Multiple tinnitus

[EnzoMonty]

Hello,In December 2021 T started in one ear and it is reactive. Since then I have got a number of different tinnitus types in both ears. I have ringing and hissing, intermittent clicking and fluttering. I wonder if anyone else is experiencing various forms of tinnitus.

[happyrosie1]

we all experience T in different ways. My sounds are not necessarily the sounds you get. Mine vary but they are portly the same, with the occasional extra bits thrown in.

If you are. It familiar with the website of Tinnitus UK you might find help there.

[Steve1978]

Hello EnzoMonty

Clicking and fluttering could be heard or felt in the ear due to movement of one of the middle ear muscles, the stapedius or tensor tympani or both.

It could be worth looking online at Middle Ear Myoclonus or Tensor Tympani Syndrome and see if the symptoms of these conditions are something you are experiencing.

Sometime the dysfunction of Eustachian Tube can cause the tensor tympani muscle to move which results in a sound or feeling in the ear. The tensor tympani muscle has some involvement in the opening and closing of the Eustachian Tube.

The tensor tympani muscle is also joined to the Trigeminal Nerve. If there is something not quite right with the Trigeminal Nerve, which would often but not always result in pain or discomfort in perhaps in the face/jaw/neck/upper back areas, the tensor tympani can become more activated.

Clicking could be movement one of the muscles. Fluttering could be more rapid movement of one of the muscles. Hissing could be more of a tinnitus sound but in some cases is considered a sound caused by very rapid movement of one of the muscles. Ringing is more likely to be tinnitus.

I think it is worth doing some online research to see if you can match your symptoms to any of these - Middle Ear Myoclonus, Tensor Tympani Syndrome or Eustachian Tube Dysfunction.

Steve

[EnzoMonty in reply to Steve1978]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply Steve. I will look into this further. I am curious as to whether other people have the same experience of multiple issues in their ears. I seem to have collected a number of different noises and such over the years. The hissing and ringing all react to sound e.g television, car, heating system etc which makes it more complex to manage. The fluttering only occurs when other people speak either in person or on TV. It's not all the time but when it happens it is extremely annoying

[Steve1978]

These ear conditions are just such a challenge and not well understood.

Another two areas to look at are Reactionary Tinnitus and Dysacusis. I think Reactionary Tinnitus is where the tinnitus sound reacts to another sound with its own sound while Dysacusis is a form of hearing distortion where the hearing system can't seem to interpret the sounds of particular frequency or frequencies.

The fluttering when other people speak might be due to contrast. As I mentioned in the previous post, the middle ear muscle or muscles can flutter or click. Why would they do that to people's voices? That could be due to the contrast in voices i.e. people's voices fluctuate with different levels and different pitches.

The role of the two middle ear muscles are to protect us from very loud sounds, thunder, jets, sirens etc. If something happens to the muscles they can start to over protect and move/react to sounds they shouldn't be. If for example you are having a conversation and a person raises their voice that could result in the muscle(s) contracting to protect the hearing system when they shouldn't. They perceive a threat by that sudden increase in sound.

After researching a good ENT would be the place to go.

Hope that helps in someway.

[EnzoMonty in reply to Steve1978]

Thanks very much for your reply Steve. I will look into going to ENT

[perlcoder]

Hello,

I think that multiple forms are probably quite common. I have suffered from T for the better part of 25 years. It is primarily in my left ear and primarily a hiss, but the sound, its location in my head, and loudness vary greatly, from day to day, sometimes hour to hour. I very rarely have the somatic clicking and fluttering, but they are so far away from my usual T that I don't count them as part of it.

In my case I am sure that there is kind of evil natural selection going on. The brain invents a sound, the limbic system (and whatever other systems are involved), takes it up and I hear it. if I think "Oh that's not so very bad - if I must have T at all, I can live with that." That sound will tend to disappear to be replaced with something worse. The more tired and stressed I am, the more the worse sounds dominate.

Best wishes.