine to see if that helps things.

I have a feeling it's only going to be a temporary reprieve, but I guess I'll take that for now.

 

[Simon85]

Hey, let us know how you go.

I have a family member with diabetes and associated tinnitus. I think if my tinnitus experience has taught me anything it's the need to look after and be kind to yourself. I'm trying to adopt the philosophy of - how would you react or give advice is this was happening to your son? It's a reminder to more positive with self talk, eating healthier and getting good sleep. Keep investigating the tinnitus, but also focus attention on the obesity and keeping away from the diabetes risk - this is arguably something you have more control over than the tinnitus.

I wish you well and hope you find some relief soon.

 

[squidstephen]

It would be really odd if my prediabetes is causing it, but I can't discount it. After all, I've had a few health issues that were tied to obesity.

No matter if the tinnitus is related to my jaw issues, I actually damaged one of my crown with all of this, so I need to get that part under control.

I have had good success with therapy in the past, so I do hope that it will help me deal with this.

I'll post updates.

 

[squidstephen]

It's update time!

The tinnitus sloowwwly faded away after 3-4 weeks... until it just came back a week ago.

Not really sure what caused it - I can come up with 10 reasons (stress, a smoke alarm...) so I'm trying to not overthink it.

Maybe I'll go see my ENT, but I don't think there's very much to do aside from waiting and living with it.

 

[Roughseas]

That sounds very similar to my situation. Mine started about a week ago after I had a few days of dizziness and pressure in my left sinus.

I also have relative quiet in the morning when I first wake up, but it rapidly escalates after I get out of bed and start eating. I noticed that it seems worse every time I eat.

Most of the time I can hear a super high pitched ringing, at times very loud, but it's frequently pulsating with my heartbeat.

The ENT told me that it's likely permanent and to get used to it. He gave me some steroid solution to use in a sinus rinse, but only because I asked if there was anything I could try. Other than that I'm waiting for an CT scan to find out why I have mild conductive hearing loss in the high frequencies.

it was so frustrating that he was more focussed on the hearing loss and didn't pay much attention at all to the tinnitus that is causing far more of a negative impact to me.