Facial/temporal and ear spasms, tinnitus, vertigo, pain. Please help

Have you had a hearing test?

@megtalleywright -

Need to address your over lifestyle and how you manage stress. Sleep, Exercise, Movement, Nutrition and what you do for fun/joy.

A vice like grip and muscular twitching is tension type/stress headaches. Typically starts in the neck from tight tense muscles works its way up to the ear face and head. All by starting from ongoing tension/stress cycles.

You have now most likely increased this to health anxiety by thinking something is “really wrong” and having tests done.

Your PCP won’t tell you to address lifestyle unless they are really in tuned to what a patient presents with stress.

If only people could get more in touch with their mind/body, would their be less unnecessary tests, doctor visits, and band aid medications.

Stay away from ENT.

@seeking info and @megtalleywright I respectfully but strongly disagree with the idea that stress is causing symptoms. Stress does not cause tinnitus. Though stress can make it worse and working on acceptance can help the brain accommodate to it to some degree.

These symptoms can be more than one thing that are interrelated. My tinnitus is on one side, as is my trigeminal and occipital neuralgia. The pain can extend down the left side. My neuro doesn't treat my symptoms as strange but some other docs do! I hope you can find a neuro who is reassuring.

With tinnitus there can be an initial triggering event. It is thought to originate in the brain in response to hearing loss or some damage to an auditory nerve, according to the forum Tinnitus Talk, which covers tinnitus as well as hyperacusis (noise sensitivity). One ENT told me that his tinnitus gets worse with certain positions of his neck. The neck, brain, facial nerves and auditory nerves are all connected and it can be hard to pinpoint the exact source. The website Hyperacusis Forum is also helpful.

A PT can be very helpful with massage and vertigo diagnosis. An audiologist is most likely to be helpful with the tinnitus. A neurologist can discuss the pain symptoms. If hearing loss or tinnitus is bilateral, an acoustic neuroma (benign) needs to be considered.

The hardest thing with tinnitus and some of the other symptoms is, because there are no good answers, the patient tends to hear about stress. Handling stress helps with all health issues and can certainly worsen symptoms, but it is unlikely (in my view not possible) that stress is causing your issues.

I have pinched nerves in my neck and I have been suffering for years, finally my pain doctor figured this out. Going for nerve blocks this week. I have eye, ear, neck, shoulder pain and I take gabapentin and bacolofen for fibromyalgia.
Hoping and praying this helps, doctor's won't give me anything for my pain! Unbelievable, I'm 64 and when I really need some help can't get it due to people selling and abusing pain meds
I can't do anything. 😔

@cindi5464 I had a never block (lidocaine) and it didn't help. Are you having surgery?

@megtalleywright I got notice today of a study on hyperacusis but cannot find it. There was also a study with a free therapy program for tinnitus (see below). These are great resources. If you have pain, the hyperacusis is "noxacusis."
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/
https://hyperacusis.net/message-board/
https://www.chat-hyperacusis.net/post/trt-worldwide-list-of-clinicians-retraining-therapy-3334680?pid=1286663205
peter@therapistwithtinnitus.com free therapy

You really need a specialist!! I see a specialist at John Hopkins in Baltimore and it's a 3 hour drive one way. I'd go another 3 hours too if needed. He's a neurologist and vertigo specialist. DR. David Hale. I have many issues myself. Strokes and Connective Tissue Disease and PPA

I went to Mass. Eye and Ear otoneurology as well as an MD listed for tinnitus- and they were no help. ENT's are no help. The Hyperacusis Forum has a list of audiologists and clinics that treat tinnitus and hyperacusis. Some on the list are ENT's and many are audiologists. I have made an appointment myself. Tinnitus Talk is also helpful.

And a neuro can order an MRI to check for acoustic neuroma. I also cannot do MRI's right now but some w/tinnitus say they do okay.

I'd stillness a specialist on vertigo neurologist as they work with the other things too. The ear could be separate as I had my heari g and tinnitus checked out at an ENT dr. Too. Some comes with age though.

@windyshores

My hope for people is to someday understand truly what “stress” on the body is.

Until then people will seek out all kinds of solutions for a nervous system that has been revved up by poor self care.

With exception of those who experience a catastrophic event, be it car accident, falling off a ladder etc…None of this happens overnight. It is a cumulative effect of how one cares for their body.

Examples-
•High heels for decades- now spine/feet pan.
•Sitting for long periods in a fixed position- neck/spine pain.
•Staring at screens for long hours - eye pain, head/neck pain.
• How one reacts to stressful situations- high blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension.

Etc…etc…

Doctors can’t fix years of poor body mechanics, poor food, sleep and attitude with a pill.

Good luck to your health and healing

megalleywright, could you have TMJ? It can cause all the symptoms you mention.