Tinnitus - the sound of Silence

I've never thought of neck trouble having an impact, but now you mention it, my tinnitus did start around the same time I had an almighty whiplash. Hmm.

For the last 20 years it sounded like the 15kHz emitted by old CRT TVs - constant, faint, not really bothersome. Two years ago I had covid, and that seemed to have fiddled with the knobs, so to speak. Now the volume is cranked up to distracting levels, and it sounds almost exactly like this:


The only thing that seems to lower the volume a little bit is maintaining a regular sleep routine - 8-9 hours per night, same bed time every night. But of course, the ringing in my ears makes that nearly impossible.

I have this low level ring, also faint not really bothersome. Usually gets "louder" if I drink a bit. Have had it ever since I could remember.
 
Plus a dentist, just to make sure, the ears and jaw make up a symbiotic relationship
I know for a fact I grind my teeth at night...Dentist have told me and I have all the evidence. But I am definitely not wearing a mouth guard while sleeping.

My hearing is fukked anyway...but that's from surfer's ear and working in very loud environments without hearing protection for 9 years of my life.

Sometimes I do hear a whining in my ear, but that's usually from some MyBB members...present company excepted of course.
 
Also check you've not got bruxism

Holy balls, I clench in my sleep so much that my jaw clicks. Could this be the reason for my ringing...
 
I swear I can rip my head off my shoulders just now. It's so bad I wake up with a panic attack.

It's always been there, communicating with space, a broken radio, unknown frequencies. But lately I wake up and the noise is deafening. It's usually if I have infection in my ears, mouth or jaw which aggravates it.

The excessive lower pitched "eeeeeeeeeee" seems to go away after about 30 minutes of banging my head against the wall. But the higher pitched noises stick around 24 hours and louder than usual.

I thought it might be the new earphones I use for noise cancelling, but I don't listen to music and the inverted frequencies shouldn't be loud. Then I remember I haven been struggling with neck pain
this last while, so maybe it is that.

Doesn't help that the night is so silent. Need some white noise.

Ggggggggggggggg... Eeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeee.... Gggggg... Eeeee....

3:00 am....
3:30 am......
And the noise just continues.
tinnitus...neck pain...Sounds like you're going through a serious period of stress atm ?
 
I know for a fact I grind my teeth at night...Dentist have told me and I have all the evidence. But I am definitely not wearing a mouth guard while sleeping.

My hearing is fukked anyway...but that's from surfer's ear and working in very loud environments without hearing protection for 9 years of my life.

Sometimes I do hear a whining in my ear, but that's usually from some MyBB members...present company excepted of course.
I thought the same as you, but the cost of constant repairs to my teeth swayed me to get a mouth guard. If it's made correctly it's actually perfectly fine, the first few nights it maybe uncomfortabe or weird but after a bit it's fine.
Plus you don't wake up with that jaw pain, my neck muscles aren't as tight, the ringing is gone in my ears and even my jaw ache is gone.
Other things you could try is arnica gel along your jaw from the ear down to the chin and under the chin, relax those muscles, but the mouth guard is the best thing so far. I actually need to get mine replaced in the next 6 months or so by the looks of it.
 
I thought the same as you, but the cost of constant repairs to my teeth swayed me to get a mouth guard. If it's made correctly it's actually perfectly fine, the first few nights it maybe uncomfortabe or weird but after a bit it's fine.
Plus you don't wake up with that jaw pain, my neck muscles aren't as tight, the ringing is gone in my ears and even my jaw ache is gone.
Other things you could try is arnica gel along your jaw from the ear down to the chin and under the chin, relax those muscles, but the mouth guard is the best thing so far. I actually need to get mine replaced in the next 6 months or so by the looks of it.
Luckily my teeth are rocks...not one cavity in all my years.

When my jaw and neck gets really bad, I go fro dry needling and it's all sorted again for a few months.
 
Dentist or ENT first?
Dentist if you're clenching your jaw, when you relax do your teeth touch? As I've noticed that after using the mouth guard and that my jaw muscles are more relaxed, the actual teeth position is just barely touching each other, like my jaw naturally hangs a little away from my top now.
 
Luckily my teeth are rocks...not one cavity in all my years.

When my jaw and neck gets really bad, I go fro dry needling and it's all sorted again for a few months.
That was the problem with mine, they were too hard and ended up damaging each other :-(. I now have a false tooth as a wisdom tooth and my front teeth are capped :-(.
 
Dentist if you're clenching your jaw, when you relax do your teeth touch? As I've noticed that after using the mouth guard and that my jaw muscles are more relaxed, the actual teeth position is just barely touching each other, like my jaw naturally hangs a little away from my top now.

When I relax do my teeth touch? If you are asking me to completely go face limp, then no my jaw hangs slightly lower giving me a gap between my upper and lower teeth. But I would say yes if you asking if I am just "relaxing" watching TV or what ever, my default is to have my teeth touching in that I am ever so slightly biting down.
 
When I relax do my teeth touch? If you are asking me to completely go face limp, then no my jaw hangs slightly lower giving me a gap between my upper and lower teeth. But I would say yes if you asking if I am just "relaxing" watching TV or what ever, my default is to have my teeth touching in that I am ever so slightly biting down.
Yeah that's what I mean when you're watching TV or doing something, the default is the first option, not the second one. Who knew ;-) so basically a relaxed jaw has a slight gap between the top and bottom teeth.
Go to a dentist and have them check, you'll probably need a mouth guard.
 
Your ears are ringing...go to an ENT. If he cannot find anything wrong, then dentist.

If you had toothache, you would first go to a dentist, no?
If you know you clench your jaw at night and you wake up saw, go to a dentist, they work that first, if the noise doesn't stop go to an ENT.
 
Strongs!!

My mother in law really battled with this after she had a stroke. We found someone in Fourways that focuses on tinnitus. She was amazing. Im sure the cause is different but maybe she can help. You are in JHB IIRC right?

Here is her site:

Edit: I hope to see a "Viking kissing tinnitus goodbye" thread soon
 
I'm in the same boat my dude.

Years of working with big generators despite wearing PPE has caused me to have severe tinnitus.

For people who dont know what it sounds like, you can try it yourself on this website. Mine is a 7.8kHz sawtooth tone at about the same volume setting as this:

1718865137572.png

It's permanently present and feels like it's coming from "behind" my right year. The sad part is that the sound isn't real, so if your hearing diminishes, the tinnitus will be the ONLY noise you hear - because your brain invents the sound.

I do annual hearing checks for work and there's a clear band interruption...it's not that I can't hear, but that there's this noise that I have to try and hear through. I've also recently gone for an MRI but they couldn't find anything wrong in my ears. So that's fun.

The only thing that helps is masking the sound. https://rainymood.com/ has always been my goto. Especially for studying.
 
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