Background and objectives: Trigger points are knots in muscles that are surrounded by a stiff tissue and tinnitus, a symptom defined as the perception of sound in the absence of sound around the patient. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between trigger points and tinnitus.
Material and Methods: The 60 volunteers(30 male and 30 femal) participated in the study with age range of 18 to 55 years old, continuous or intermittent tinnitus and complaints of pain (in the head, neck or shoulder girdle) during the last 3 months and, the presence of at least one active trigger point in these muscles. The severity of tinnitus was recorded by the numerical rating scale(NRS). The pain trigger points were measured by an elgometer, and the limitation of neck movement was measured by a goniometer and the relationship between them and tinnitus was determined.
Results: The rate of involvement of trigger points in the neck region was 41.7%, head 31.7% and shoulder girdle 26.7%. The rate of tinnitus in the left ear was 53.3% and in the right ear was 46.7%. The average score of tinnitus among patients is equal to 5.38 with a standard deviation of 1.99. There was no significant relationship between trigger points and tinnitus according to variables (p>0.05).
Conclusion: The findings showed that there is no correlation between trigger points and tinnitus according to the variables of age groups, gender, co-morbidity, level of education, side of the ear and time of tinnitus.