Why does facial paresis get better but tinnitus gets worse?

Question

I attended a training course of yours in Cologne and then started to train with the FaceFormer myself and also convinced some patients to start the therapy.

Now I have a question about a patient. Male, 67 years old, tinnitus in the right ear for over 20 years, jaw pain, splint for at night, neck pain, dizziness (positional vertigo and dizziness when walking) and since 2 months facialis paresis on the left with unknown cause. He had 2 strokes a few years ago, but has recovered very well from them.

He has now been training with the FaceFormer for 2 weeks with great motivation. The facialis paresis is clearly improving, neck complaints are reduced. But now the tinnitus in the right ear is getting much louder and is now starting in the left ear as well. Now he is unsure whether to continue exercising. He hopes that it is only temporary and that the ringing in the ears might get better soon. However, he is suffering a lot from the fact that it has now got worse for the time being. Do you have any testimonials from people with tinnitus who have reported similar things? Do you think that the noises will soon become less? Should he persevere? Or should he stop the therapy? The dizziness is also a bit more frequent than it was a few weeks ago, but that doesn’t worry him so much yet, because he has had it more often at times.

Answer

Especially in polypathy, individual symptoms change very often. When one regresses, another suddenly dominates. With FaceFormer therapy, we restore a physiological balance in a central functional space. We set the mechanisms in the way they have to function. In this respect, the patient can basically not experience any disadvantages through the therapy.

Ear noises vary greatly in most cases. Positive influences on the symptoms will not reduce them at the same time. The new, correct function setting also triggers stimuli in the overall system, which leads to irritation of the already long-standing and partially compensated dysfunction. This can sometimes lead to a temporary stronger or altered perception of disturbances.

This time must always be overcome, whereby the training is not interrupted. It is continued consistently until the problems have been largely reduced. The resolution of the tinnitus can take up to one year. However, after possible initial amplification, the stress is increasingly reduced. The patient notices this, but continues to perceive his ear noise until he has forgotten it. According to neuroscientific findings (Heb’s rule – I have explained this), this happens simply because the false stimulus is reduced and the reaction to it is completely forgotten.

So no problem. The patient should continue to do the exercises under your control. You adjust the daily workload to his performance.