Tinnitus

[Mummylicious14]

Been reading all the posts regarding tinnitus as I think I've got it - early in pregnancy and it started when I found out I was expecting. but wanted to know if anyone is in pain? Mine is a throbbing /pulsing pain in my right ear - it's really sore - almost feels like a migraine but in the ear. Waiting to see an ENT specialist but in the meantime how do I cope? It's constant pain and only take paracetamol when I really have to. It's really getting me down

I have tinnitus, but it is never painful.

The throbbing pulsing is right, and it is bloody irritating sometimes but not pain.

The only strategies for tinnitus I know are to ignore it, mask it (with white noise or tv/radio) or try some mindfulness techniques (not the ones where you have to listen)

I hope that helps

I suffere from tinnitus and mine happens when my face/neck/shoulders get tense and tight and it puts pressure on a ?nerve/tendon/ligament?

my chiropractor is always able to sort it out when I visit her. I did visit a cranial osteopath too on a few occasions and she was also able to fix it.

I usually find I can go for anywhere from a month to a couple of months until it comes back again.

My chiropractor costs £30 a session (half hour) and I think it's well worth the money. I suffer from back problems and migraines too and this keeps it all under control. Like a service for your car, but a darn sight cheaper!

It might not work for you, but it's always done so for me, perhaps worth a try. You have my sympathy OP, tinitus is horrible and it drives me mad when it comes back.

Thanks for responses - may not be tinnitus as I'm in a lot pain. Hope to be seeing specialist soon.

Mine does make my ears hurt on occasion, but it's more that the tinnitus is because of the hurting iyswim.

Def recommend seeing a specialist, it's so debilitating and trying to go to sleep is the worst time because you just want quiet.

Have you tried paracetamol and a hot water bottle held against your ear/s? I find the heat really soothing and the slight noise from the water moving in the bottle seems to distract me from the ringing in my ears.

Fingers crossed for you that it gets sorted soon.

As an aside, all the osteopaths/chiropractors that I've seen over the years (moved house a lot) have been able to help ease it. There's a hell of a lot of fine nerves and muscles etc around your ears and side of your face and it really doesn't take much to put something out of kilter. They were all confident about being able to help treat it.

But still worth seeing your ENT specialist before you do anything else in case there's some underlying problem.

Good luck

Thanks CashmereMouse. I'm so worried now - self diagnosis is the worst as been doing more research and could be something more serious. Will be back to post after I see the ENT specialist.

Gah, just wrote you a long post and it bloody disappeared! To summarise:

Keep a diary of when it's worse to see if you can work out what triggers it - dental pain/work, headaches, teeth grinding, first thing in morning, at night, sinus pain, anything head related

• ignore the 'nerve disease' comment on this link, but have a look at the diagram here it shows how lots of the nerves all centre round that area to the side by your ear.

-my tinitus is caused by inflammation around my TMJ (main muscle/joint that you use to open and close your jaw), my chiro explained that when my jaw gets really tense it puts pressure on the aural nerve (I think it's called the Aural nerve) and cause the tinitus.

-so as soon as my face/jaw/head/neck starts to get tight and painful then the tinitus starts. But because I know this now, we tend to be able to sort it out before becomes a problem.

I know this won't necessarily be the same cause/solution for you, but thought it worth mentioning anyway. But would def keep a diary before you go to your ENT specialist and mention any facial related discomfort as seems very often it all linked.

Really hope it gets sorted for you soon

My dh had suffered for a good few years, and a couple of years ago it was so serous I was scared he was going to do something silly. It was bringing in panic attacks which scared us both.
Anyhow, I was contacted on here by a hypnotherapist who not only gave us some good advice, but turned or to live very local to us.

She had been a godsend.
My dh had learned coping strategies and indeed had been to see her today.
He is a different person and do much happier.

Could you search for someone local to to you who could possibly help?
(I'm in Yorkshire)