Tinitis (Constant audible high pitched tone)

[truckracer]

Just to begin, i have always had trouble with my ears. I have had severe allergies my whole life and had multiple middle ear infections before my teen years.
My hearing is quite good and i can even hear those mosquito ringtones.

My upper limit hearing is around 17.5 khz. I tested this with a tone generator.

I am 37 so according to statistics most people my age can't hear that high.
I also have some tempomandibular joint dysfunction from dental work around 12 years ago. I grind my teeth in my sleep sometimes.

Here the past few weeks when everything is pretty quiet i can hear a tone that seems audible at a frequency of approx. 16 khz.
It sounds like the coil in a crt monitor-thise things have always aggravated me, thank God for lcd tv's.

I know this sound is originating neurologically in some manner in my auditory system and the sound is not really received by my ears. I have read that a lot of people have tinitis with tmj. Do any of you have this?

 

[truckracer]

My eustacian tubes don't work quite right either making my ears feel stuffy needing to pop.
This sound occasionally goes away but comes back in both ears.

 

[Van]

I've had tinnitus all of my life and though my hearing is excellent like yours I have had a constant high multi pitch tone in my head 24/7/365. It's a pain when there is no other background or foreground noise present so when I sleep I have to have a fan running or a cd playing. Ear plugs make things worse so I use Panasonic marshmellow headphones with my ipod in situations where I have to wear earplugs and then turn on the ipod to cancel out the tones though this may be a problem as we have a co manager who doesn't want headphones on his watch so I will have to go see a doctor to get a note.

There are supposed to be various treatments and what works for one will not necessarily work for another. Treatments range from diet to meditation to surgery to prescription to white noise generators ect ect. Your already aware of potential causes which is good so now you need to focus on finding treatments that work for you to help you manage it so that it doesn't drive you insane which it has done to some people. Explore the non medical options for the short term while you talk with your doctor about any potential surgery to correct your tubes or any underlying causes.

There is some misconception about tinnitus and it has been linked to The Hum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia indirectly and directly a few times. Take it with a grain of salt because the sound heard is different from what we are hearing.

 

[navychop]

I also have tinnitus. I think I picked it up on the submarine. Anyway, sometimes it's not a bother, sometimes, like now, it's loud and piercing. I don't think there's anything to fix it.

 

[truckracer]

i have read that actually 98% of most people in a very quiet room can hear some auditory background noises. There is a lot of theories and nobody seems to know anything but speculation. at least mine is not nerve racking 99% of the time and it is easily covered by any noise. just sleeping with the tv on does the trick.

My mom is a nurse and she thinks it's the tmj. a lot of people with tmj problems have what they call "somatic tinitis". you can have tmj without jaw pain btw. some doctors believe that most everybody that has tinitis if it't not clearly from an ear or nerve issue is from some form of jaw joint misalignment or arthritic activity.

I know if i push on my forehead it will get louder while resisting with my neck.
but if i push side to side on my head it makes no difference. Oh well....it's hell getting older LOL.