Tinnitus and TMJ
Where Your Smile Begins
Calgary, Alberta
TMJ (also called TMD) is a misaligned jaw joint. It is a “bad bite”, where your upper and lower teeth do not meet correctly and is properly called Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (abbreviated as TMJ or TMD). There can be many painful or uncomfortable symptoms of TMJ and one of them is tinnitus.
What is Tinnitus?
Tinnitus is the name for ringing in the ears. Although no external cause of the sound is present, you hear a ringing sound. Tinnitus is to some extent an unexplained phenomenon. It can be caused by an ear infection, by a foreign object in the ear, by excessive ear wax, ear injury from a loud noise, or by a hearing impairment. Some medications can also cause it. In some cases there is no identifiable cause.
The sound may be ringing, or it may be more like roaring, whistling, or humming. It may sound like ticking or clicking. The sounds may stop and start or be continuous, and may change their volume. When you get a tune “on the brain”, that is a form of tinnitus. The tune or song plays unceasingly and can become annoying or distressing.
When tinnitus is severe, it can interfere with daily activities and with sleep. Most often, tinnitus is subjective and therefore cannot be successfully tested or quantified. In some cases, however, there is objective tinnitus, where a physiological connection is found. An example is a sound that pulsates in time with the heartbeat. Sometimes a muscle spasm causes clicking or crackling sounds.
Tinnitus and the Jaw Joints
The jaw joints are located very close to the ears, as you can confirm by putting a fingertip inside each ear and moving your lower jaw. You can read more about the jaw joints at: What is the Temporomandibular Joint?
About half of TMD patients have tinnitus as one of their symptoms. TMD creates chronic stress in the jaw muscles and muscle spasms can contribute to tinnitus. It can also happen the other way around: jaw muscle tension eventually pulls the jaw joints out of alignment. Either way, blood flow becomes restricted, metabolic waste products build up in the area, and stiffness and pain set in.
Dr. Cload will listen to your list of symptoms and manually palpate the jaw muscles, testing your range of jaw motion. He will examine your jaw joints, bite, and general dental status and will be able to determine whether your tinnitus is caused by TMD or by something else. If it is caused by TMD, he will include it as a focus in your treatment plan.
For more on TMD, please see TMJ/TMD Questions. At Southcentre Dental Clinic, we offer a full range of services for TMD, with a customized treatment to relieve your pain and correct any dental defects that are contributing to the problem.
If you would like to schedule a personal consultation with Dr. Cload, please call or email our Calgary, Alberta neuromuscular dental office today.
