@chronicburn
@Sjtof
@Street Spirit
@applewine
I was reading a book named Tinnitus: Theory and Management
While reading chapter 8; The Neurophysiological Model of Tinnitus I came across a few interesting cases of tinnitus which maybe a few of you might find interesting.
( Source:
http://books.google.no/books?id=BqEq9Re3L5UC )
Case 7:
A 29-year-old woman with normal audiometry had slightly distressing right ear tinnitus for 7 months, which had resolved approximately 2 months prior to her visit to our tinnitus clinic On physical examination, she had increased muscle tension and tenderness in her right SCM muscle compared with the left. At the time of somatic testing, she was hearing a slight constant ringing of both ears (1 of 10), which was much fainter than her prior right ear tinnitus. With somatic testing, each time that her right SCM muscle was forcefully contracted, she reported hearing right ear tinnitus identical to her prior distressing tinnitus (Table 9-7). The right ear tinnitus did not persist after somatic testing. In some of our clinical cases, a well-described event occurred that precipitated the tinnitus. Many of these people had normal audiograms as well. We refer such cases as examples of somatic tinnitus syndrome.
Case 8:
A 52-year-old woman underwent a right interscalene block to have manipulation of her frozen shoulder performed. With the injection, anesthesia of the shoulder did not occur; rather, she developed anesthesia of her right ear, right postauricular region and slightly right side of the face, with a dull ache in the same distribution. There was no facial weakness or dizziness. The numbness resolved within 14 hours. But immediately on injection of the local anesthetic (15 mL of 1.5% mepivacaine), she developed right ear tinnitus..
Case 11:
A 6-year-old girl fell off her bicycle, fracturing the left mandibular ramus and dislocating the left TMJ. Within 4 months, the fracture and dislocation healed without surgery, but she had some persistent discomfort in the left preauricular and infra-auricular regions. She never complained of tinnitus or hearing loss after the accident, but 2 years later, she failed a routine school hearing test and did poorly on some subsequent audiograms because of the left ear. Otoacoustic emissions were normal. Temporal bone computed tomographic scans and contrast MRIs were normal. Once it was realized that she had left ear tinnitus, she was taught the difference between her tinnitus and the audiometer tones. Subsequent audiograms have been normal. Her left ear tinnitus was described as a buzzing like a dial tone. She had noticed that her tinnitus became quieter with tilting her head to the left and louder when tilting to the right. When examined 3 years after the accident, she had full range of motion of her neck, but her left SCM muscle was rope-like in consistancy and tender.
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What I find interesting, is that they found muscle modulation to the jaw/neck area would induce tinnitus in both individuals with tinnitus and without tinnitus for the most part.
Thats also what I have experienced before. When yawning I would hear a hiss (that now seems to be stuck).
When I did situps, I would hear this hiss when my SCM was working at its hardest to keep my head from falling backwards.
The SCM and muscles of mastication seems to be very much related.
They also point out trapezius in this book.
They believe that the tinnitus induced by neck/jaw/head movements could be related to one or both of the following:
Golgi tendon organ that senses muscle tension
Muscle spindle that senses muscle length
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In the past, I read about eye floaters which I did experience for a while, and I came across some information linking some eye floaters to a network of collagen and hyaluronic acid. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater ).
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Golgi tendon organ anatomy (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golgi_tendon_organ )
The body of the organ is made up of strands of collagen that are connected at one end to the muscle fibers and at the other merge into the tendon proper.
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For me it seems like collagen could play an important role for both eye floaters and the golgi tendon organ as well.
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If the golgi tendon organs are sending false signals to the brain, maybe it could be possible that the brain would send motoric signals back to those muscles telling them to tighten up.
Like when I have stretched my SCM or masseter in the past, I would get a hiss which seems to be pretty normal. Now, when I have that hiss all the time, I would guess that somehow, the same mechanism is sending the same signals all the time. Like my SCM or masseter is constantly stretched when its not, and then the brain is trying to kind of correct it by tightening up that muscle.
It seems like muscles around the neck and jaw are very much capable of producing T and pain on its own.
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Some other interesting stuff that might not be related regarding Fibromyalgia (
http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/content/43/1/27.full ):
Results. The FM patients had lower hydroxyproline and lower total concentration of the major amino acids of collagen than the controls. No significant difference was seen in the concentration of the major amino acids of myosin or of total protein. Electron microscopy showed no significant differences between FM patients and controls although atrophied muscle fibrils occurred in FM patients only, but frequencies were not significantly different.
Conclusion. Fibromyalgia patients had a significantly lower amount of intramuscular collagen. This may lower the threshold for muscle micro-injury and thereby result in non-specific signs of muscle pathology.
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Member
Btw, I am glad your MRI turned out OK 
Just kidding of course!
