Ear Hissing, Ringing Just Started

Hello everyone,

In recent months many things happen in my life so it makes for me harder to figure out why i do have a ringing in my ears. In the April i attended the audio show where you go from room to room and listen to different speakers.

After the show I did not have any problems. Not even ringing effect after the show.

Later, on May the 8th I went to dentist and I had my tooth prepared for the crown. It turned out to be a disaster and I had so much pain that few days after I had the root canal done on the tooth. (it is the top tooth in the back on my left side very close to the sinuses)

The root canal was another disaster, I had so much much pain after it that it took almost 1 month to decrease but the sensation of foreign object and trauma in the gums never completely went away. The dentist checked my tooth and said that all was done perfecty and I should not worry about it and that some people are sensitive and it might take longer for the gums to completely heal.

On June 12th I went to my dentist again to triple check everything and i was told everything was good. While all this was happening I was in the process of doing a research for my new audio amplifier. I went to best buy two times (5/22 and 5/27) and listened to different equipment and speakers.

Most of the time the levels were between 80-100db and my session there lasted about 1.5H each with breaks and discussions between songs. What i remember that before going for the second session (5/27), my dad came to my house and before we left I told him that I just started to hear ringing in my ears. 5 minutes later it went away.

Also, during the same time frame I tested my self with the tone generator for my hearing frequency range. I was able to hear up to 18400Hz. On 6/10 I received my new equipment. The sound it was pro ducting was not appealing to my ear. The hi tones were too bright and annoying. I did not like it. For me it felt like it was hurting my ears although I was not loud when I was listening to it. (75-80DB SPL)

Next day i listened to it with my dad and we both agreed that the sound was not appealing and hi tones were too strong and not easy on the ears even at low volumes. It had lot of a sensation of squeezing car brakes. I did not listen to it much as I decided to return it.

On Friday the 13th I turned it on for the last time and listened to it for like 10-15min before packing it. Once finished, I turned the equipment off and while nothing was playing I looked at left speaker while I was collecting my thoughts and then the ringing got activated. I went for a walk thinking it was nothing. Unfortunately it never went away. I woke up with ringing and since that day I could not fall in sleep for 6 days.

I have been reading a lot trying to figure out what happened. All was leading to tinnitus. On 06/17 I went to see MD to check for any possible ear infection. I was told all was good. I was prescribed simple decongestant and Fluticasone Priponate nasal spray for possible Eustachian tube dysfunction. I did not noticed to much of the improvement.

In last few days i did few experiments. I did a lot of neck massaging as it always feels stiff due to my computer related job. I also tried to use my inversion table. What I noticed that after massaging my neck and using the inversion table I was able to turn the noise off in my right ear for one night. Not sure how all this relates.

I am trying to give as much details as I can so please forgive me if I wrote too much.

Today, I tested myself with simpe equalizer (fade low frequencies) to see if I still can hear ok. Seems like my hearing is as good as it was before. Sometimes I feel like i can even hear more. My ears are very sensitive now to high frequency sounds like sound of the car brakes, etc., but the ringing continues. Sometimes it feels like it is associated with clogged ears feeling. Sometimes the tone pitch changes to higher, but most of the time it is a very high frequency tone. similar to the one you get after being exposed to high volume sound but lighter.


To fight it I do listen to water sounds while trying fall into sleep.


Sometimes i get feeling that it goes away and once i realize that its not there it comes back right away.
But i cannot control it and when it goes away it just 1 second or so and happened to me only 1 or 2 times in the morning after waking up while i was reading some article on the phone.


Few questions:
- did i develop tinnitus
- can this go away after few weeks or months
- can this be related to my tooth problem i had before
- can this be related to my neck stiffness
- should i go to ENT or its better to wait some time before i go
- if i do hear still good can i still have tinnitus
- could there be a relation between root canal and sinuses and ringing

I am afraid that going to another doctor will just put me in never-ending loop with no solution.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

It might not have been any of the above. Tinnitus starts in people who have had nothing happen to their ears. Instead of worrying about what you did wrong, which was nothing, you can look for ways to manage it. T is very unpredictable and no one knows the cost of it. People go to concerts all there life, blast their ear with music and never get tinnitus. People have a mouth of rotten and bad dental work and still never get it. So i suggest you stop focusing on how you get it, and rule out anything that can be wrong with you ear. Such as infection. Go to an Ent and once you rule out all possible things that can be wrong with your ear, learn some ways to tolerate tinnitus. I wish you luck. You will be fine

 

Not sure if i want to take any steroids just like that?

 

Yep, next step is the ENT, and then I will try to forget about it but that is not that easy!!!

 

It's based on the fact that prednisone is the only well-known treatment for sudden hearing damage and loss.

Mass Eye and Ear is a leading clinic for hearing research. They do lots of stem cell and genetic therapy research there. For now, it's the only treatment, and it must be applied within days of the hearing loss.

http://www.masseyeandear.org/for-pa...tion/diseases-and-conditions/sudden-deafness/

Medical Treatment
Standard treatment for SSNHL is a tapering course of oral corticosteroids (prednisone or methylprednisolone). Since research performed at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1980 for demonstrated the effectiveness of this treatment, it has been widely used. Treatment of SSNHL consists of a short burst of oral prednisone or methylprednisolone, followed by a taper over several days. Duration of therapy varies from site to site around the United States, but a typical treatment would be prednisone 60 mg/day for 14 days, followed by a five-day taper (50 mg, 40 mg, 30 mg, 20, mg, 10 mg). This oral treatment regimen was designed to strike a balance between giving enough prednisone to achieve benefit but without producing an unacceptably high level of side effects. In the last 15 years there has been increasing interest in giving the steroid treatment by direct injection through the ear drum. The hope was that the injection treatment would achieve higher drug concentration in the ear while minimizing steroid exposure to rest of the body. A recent large multicenter clinical trial showed conclusively that oral and intratympanic injection treatments are equally effective. Patients should discuss with their treating Otolaryngologist the pros and cons of using each (or both) of these treatments.

I'd recommend doing this ASAP. We're not joking when we say you have days worth of time to act.

 

I will visit the ENT and see what they say. Could i have hearing lost without being able to notice? When i test myself I hear extremely well. At this point I don't have any hearing loss. I hear well but, i get lots of ringing. I feel like its all related to my tooth problems i had in the past. Sometimes ringing would go away on the side right side, but not the left one were the crown and root canal was done. I still feel little numb around the area of the tooth, but it all changes with weather. I just don't want to stress out that i have hearing loss and would prefer it this is less serious issue.

 

Humans at birth can hear up to 20-22 KHz. Currently, I can only hear up to 14 KHz in my left ear and 15 KHz in my right ear. That means I have hearing loss.

Despite this, I can hear everything I used to just as well as before, with minor exceptions in some situations. It's very possible to have hearing loss and not even notice it. You can use this site to play a single frequency and see how high you can hear: http://generalfuzz.net/acrn/

 

I posted in my initial post that i can hear up to 18400 before the issue started and after.

 

It may or may not be much help then. I'd consult a medical professional to get their opinion at the very least and see if they have an opinion on the matter.

 

So do you think that i should go to ENT right away or maybe give it 1 more week and stop stressing?

 

I am waiting for my ENT visit. I have a question. Sometimes when I wake up for like first 2-4 seconds I dont hear any ringing and then in starts and I slowly get the feel of being clogged and later I feel like i am talking through my ears. Is this typical to tinnitus sufferers or this seems like something else and not related?

 

Tinnitus can be triggered by many reasons. If you already know how your T can be helped by a certain way (such as massaging or relaxing your neck muscle as you posted), then focus on that approach. Perhaps doing stretching & relaxing meditation will help. Stress is definitely a contributor to tinnitus spiking. So stay away from worrying too much to stress yourself over T. Sometimes, the less we bother about T, the better it can become. In the success story section, there is a poster with his story of getting better by doing nothing, which means he just stops worrying about what T will or will not do. Perhaps read it up to see if you can get some insights. Besides doing nothing for T, I add the ingredient of living life enjoyably and abundantly regardless of T. The more the brain gets excited about things other than T, the less it cares about T and the less stress in life.

 

thx, this helps a lot. I am learning how to relax and ignore it. I will just go and see the ENT to make sure there is nothing wrong. If they confirm that I got T I will learn to live with it and appreciate life more.

 

I went to see ENT today. They run tests on me and told me i was ok. Doctor said that many times after the root canal this happens. He wants to me to fix the root canal problem and comeback in 6 weeks.

 

I had my root canal redone. I still don't know if it relates to ringing. It turned out that there was an infection and old root canal was done improperly. I hope once all heals, maybe ringing goes away.