njben

Hello,

I have had T now for a little over 3 months. I hope with all of your more experience then me if you have experienced or heard of this so I am not wasting money on a splint that won't help my main complaint.

I am 31 years old and when it began, it was 2 weeks after a wisdom tooth extraction. At first, it felt as though my ears were a little closed and there was a mild clear effusion in my middle ear (per physician). I was treated for an infection and those symptoms have cleared but the T remained.

Over the next month, I noticed that my T seemed to be affected by chewing and also (oddly enough) worsened by eating frozen foods such as ice cream. I did go to an ENT who diagnosed me with a mild high level hearing loss, but for as long as I can remember I had a hard time making out of people were saying in large groups and such things like that and for as long as I could remember there has always been sort of a background buzz when I am in silence but that buzz became imperceptable unless I listened for it to purposely notice it. This buzz is separete from my T in that the buzz sometimes cancels out my current T when I am in silence. I also noticed a couple of times - loud painful cracks in my jaw when yawning. My jaw also deviates to the left side when opening my mouth all the way.

Anyway, I noticed that my T was worsened by chewing and I can affect the pitch and volume of my T by manipulating my jaw. (particularly the right ear). The T is generally worse in my left ear (though the hearing test showed the same loss in both ears) but my right ear is more directly affected by jaw movement. Also, when my left ear is at its worst when I feel dull pain and tightness in my face. I also do have clicking in both sides of my jaw. MRI showed a mild displacement on the left side - but that is the side with less clicking more more muscle spasms - go figure!

Before I invest in a splint for TMJ, I want to know if all of you, in your experience, think my T may be affected by my TMJ. The sound of my T is basically a high hissy metallic kind of sound and fluctuates pretty much every day in terms of how loud it is, and even the pitch changes. For example, while my left side if usually worse - this day my left side is silent while my right side is mild. Yesterday, my left side was mild-moderate and my right side was mild-moderate. Tomorrow, my left side may be loud and right silent.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Ben