13 Years Old and Tinnitus

So last Sunday night I went to my favorite bands concert and my first actual concert. I got VIP tickets and was really excited because I was in the 2nd row. I was planning on bringing ear plugs, but forgot and just shrugged it off thinking it was fine because no one else was wearing them. After the concert my ears had that stuffy feeling in them and they were ringing. I was a little concerned at first and decided to look it up on the Internet. I was relieved to see that it should go away in a day or 2 and went to sleep that night thinking it would be gone in the next few days. The stuffiness was gone the next morning, but the ringing was still there.. It's now the 4th day and there's still a constant ringing in my right ear (which happened to be the ear this girl screamed into during the show). I can hear fine out of both ears, it's not extremely loud and I can really only hear it when it's quiet or I cover/close my ear. I've been putting cotton in my ears before I go to school in order to avoid the loud noises there and I'm planning on seeing a doctor if it does not subside by the end of the week. My question is, do you think I have a good chance of this going away on its own considering my age and it only being my first concert and everything? I've been scared out of my mind and I will never go to a concert without earplugs or listen to music very loudly again. Im trying not to stress or panic too much because I'm aware that can make T worse. I used to say that I hated the silence, but now I realize I was so wrong. I just want my hearing to go back to normal. Can someone, anyone please give me some advice or comfort?

 

The best advice is to seek out an ENT if your tinnitus persists beyond 48 hours. This is especially true if the cause is known to be acoustic trauma. In your case that deadline has passed. You may wish to still see an ENT, but the chances of a good result from a course of steroids may be limited. Additionally, you may be at a disadvantage if you are still in your teens; ENTs may be more reluctant in addressing tinnitus with steroids in your case.

The best advice is to see an ENT immediately. Explain the situation. Make the cause of your tinnitus clear. But, whatever happens, you should wear earplugs for the foreseeable future at all times when outside your home and in potentially noisy situations. Avoid loud noise for at least the next month. In fact, avoid loud noise for the rest of your life. Use earplugs.

Your tinnitus (still) has a reasonable chance of improving on its own.

Do not attend another concert.

 

Thank you, I've been wearing ear plugs whenever I'm outside my house and I don't plan on going to any concerts for a long time. I will try to go to a doctor as soon as possible.

 

cotton doesnt reduce sound much. But avoid loud noises from now on. And unless its very loud, wearing earplugs can do more harm than good. They can cause hyperacusis. Have you looked into the hearing pill? It is supposed to help damaged hearing if you take it soon afterwards.

From what i read tinnitus tends to be permanent once it starts like this. But even if its permanent, you can learn to live with it. I couldnt live with it at the start and couldnt sleep etc but I eventually learned to, even without treatment.

 

I would ask your doctor to consider giving you steroids asap
I would also start taking magnesium and nac

 

I've also had a sore throat for the past two days if that has anything to do with it either. Probably doesn't, but I'm just trying to include as much information as possible

 

When I was 17 I didn't use protection (didn't know better) and my ears once rang for three days straight after a gig. Fortunately that went away, and I started using plugs when I was 18 since I found loud noises a bit painful anyway. I still got T anyway eventually, but at least I didn't get it badly back then when I was still in my teens.

 

Hey everyone, I went to the doctor today and she checked my ears. The good news is that my ear drum isn't ruptured and she said it looked perfectly healthy. The ringing has also gone down a little bit. She also told me that the ringing should go away within a week or two. Hopefully all goes well and I will try to update this post if anything changes.

 

Happy to hear you received good news. Did you have a hearing test?

 

It sounds as if you - and your doctor - missed the point entirely. Yes, your eardrum would be intact; it would take a severe acoustic trauma for the eardrum to rupture. So that's not really the question. And not the cause either. Which is also evident by the fact that you have a normal eardrum and ringing, at the same time! So the ringing is due to something else: damage to the inner ear. And that's where there is a window-of-opportunity shortly after onset (with steriods).

Anyway, it is what it is. I hope your doctor (ENT or otherwise) made the right decision.

I hope so too.

 

Melaine, that is terrific news. Hopefully we will not have to see you on this site again ever

 

many people come back with normal hearing tests though and still suffer tinnitus. So it cant be damage in those cases.

and some people have quite severe damage and no tinnitus.

http://www.tinnitus.org/ and read this site. Tinitus caused by damage to the ear is an old idea which the scientists have disproven.

 

When I saw my ENT I received a document from her that described that antioxidants helps reducing the damage to the ears if taken the days after the exposure. If possible also one day before the exposure. It reduces the free radicals that are damaging the ears. I received this info far too late but you can give it a try. It can also be good to know if further noise exposures happen in the future. I got my tinnitus after a (relly loud) concert despite using ear plugs so be careful in the future. Here is the list of the antioxidants from the document (I coudn't find it online):

NAC: 400 mg
Vitamin E: 300 mg
Vitamin C: 500 mg
Magneisum: 500 mg

Also, don't overuse the ear plugs because you might develop hyperacusis. Just avoid loud noises. Normal everyday sounds doesn't damage your ears.

Take care.

 

Hi Melanie, when I was exactly your age I had an empty air rifle fired directly in my ear which did burst my eardrum and give me horrendous T which resolved itself after about a month, gradually abating over the weeks.

I told my ENT specialist about it and would the same thing happen again with my current bout. His theory was that young mammals have a repair system to their cochlea which they lose when they hit puberty. The reason being that when they're young and vulnerable to predators then losing hearing to acoustic trauma would put them at a very severe disadvantage, so the repair system give them an advantage over their less fortunate peers and the genetic trait become dominant in the population. It's just anecdotal but you may have gotten lucky.

As a side note: maybe this repair ability could be triggered by some means in an older subject? Maybe that's how stem cell therapy would work by resetting the cochleas internal age clock?

 

When I was young I had disco tinnitus for maybe a week or 2, it resolved on it's own. It went beeeeeeep.
One day it was quiet. When you go out in a loud club just use ear plugs, no matter what they say!
Don't stand in front of big speakers.
When you use an I-pod or other portable player, don't set the volume not too loud.
Where I live a lot of young people use little speakers for their I-pod, might be a better idea than using in-ears.
You're young so it will settle down and resolve on it's own.

Most people on this forum are old _sses.

 

I agree.

It's probably due to an ingrown toenail instead.

 

@attheedgeofscience :48 hours is the limit just for acoustic trauma or for tinnitus in general? why?

 

Actually ear plugs don't cause hyperacusis - the last report on that hyperacusis conference cleary concluded that the evidence for this is weak.
My mom slept with those large foam plugs for decades and she had perfect hearing and no hyperacusis

Inner ear damage causes hyperacusis