Acute Tinnitus Onset from Loud Music / Movies — Confused What to Do Next

Following listening to some loud music and movies last Monday, I developed a ringing in my right ear. It started as some very minor discomfort sort of underneath my ear on the outside if that makes any sense, then progressed to a high-pitched EEEEEE. There’s also some muffled feeling in that ear which comes and goes. It’s kind of manageable compared to what I’ve read about already, but it’s making me super anxious at this point, where it wasn’t a day or so after onset, which may possibly be making it worse.

I have this forum to thank already for all the info I’ve gleaned. Such as, I may have a fighting chance in this acute stage still?

I visited an otolaryngology clinic last Friday and basically was shuffled through a rundown of what I already knew by the doctor, then given an audiogram. Audiogram was within normal range but had a curious drop to 20 dB at 4 kHz.




I’m already getting long-winded so I’m just looking for best advice on what to do at this point? HBO? Prednisone (doc wouldn’t give me that but I think I have some from an unrelated issue that I never took it for because the side effects seemed scary). Magnesium? NAC? I’m almost all for trying HBO at the moment I just fear it could make something worse? I don’t know, I’m just anxious, scared, and didn’t plan on becoming an ear doctor/ scientist at this very moment. I feel like my life just got turned upside down. Any help is truly appreciated.

PS: Is the attached pic of the medication the same people use in acute stage to try to get in front of this thing?

 

Some decent natural things to try: Curcumin, NAC, Magnesium (spread throughout the day), Nicotinamide Riboside (expensive, but maybe one bottle), green tea polyphenols (or even just EGCG), CoQ10.

I would also avoid headphones and earbuds. Protect your ears around loud noises (on top of avoiding them).

Since you are within a week, steroids could help, though less likely than after 1-2 days. As someone on the internet, I'm not going to suggest that you play doctor with steroids, but I would find a way to take them responsibly. Maybe contact the original doctor or take them for the reason they were originally prescribed for. If you wait too long, they will be worthless.

From reading your situation and reading many other stories over the years, I think you have a good chance of seeing improvement.

 

Thanks much for the super fast response. I already have Turmeric (Curcumin) on hand and have been taking it since yesterday, twice daily. I’m going to run to my local vitamin shoppe for some of the other things you recommended. I’m super paranoid about taking the steroid but maybe I should just do it at this point. I think the chances of bad side effects of it are slim to the chance it maybe helping beat this tinnitus back? I’ve generally responded fine to any medication I’ve ever been prescribed, granted I’ve never taken a steroid.

Any opinion if I should give HBOT a shot? And/ or laser light? I just want to do as much as I can as early as possible without subjecting myself to unnecessary risk.

 

I have no experience with this.

I'm going to repeat my advice about doing it responsibly, since I don't want to be liable for dangerous advice, without knowing your medical background. There are so many other things to consider as well such as COVID-19 exposure, etc. I don't wish to override your doctor, just point out that you may want to find a way to responsibly take them.

I can say that if you are worried about a few rough days with steroids in exchange for the possible benefits, the key is expectations. When I first took steroids years ago, I was caught off guard by the side effects (particularly psychiatric). When I took them later, I knew what to expect so it wasn't as bad. Eat way less salt, drink a lot of water, and manage stress. Mood swings are completely normal and not anything to react to. It's just a small pack so much less concern than prolonged use.

 

Don't worry, if it doesn't go away within a month, there is a reasonable chance it will fade within the next 2-3 years.

Yes, I had taken Prednisone, Magnesium, and NAC and I am happy with my decision to do so. You can read about my experiences with HBOT at the link below.

You will want to make sure that you don't hurt your ears during this period of vulnerability as your body is healing. You will want to avoid taking ototoxic drugs, avoid microsuction or syringing (performed when you need to clean wax out of your ears; a manual tool should be used), and not let your dental hygienist use an ultrasonic scaling tool on you (a manual tool should be used). For more details, see:

What Advice Would You Give to Someone Else Who Has Tinnitus?

 

Also I’m protecting at the moment using AirPod pros and their noise cancellation feature. I disable Bluetooth so that no calls texts etc come thru. A couple times I have put tinnitus tones on at very low volume. I hope this is ok?

 

If you do HBOT within the first 5 days it might help. If you do a short steroid course it likely will within a few days.

Anything else, get vasodilator supplements or meds. Betahistine for example. Do not keep doing steroids and HBOT if it isn't helping. Do not use any aspirin blood thinners like I did for this purpose... at least right now.

If you can't hear it outside or can mask it... DO NOT MESS WITH IT. Stick to Betahistine. The risk of it getting worse on that is very low. You CAN GET MUCH WORSE by impulsively "doing something".

HBOT and steroids especially will "initially" make it better with it getting much worse than before... and I can say that it doesn't really dissipate. It is gambling. If you actually went deaf suddenly would be a good risk to benefit from them.

Also, look into getting otoacoustic testing done. That will tell you your hair cell state. If they're already gone then do nothing.

 

Thanks a ton for this Bill. Very useful advice. Right now I have my AirPod Pros in, active noise cancellation activated which I feel does a nice job of filtering out noise—especially the high pitched clangety stuff like dishes—listening to tinnitus stuff off Amazon music, basically nature white noise at a low volume. I hope this isn’t hurting anything. I feel it’s helping to remove the T obsession and putting my mind elsewhere which allows me to climb out of my basket and be functional.

 

Another one with a drop at 4 kHz.

I have the same, many people do. It seems a lot of vibration stops/gets centered at the 4 kHz point (even if the sound is not at 4 kHz initially).

My specialist: While -20 dB is not considered as loss, there is a clear dip as opposed to your other values, which may be responsible for your tinnitus. But there is definitely not a 1:1 connection between that damage and your tinnitus. (In other words: not all people that have this dip will get tinnitus.)

 

How do you know if you hair cells are already gone?

 

This is hella insightful. I don’t feel as lost now...

So yes, when I’m out and about walking or driving, the noise is practically not there. I have to look kind of hard for it to faintly notice. In a quiet room it’s pronounced enough to put me in an anxious, bad mood; it’s not run-my-head-into-a-wall bad.

With that said, I’m still able to sleep well. Well enough that frequent naps and early bedtimes have been the rule these last few days; depression-fueled for sure. I think it’s not a bad thing as it’s quiet convalescence, or at least I hope.

Ok, so I think I’ll forgo HBOT and laser, as what you said makes sense. Leave well enough alone pretty much. I’ll continue the Curcumin and look into Betahistine. How about NAC? A lot of reading is saying good things about its use in the acute stage.

Will ask about an otoacoustic test. I was referred to an ABR (AEP) appointment next month. Doc was saying if I fail that I buy an MRI, I guess to rule out nefarious stuff like a tumor. Maybe they’re being thorough, or maybe wanting to wring my insurance out. I don’t know.

 

I also have a -20 dB dip at 8000 Hz. All my other values are at 10 dB. Did your doctor offer an insight into recovery, etc.?

Thank you,
Twa

 

Very interesting how a 15 dB drop doesn’t warrant prednisone and is “perfect hearing” but at 20 dB some ENTs give them out. Wish these specialists would get on the same page. Since you got Prednisone fairly quickly I hope it gets better for you!

 

A couple questions, please.

1. Is the whole diet relation to tinnitus intensity benign? Is your tinnitus a baseline and is tuned down or up depending on diet, or does diet help and hurt the baseline?

2. Is listening to soothing ambient sounds in the AirPods Pros ok or should I just plug the canal up and allow nothing in?

Hiya. Not sure if you were addressing me but the steroid I have is from a year ago for an unrelated thing. Given what @Matchbox said though, I’m super hesitant to use it.

 

Oh I’m sorry! I didn’t read carefully enough and see that it was for another issue, thanks for clarifying! I took Prednisone about a year after my tinnitus started (my purpose was a second acoustic incident but I got the prednisone for “congestion) and it didn’t hurt me at all. Just made it a bit more difficult to fall asleep while I was taking it.

 

If you search this site, you will see many people reporting getting worse after using headphones. Another group suspects they got tinnitus (or a major tinnitus spike) after using noise-cancelling headphones. It isn't clear why this might be happening, but data (even biased data?) trumps theory. I own Bose noise cancelling headphones. I wear them in airplanes and on a highway in a car. I make sure to wear foam earplugs underneath, and thus far I haven't had any problems.

You don't want to be in complete silence. You just want to stay away from all of the noises that feel too loud to you. So I wouldn't wear noise cancelling headphones or plugs unless I expected to be around noise.

If this refers to nature sounds than that's great. But some people try to find a video with a tone that matches their tinnitus, or do hearing tests online. Many of those people end up getting tinnitus spikes.

 

This is the first time I heard of someone having that reaction. The most common outcome is that there is no change in both the long and the short runs (although if one gets better, for all one knows it could have been due to having (or not having) HBOT). In my case, my tinnitus got a little louder right after HBOT. That's the reason I stopped after only a couple of sessions, which was something that I later regretted doing.

 

I completely agree with your stance. And no, I’m fine with a few days of bad effects, my apprehension comes from a fear of making things worse, or permanent side effects. I seem to recall the doc saying no to prescribing a new steroid because I wasn’t ailing from a virus. Something to that effect. I forgot to hit record on my phone and these doctor meetings are always a blur.

I obviously have no experience with this, am lost, and our medical system plainly sucks when it comes to this horrid condition. I just wish to make the most sense of this and I’ve obviously come to the best place to to do. I thank you all for your input and patience this far.

 

From the anecdotal evidence on this forum, I feel like HBOT is too risky. It seems like it has made many people worse, but that's just my perception.

 

This is huge if there's no distortion and you can sleep through the ring or static.

In my experience steroids can help but you really need to be careful and taper super slow and do only one course. The thing is... steroids for me always made tones go away just to come back.

The same was for HBOT. I once heard them literally dissolve to nothing but it traded the tones for sound distortion. Then the tones came back anyways.

So I'd pick steroids as the lesser evil and only gamble once with a stupidly slow taper off.

If a doctor says a short course with cold turkey off is fine... they are full of shit. Do that and I guarantee you will spike... get weird ass hums... and other jump off a bridge inducing sounds which may not go away with time. From my experience with them.

Betahistine or vasodilators are SAFE and I still noticed they helped. It's a win win with them.

Steroids should be taken if you wake up deaf.

 

Oh shit... I did steroids twice. Both times with no taper. Got new tones each time, though I don't know if it was the steroids or just fate.

 

It was the steroids.

I went through the same bullshit. Except I did it 3 times and it took that long to realize wtf was happening.

And of course my doctor washed his hands of me saying he's not at fault as now I'm worse off. Fired me for doctor shopping for second opinions. Real charmer.

 

Call me crazy but I think my tinnitus got worse after the steroids treatment as well. It could have been that the damage from my Acoustic Trauma just hasn't set in yet but it definitely got worse after taking it. The steroids made me very unstable with my emotions and I had a lot of other side effects.

Also if reading that correctly, your doctor fired you for getting second opinions? What a piece of work that doctor is.

 

I had the suspicion. I was kind of bad and did it to myself the 2nd time though... My doctor didn't want to give me more, but I had enough lying around from some asthma episodes in the past to go ahead and do it myself... but I was in a bad place at the time so I would have tried anything.

 

Yep the high dose of steroids makes me super emotional and anxious while I'm on them.

 

Hi Twa,

I have been to:
1 specialist in Portugal
1 specialist in University Hospital in Antwerp, Belgium
1 specialist in University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium
2 specialists in (world renown) Brai3n center
-----------------
They ALL said that the dip is not really something to worry about. It's still well within the range of normal hearing, but it MAY be the thing that kickstarted your tinnitus since it is clearly "some damage". They said they would not attribute my tinnitus 100% to that dip. It's usually a combination of things.

As for treatment I'm currently undergoing Neurofeedback at Brai3n and I'm on the waiting list for electroshocks at hospital in Antwerp.

Because I won't yet create a new thread in the "SUCCESS STORIES" category I'm mentioning this wherever I can: Deanxit has been a miracle drug for me. It was prescribed to me by one of the doctors at Brai3n center and it stems from research done by doctors at University Hospital in Antwerp.

Last couple of days I had days where I was able to tell my girlfriend: "I'm starting to have days where I'm back to where I was before this thing started" which is HUGE. I have been through hell and back.

I'm currently also still on the banana "overdose" regime as I feel like that has calmed down my hyperacusis somewhat and my tinnitus even more. It might be a coincidence... I still don't believe 8 bananas per day could help so much.

 

Just curious, did you/could you get an Extended High-Frequency Audiogram done? This one measures your hearing from 8 kHz -> 16 kHz.

 

Sounds like you’re on a good path.

I think tinnitus is waking me up throughout the night. Or from what I’m reading, the anxiety of it is. I have little problem going to sleep, but once I have a slight normal awakening, the tinnitus keeps me up for awhile, until I’m able to doze back off, only to repeat the process every hour or so.

Out of bed this morning, the ear feels muffled along with the ringing. I feel like the muffling goes away for the most part once I get on with the day.

I just can’t stop thinking that maybe I should try HBOT. They say they start slow, or lower doses of oxygen the first few sessions. Or maybe just start taking the steroid. But I might just be overreacting and it’s not as bad as I think it is. And in that case @Matchbox advice about leaving well enough alone makes sense.

I ultimately don’t want to squander precious time in these critical moments and live with this bastard tinnitus and regret. Of course I don’t want to make things worse either. @Bill Bauer linked a study about a majority of soldiers having their tinnitus diminished or eradicated after HBOT following acoustic trauma.

 

I can request this, sure.

 

Just got off the phone with the office. I asked if they could recommend and prescribe this. Awaiting a response.