Introducing Myself...

Hi all

I've been lurking here for about a month but just joined.

A background:

-Not really had hearing problems before (age 25)
- Occasionally suffered from a few seconds of tinnitus (i think this is somewhat normal?)
-Almost exactly a month ago, I was doing some transcription for work and it was a bad audio recording so (stupidly) I turned the volume up. Quite a lot of spikes in the noise. Didn't ever feel the need to pull the headphone away. Lasted about 1.5 hours.
-The next evening I got tinnitus (high pitched but not particularly loud)
-The day after I got a headache, jawpain, earache and a sensation of fullness in both ears, also everything sounded quieter and muffled
-This lasted about a week and went away except for the muffled hearing and tinnitus
-About a week after this the hearing has returned to normal (or very close) but still got the T
-Went to my dr who said it was a virus infection and it would go away (slightly suspicious about this)
-One day i had this crackling in my ear when I opened my jaw

I've been back to my GP who has been v unhelpful.

Any ideas on whats going on here?

Thanks for your support.

 

Based on what you describe and the flow of events, it seems as if you might have had an acoustic trauma. The muffled hearing and fullness in the ears is a sign of a temporary threshold shift. Which has since returned to normal levels - but with remaining tinnitus.

I am guessing here, of course, but could it be that you have been exposing yourself to the same kind of noise in the past? I agree that the exposure you had was relatively brief, but if you have had exposure in the past, then it all starts to add up...

During the acute stage (= 0-48 hours) you can seek out an ENT for a possible short course of steroids (which may help in certain circumstances).

You require a diagnosis. Start with a hearing test (preferably including > 8 kHz frequencies). See an ENT and describe in detail your history immediately prior to developing tinnitus and consider attempting to enrol in one of the on-going clinical trials (eg. AM101, AUT00063, perhaps OTO311 later on...).

That's what I would do...

There are physiological processes that take place inside the ear after noise exposure which account for the feeling of fullness and muffled hearing. Both GPs and ENTs would easily mistake the symptoms you describe for being an infection (of the inner ear). Of course, they could also be right.

 

Thanks for your reply. Very helpful.

Thing is I don't listen to music or go to clubs or work in loud environments. I think I might just be genetically prone to it (in the same way that some soldiers get tinnitus whilst others dont despite being exposed to the same noises).

Can I test my hearing with one of those online frequency tests? I've tested this and it goes up to 15 khz.

 

You need a real hearing test. Online tests have no value.

But even a proper hearing test cannot diagnose tinnitus directly; it can only provide an indication. Hearing tests are there to diagnose hearing loss, not tinnitus.

 

Thanks.

What do you think the relationship is between tinnitus and hearing loss is?

I know that Roland Schaette believes even people with 'normal' hearing and tinnitus actually have hidden hearing (can't yet post a link but you can google his name).

 

This is a complex issue. And no one can - yet - account for what tinnitus truly "is". It involves more than just otology and audiology (potentially at least).

Those who have studied audiology in relation to tinnitus will know that tinnitus has the potential to develop already at a hearing loss of 10db or more. As long as your hearing threshold is within 25db for 0-8 kHz, most audiologists will conclude that you have normal hearing. The thing is: if you have perfect hearing all across the frequencies and then suddenly a drop to 20db loss at - say - 4 kHz, then that loss is significant. "Dips" on an audiogram is never a good thing - something most audiologists would conveniently dismiss (as they are concerned with hearing loss in general ie. are you below or above the hearing loss "line" of 25db, for adults...).

There is a lot of information on audiology throughout my posts on this forum. Have a look.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/inner-ear-hair-cell-regeneration-—-maybe-we-can-know-more.3131/page-11#post-48135