Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Otorhinolaryngol. Nov 29, 2024; 11(3): 33-40
Published online Nov 29, 2024. doi: 10.5319/wjo.v11.i3.33
Recovery of hearing loss in atypical Meniere’s disease after treatment with orofacial and neck massage: A case report
Kathleen Pillsbury, Beth Helm, Jeffery J Kuhn
Kathleen Pillsbury, Epidemiologist and Medical Writer, Self-employed, Ferrum, VA 24088, United States
Beth Helm, Bon Secours InMotion Physical Therapy, Virginia Beach, VA 23453, United States
Jeffery J Kuhn, Department of Neurotology, Advent Health, Celebration, FL 34747, United States
Author contributions: Pillsbury K drafted the manuscript; Helm B and Kuhn JJ provided analysis and interpretation of clinical content and clinical advisement; all authors critically revised multiple drafts and approved the final version for submission.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from the patient for use of her data, and for the publication of this case report and accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Kathleen Pillsbury, MS, Research Scientist, Epidemiologist and Medical Writer, Self-employed, PO Box 327, Ferrum, VA 24088, United States. kathleenmedwriter@gmail.com
Received: June 7, 2024
Revised: July 30, 2024
Accepted: October 30, 2024
Published online: November 29, 2024
Processing time: 173 Days and 16.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: A patient who experienced right-sided symptoms of Meniere’s disease (MD) with comorbid right sided temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) and mid-face/retro-orbital headaches experienced no relief from traditional MD treatments. The patient sought out physical therapy for TMJD, which included soft tissue mobilization of right facial structures and temporal fossa, intraoral massage, and massage of right neck structures. The patient recovered from the right-sided hearing loss and associated MD symptoms and had decreased headaches after 1 month. Physical and massage therapy for the cochlear symptoms associated with MD may be an important adjunctive treatment, though confirmatory studies are needed.