Posted: 8/13/2012 3:08:23 PM EDT
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I was at a loud concert three weeks ago. I still have a little bit of tinnitus, but a fair amount of fullness and discomfort/pain in my left ear. The tinnitus was worse early on, but now it's like 1/5th as loud as before. I went to an ENT and they looked at it, and my hearing tested as normal. Did the air pressure thing where they tested the eardrum, and it was fine, too. That's all they tested. They weren't very helpful about what was going on. The doc literally shrugged my shoulders when I asked him how long it would take for the pain to go away. I had some dizziness and anxiety with it early on but it faded after a week. I get just a touch of anxiety when I try to fall asleep and the ringing seems louder. About how long does it take for an ear to heal from loud sound exposure? I know it takes longer to heal when you get older. I'm 44 and in good health, just a bit of hypertension (controlled with HCTZ diuretic). Am I looking at weeks, months, for the pain to go away? |
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Quoted: What concert? Coldplay in Montreal. Not my idea, really. Travelling with my boss, the company we were visiting got us tickets (floor level) as a surprise. I'd feel like a dick for turning it down. I was expecting hearing protection at the venue, but none of the concession stands I found had any (but they did have liquor). I stuffed napkins in my ears, but it wasn't enough. |
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A few days ago I realized the pain was gone in my ear when I woke up and it hasn't returned. So, it took me about a month to recover. I also went to the Tinnitus Clinic at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro today and had a complete evaluation. Took over three hours. As it turns out one of the best tinnitus clinics in the country is in my back yard. My tinnitus is about 4000 Hz and about 40 dB if you want to put it in a tone generator and hear what I hear all the time. My hearing is not damaged from the concert, btw. It's normal, though my left ear is a little weaker than my right. Actually, my 10-12,000 Hz hearing is excellent, so I've still got very good hearing, considering my age. I'm going to be pursuing either the Tinnitus Retraining Therapy with sound maskers, or going full out with the Neuromonics program. I'll take a few days to decide as the two approaches are different, feel different, and have very different costs. Looking at the clinical data for the Neuromonics program I'm impressed with the results. It should take 6-12 months for me to complete the program if I go that route. At UNCG they have over 90% of their participants on it get significantly better, even to the point of the tinnitus being clinical insignificant. If I go with TRT, which is what William Shatner used to treat his crippling tinnitus, it'll take about 2 years. I'll keep the forum updated as to what I do as I figure others on this forum have the same or similar problems. It will require me seeing a therapist for the anxiety part, so that will be an added cost, but if that puts this to bed, I'm all for it. Wish me luck. |
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Quoted: Quoted: My tinnitus is about 4000 Hz and about 40 dB if you want to put it in a tone generator and hear what I hear all the time. Mines 70 dB-ish, constant. And, at the same frequency. Ouch, 70 dB is about conversation level. You hear it even when talking? At least mine is drowned out by normal conversation and room noise. It's only a problem for me when things get a bit quiet. And honestly, it's not the sound so much as the panic attacks that it causes (thank God for Xanax). |
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My tinnitus is about 4000 Hz and about 40 dB if you want to put it in a tone generator and hear what I hear all the time. Mines 70 dB-ish, constant. And, at the same frequency. Ouch, 70 dB is about conversation level. You hear it even when talking? At least mine is drowned out by normal conversation and room noise. It's only a problem for me when things get a bit quiet. And honestly, it's not the sound so much as the panic attacks that it causes (thank God for Xanax). Yes. To sleep, I have the radio on. When I wear my hearing aids, the operation of the them 'hides' it a bit. |
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This is just an update on things. I've been using the Neuromonics device for a couple of weeks and my anxiety has gone down some. The tinnitus is still there, of course, but for example, when I woke up this morning and it was the first thing I heard I didn't feel anxious and sick to my stomach. That wasn't true a month ago. The tinnitus actually seems a little louder, but I hear that's a normal and temporary effect from the sound therapy. Keep in mind I'm still on very low dose xanax, so that has to be figured into it (been on it for six weeks). I take half of a 0.25 mg dose 2-3 times a day. My general practitioner tried to switch me over to zoloft, but that was a disaster - I developed extreme nervousness, rapid heartbeat, racing thoughts, and trembling hands, like I had drunk 50 cups of coffee. Apparently my serotonin levels don't need to be messed with. I also just started seeing a psychologist that has experience with treating tinnitus-anxiety with cognitive behavior therapy. Things look favorable there, too. At this stage my tinnitus is more of a symptom of my general anxiety than anything else. When I feel real relaxed and my mind is clear, like when I wake up from a nap sometimes, my tinnitus isn't there. But as soon as I think to myself, "hey, my tinnitus is gone" it comes right back. He thinks we can work on that. Regarding my original posting, I have no issues with my hearing or ear pain. The two audiologists I've seen have found my hearing to be normal, even above normal at the highest frequencies. |
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Yes, I know all about wearing hearing protection. It was a last minute thing, the tickets to the concert were a business gift and it would have been bad form to turn them down (the company we were visiting probably paid big big bucks for the tickets and they sprung them on us at the last minute as a surprise gift). I was out of town and didn't think to bring any ear protection with me, it's not something I normally pack. When we got the the venue, the Bell Center in Montreal, there was no hearing protection available there. None of the concession stands had any, there were none for free at the door, either. I wound up stuffing paper napkins in my ears, which have a noise reduction level of probably 3. In retrospect I should have just waited outside in the parking lot. |
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I did want to update my own thread just a bit. The pain in my ear, the original complaint, is long gone. I do have occasional problems with a crackling sound in my left ear and with fullness. From looking online it looks like an eustachian tube problem. I went to an ENT a few years ago for my turbinate bone resection and he pointed out that my adenoids (which I had removed 30 years prior) had grown back. Or, more likely, they weren't completely removed in the first place. I still have my tonsils, too. And enlarged adenoids could cause eustachian tube problems. I guess now that I have health insurance I might as well go back and see what the ENT has to say. Might be fixable. |
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This makes me wonder about mine...
Between gunfire, industrial machinery, motorcycles, sirens, and SEVERE ear infections, I have a solid ringing in my ears at the ripe-old-age of 26. I do have some sort of hearing loss (numbers fail me at this moment) in both ears, but most of the ringing is in my left ear. |
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There is a lot of interest in treating tinnitus these days as so many people have it, the potential financial reward for something effective is high. I stay abreast on what's going on and there is reason to hope that something can be done about all this in the next few years. There are lots of different approaches as there seem to be quite a few things that cause tinnitus and the impact on each individual is variable. The more recent findings in the field of neurology are very intriguing. If any of you with tinnitus want to try out something relatively new and low cost, look into notched white noise or notched music therapy. I've been hearing good things about it, and it's something you can do on your own computer with something like Audacity. Or, there is an app for your iDevice that can do it. I'm sure there's an Android version, too. The thinking is that you can inhibit the neuron that is generating your tone by exciting the neighboring neurons, causing the interneurons to jump in and tell your tinnitus-neuron to chill out. It's still up in the air if it has long term benefit, though. |