Osteopathic management for Somatic Tinnitus

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

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:

Reducing Tinnitus via Inhibitory Influence of the Sensorimotor System on Auditory Cortical Activity (2025)

The Association Between Temporomandibular Disorders and Tinnitus: Evidence and Therapeutic Perspectives from a Systematic Review (2025)

The Current State of Tinnitus Diagnosis and Treatment: a Multidisciplinary Expert Perspective (2024)

Suffering from chronic tinnitus, chronic neck pain, or both: Does it impact the presence of signs and symptoms of central sensitization? (2023)

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.