Hey everyone. I've had bilateral tinnitus for about 2+ years now, always around 4kHz, and it was stable just a couple of quiet tones, nothing life-ruining. Two audiograms came back with no hearing loss.
About 1-2 months ago it got significantly worse and changed character. I don't know why. No ear infections, no obvious noise trauma, no ototoxic medications. Maybe some louder noise events but nothing extreme.
Here's what changed and what's new:
Distorted sound, music playing from a good speaker sounds like it's coming out of a broken one. Running water sounds multiplied or just wrong.
Reactive tinnitus, external sounds modulate it.
Jaw clenching (this one I had already during the "stable" times), when I clench hard, the tinnitus spikes into one loud high-pitched tone that drowns out everything else.
Pulling my outer ear produces a high-pitched sound.
Ear pressure, I constantly feel like I need to yawn to relieve it.
Morning pattern, I wake up with pressure built up, yawn once, it pops, and I hear crystal clear with quiet tinnitus. Then over a few hours it comes back to the bad baseline.
The morning pop-and-clear thing feels significant to me. It happens every single day without fail.
I've been reading about Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, TMJ issues, and the tensor tympani / trigeminal nerve pathway. The jaw modulation and the pressure symptoms both point toward something in that region.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Could this be:
ETD - the pressure and morning pop pattern?
TMJ / jaw - the way clenching completely overrides everything?
Nerve irritation - tensor tympani, auriculotemporal nerve, trigeminal?
Or some combination of all three on top of the baseline cochlear tinnitus?
I'm seeing an ENT soon and planning to ask for a tympanogram and OAE test. Just want to hear from people who've been through something like this before I go in. Any experiences or insights appreciated.