January 23, 2010, I wake up, my ears are ringing—nothing out of the ordinary for someone to wake up with some temporary tinnitus. Well, I thought my ears were ringing all day, but ignored it. Surely, surely, it was in my head that they were ringing, and I would lie down to a quiet night’s sleep that night, like I had done every night prior for approximately 20 years.
No, not this night, and not a night since.
Well, I took a prescription sleep aid and went to sleep. I wasn’t in any pain and had never had an ear infection. Maybe this was my first. After ten days passed, the constant ringing was driving me to the brink of insanity. I could not look in the mirror and see myself. All I saw was ringing. What was wrong with me? With some regrettable research on the Internet, I learned that constant ringing was caused by hearing loss. I was 22. I had never shot a gun, worked in a factory, or had a job as a DJ. Yes, of course I listen to an ipod, but everyone my age does. That had to be the culprit, but everyone, including my doctors assured me it was NOT. So, what was it? There had to be a cause. I bit into a spring roll after visiting an E.N.T. for the first time. Owwwww. I couldn’t eat it.
Now the ringing was causing me to grind my teeth from all the stress of it—or so I thought!
Days passed, weeks passed, months passed, I saw more doctors in a month than I had seen in my entire life. I could no longer rest and I was in excruciating jaw pain 24/7. I was curled in a loud ball all summer. I cared about nothing I used to. Anything from my “former life” just made me sad. I would never have a moment’s peace again. I cried, I prayed, I begged at doctors’ offices, I did not sleep for multiple and consecutive nights frequently, worsening the situation. One professional says to come off all my medicine, while others prescribe more and more. I had a hearing test where I had perfect/better than average results.
I asked my new E.N.T. while whimpering, “Well, why are my ears ringing then? I can’t do anything. It has taken over my life.” His answer was just that simply being alive could cause ringing in the ears.
Finally, I made it to a neurologist in the fall of 2010, where I was diagnosed with Oromandibular Dystonia, prescribed a benzodiazepine/muscle relaxant for the condition and scheduled BotoxTM injections. Finally, the combination gave me some relief, and in physical therapy, we were able to find some trigger points that made it worse and better.
It was all related to my tight jaw, neck, and shoulder muscles. But there was no way to truly get rid of it. But…I did have hope, hope, because tinnitus related to TMJ is the only treatable kind.
Just some occurrences:
-With the fan, or white noise, while going to sleep, the ringing would escalate.
-Turning my head certain ways would make it spike.
-It totally corresponded with my jaw
-At least twice in restaurants I have temporarily completely lost my hearing.
My surgeon tells me that I have about a 75%ish chance of getting total relief from it post-op and that he has never had a case (out of 4,000) where it has gotten worse. I would love to have the ringing gone forever, but now that it is manageable with the medicine and BotoxTM I feel I would be able to lead a normal life if my jaw were totally well. However, to go through such a major surgery and RECOVERY, I really want to get back to Kimberly.
Right now my left ear chirps and my right one rings or beeps.
Also, to all the oral surgeons out there who say that ringing in the ears is probably caused by something else when a patient is presenting with a jaw problem: you are most likely wrong, (unless it is a 70+ year-old or someone with a known cause). I know from experience. I have been to two of the top TMJ surgeons in the country—ask them if it is rare. Don’t say tinnitus is not your specialty. If you treat TMJ, you also treat tinnitus.
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