Unfortunately, specialists look at their area of expertise and discipline and that’s all. Not all, but most. Not to mention human nature drives people to try to solve a problem with what they know. I have a lot of doctors on what you can call my “team” but very few of them are willing to collaborate with others from a different discipline. It’s too bad, but it’s true.
I had the procedure done about a week ago. It's really cool. It's also kinda expensive but painless (so far anyway). I'll report back later and let you know the results.
@TR3B I get email notifications with your messages, but for some reason they seem to sporadically appear here. You posted: "I had the procedure done about a week ago. It's really cool. It's also kinda expensive but painless (so far anyway) and it works. Totally fixed my bite and my grinding/clenching issue. There's no more constant tension in my face muscles, I don't grind my teeth anymore. I'm also sure it's no coincidence that the very first tooth they adjusted was the tooth I had crowned 2 weeks before my first Meniere's attack. On day 2 after the DTR my tinnitus dropped to nearly zero for the first time since 2017. I freaked out for a minute because it's been a long, long time since I was able to sit in silence. The tinnitus was still there ever so slightly but I had to strain to hear it. That lasted for about an hour, then the tinnitus slowly returned but its now a 1 to 2 rather than a 3 to 5. It's still fluctuating but they tell me it takes a while to heal. The doctor also said I might end up on a rollercoaster of MD symptoms while my face sorts itself out. We'll see how it turns out long term but right now I'm feeling pretty stoked about it. If nothing else I'm learning a bunch of new things about all the ways your jaw bone is connected directly to your ear. Fingers crossed!" Can you share more about what DTR is? I'm at exactly 4 weeks of treating my TMJD and I can tell you that my symptoms are all over the place. Some days my hearing is really poor and other days it's great, and knowing that Meniere's symptoms fluctuate, it's never been like this over the past two years that I've had symptoms.
One other thing to mention is that I've had almost zero feeling of ear fullness since I started TMJD treatments. It's only a month, but that's notable.
This new thread sums up DTR pretty succinctly. Study on dentistry fix for Meniere's They adjust your bite so that your teeth contact is even and your jaw works correctly. My jaw was completely out of whack. The bone in my joint (which should have been centered) was resting on the back of my socket /ear canal on my Meniere's side. This was because a couple of crowns were sitting too high in the rear and throwing my bite off for years wearing down the disc that provides correct separation. I was kinda shocked how a few simple adjustment made this much immediate difference in my bite. I'm excited to see what the long term effects are.
Well that didn't work. Seemed like it was at the beginning - there was definitely some improvement in my MD but IDK if it was the DTR or just a coincidence. Since the second treatment it's been all downhill. My symptoms are even worse now than when I started, my face hurts, my neck hurts and my head constantly feels like it's full of water (my teeth feel great though). The last couple months I was having heavy hearing fluctuation in my working ear but it would eventually come back....until now. I'm definitely getting ready to lose my good ear as sounds have started tearing when using small electronics (phones, laptop speakers, headphones at low volume). This is exactly what happened to my Meniere's ear right before it went. Won't lie, I'm already gutted and the worst hasn't even happened yet. Can't find an ENT worth a damn in Ohio so going to the doctor again probably isn't going to help. Hindsight I don't know how to feel about the DTR. Definitely took care of the TMJ and associated pain so it wasn't a total loss. As for my hearing/tinnitus thus far it was worthless and I suspect may have thrown gasoline on the fire. In DTR's defense it seems like everything I do to help my MD just makes things worse so it may just be my worthless meat suit that's the problem and not DTR. There is "one more thing" the DTR team recommends which is crowning all my teeth to reset my jaw in a relaxed position but unfortunately that costs $65,000 to do and it may not even help me. If I had only taken the money I gave to SS and bought NVIDIA with it those teeth could have been free! TL;DR DTR was a bust for improving my MD. C'mon Sound Pharmaceuticals, I need some hope!
LOL - You and me both! However, even if we had all that NVIDIA money, I don't think we could spend our way out of this disease. We already tried that.
Well good! I hope it helps you. My good ear hearing is as good as it ever has been since I got Menieres. From time to time, I go through spells of dizzy episodes, I don't know why, but so far they haven't affected my hearing. I find it pretty easy to avoid carbs and I have a keto breath meter that confirms I'm "in keto". Feel free to PM me if you want to talk about it some more.
Disorders of the jaw are linked to tight neck muscles and cervical spine misalignment-- they seem to work together and have to be addressed together-- see this article-- Meniere’s Disease and the Cervical Spine
I opted to continue with the DTR by choosing the 'one more thing' option. Haven't committed to crowning all my teeth yet but I do have an appliance in that's supposed to get me acclimated to what my correct bite should be like. It's been a real rollercoaster of symptoms. They say it'll get worse before it gets better. Fingers crossed the 'better' part happens soon. :thumbs: Good or bad - there is DEFINITELY a correlation between MD and your jaw. While I have yet to improve my situation, every time we poke the bear via my teeth/bite I get a huge, undeniable response from my ears. Win lose or draw I feel like I'm finally looking in the right direction for answers.
The jaw, neck and ears are connected. Every time I get a cervical spine adjustment, I feel an immediate change in pressure in my ears. The jaw imbalance may have started with a neck imbalance and both should be looked at together.
I concur. I've been seeing an upper cervical guy for years. My C1 and C2 were way out of whack at the beginning of all this.
So were mine, but the answer for keeping them in alignment so you don't have to go to the chiropractor is doing twice-daily stretches of the tight neck muscles (a PT can show you how). There may also be a back/hip misalignment starting the whole problem farther down the body. And forward head posture is another chronic causes of dizziness.
It's official; I went all in and 18 months and $70K later I can say that this particular experiment has failed. I'm eating steroids like Pez to try and salvage what's left of the hearing in my good ear. I've had 3 massive drop outs in the last 2 weeks and my hearing is fluctuating between 'sorta gone but sounds funny' to 95% deafness and roaring tinnitus emanating from both ears and the center of my skull. My teeth look friggin amazing though and my TMJ is totally gone so it's not all downside. I only did all this in an attempt to not go deaf. Oh well, back to the drawing board.... C'mon Neuralink!
Damn, so sorry you don't have better news to report. Did you stick to the keto diet? Things are pretty stable for me, occasional "offness" and louder tinnitus but only for a day or less and my good ear is still functioning okay. I eat what I think is pretty healthy except maybe too much saturated fat but I am willing to take that chance if it saves my hearing. Very low carbs, MCT oil, Omega-3 supplements, pecans for snacks. When it seemed that I was becoming completely deaf, I did some research on smart glasses that can put the text right on your lenses. I think that they may be my next step if things go south. You can experiment with the XRAI Glass app on an iPhone.
I pretty much stick to keto all the time with an occasional detour. My biggest triggers seem to be either the barometer, how much I clench my jaw because of stress and I absolutely 100% cannot sleep on my left side or I will wake up deaf. I had a long period of semi-stability after the final dental appliance went in but after they took that out and put in my permanent teeth it's been a rollcoaster.
April update; The teeth/tmj experiment was definitely a complete and total failure. Where the heck is Susan Shore or SPI? I'm running out of options....