Somatic tinnitus can be thought of as tinnitus whereby neck and/or jaw movements can alter the loudness or pitch of the one’s tinnitus.

Somatic tinnitus is caused by dysfunction in the body’s sensory inputs- in particular the proprioceptive (where you are in space) and mechanoreceptive (pressure, touch or vibration) inputs.

How can somatic tinnitus be treated?

Once a patient has been medically cleared, literature has demonstrated positive outcomes associated with manual therapy treatment of somatic tinnitus.

Manual therapy works by changing the proprioceptive or mechanoreceptive inputs linked to increased muscle tension or restricted movement in the neck or jaw region.

Specific manual therapy techniques are used to decrease muscle tension, increase mobility and increase stability within the neck and jaw region.

The choice of these specific techniques will largely depend on the dysfunction that is found in an individual patient. Therefore, somatic tinnitus management should be tailored to the specific patient’s needs.

Please see the ‘part 2’ video above for DIY exercises.

For more information, please see our article ‘Can Osteopathy (manual therapy) fix my tinnitus?"‘ 

For recent academic literature on this topic please see the following Four articles:

Effects of Cervico-Mandibular Manual Therapy in Patients with Temporomandibular Pain Disorders and Associated Somatic Tinnitus: A Randomized Clinical Trial. (2019)

Tinnitus in patients with temporo-mandibular joint disorder: Proposal for a new treatment protocol. (2015)

A multidisciplinary European guideline for tinnitus: diagnostics, assessment, and treatment. (2019)

Somatic tinnitus. (2017)

We know that the best approach to somatic tinnitus is an individualised one from a trained healthcare professional. You can simply book an Osteopathy appointment with us today using the link below.