What Influences Your Tinnitus?

[Hedgehog]

Hello friends, I was trying things to see if anything influenced my tinnitus. And to my surprise, pushing my upper jaw upwards (with my fingers or just by biting my jaws closed) increases the pitch and volume of my tinnitus quite a bit. More experimentation shows that pushing on my skull about an inch above an ear also has this same effect.

I have no clue how this could influence my tinnitus (maybe it puts pressure on a nerve?), but it's very consistent and only seems to happen on those locations. I even had someone else push on my head to make sure it wasn't just because I was tensing my muscles in my hand or whatever.

My tinnitus also gets worse when I do some pushups, so it probably also related to blood pressure and heart rate or something.

In both cases stopping the activity causes my tinnitus to go back to my normal levels.

I haven't seen much on this forum about things that can instantly make your tinnitus worse, so does anyone have something like this?

 

[Kriszti]

Have you tried to detect whether your tinnitus is related to TMJ problems?

 

[Hedgehog]

Have you tried to detect whether your tinnitus is related to TMJ problems?

Hi! I don't know a lot about TMJ, but none of the common symptoms occur in me. What would be the best way to find out?
By the way, I've been to an ENT and she didn't mention it, but she might not have been looking for it.

 

[Kriszti]

Hi! I don't know a lot about TMJ, but none of the common symptoms occur in me. What would be the best way to find out?
By the way, I've been to an ENT and she didn't mention it, but she might not have been looking for it.

I'm not an expert either but I would go to a dentist who has knowledge in gnatology.

 

[Don Tinny]

My tinnitus? It gets worse if I go to a Metal concert. haha.

 

[Bartoli]

I have no clue how this could influence my tinnitus (maybe it puts pressure on a nerve?), but it's very consistent and only seems to happen on those locations.

This is probably somatic tinnitus. It's quite common and part of the reason bimodal stimulation is thought you work. Following a loss in input from the ear, the now-defunct brain cells form connections to parts of the brain that are responsible for touch, eye movement (probably visual also judging from the correlation between visual snow and tinnitus).

It gets often mistaken for TMJ. That's not to be said it can't be that, but it's much less likely.

 

[alex1975]

A lot of people with tinnitus can change the pitch of their T with neck or jaw movements I've found out. My increases in pitch and loudness if I squeeze/contract the muscles under my jaw. I think they call this somatic tinnitus.