Audiogram and Other Hearing Test Results

I know DPOAE, Audiogram above 8khz, and speech I noise, but even that is not enough to really determine hearing loss.

 

You know the human brain is centered around the speech range right? Our tonotopic brain maps normally shrink because of the assumed loss of high frequency hearing.

 

Hey Guys, can someone have a look at my audiograms? I recently saw on Twitter the hearWHO app an gave it a go. Since I had mixed results I wanted to show you my audiogram done last year (and my Mimi hearing test and hearWHO speech-in-noise test from the other day). I am kind of scared a bit, do I need to be overly worried? I am 29 years old.

@GregCA @kelpiemsp sorry for tagging you guys


First audiogram (June 2018 during a very bad cold and 4 few weeks after whiplash from car accident, two days after my tinnitus started). I had another one done a bit later that month which was a bit better so I did not think about it anymore. Also my audiologist brushed it off as nothing serious.

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Mimi hearing test results

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HearWHO app (speech-in-noise)
I did the test 5 times, 3 times were ok and 2 times not ok.

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So what's your opinion? I listened to a lot of music in my younger years, clubs, a few concerts. Also I had a lot of ear infections as a kid and a middle ear infection with antibiotics two years ago. The last 8 years I spent on a pretty quiet office job with not much noise and no clubs. I honestly do not know if it got worse recently or if I am just paying a lot more attention. I notice some trouble with speech-in-noise. But if someone would ask me if I have trouble hearing I would probably answer not really.

Of course since getting tinnitus I stopped all loud activities and wear earplugs a lot, so at least I hope that I can at least stop further hearing loss.

 

My opinion is that you have some hearing loss

That could explain the air-bone gap that is circled - it's not unusual to have conductive losses when we have a cold (the middle ear can be a little "muddy").

Repeated bone conduction tests should confirm whether this was temporary or more permanent.

That probably didn't help your hearing, but your loss pattern doesn't quite match that of "loud music abuse", which looks more like the spectral density curve of music, reversed (logical, eh?).

Note that your audiograms with the Mimi app show most of your data points as "unreliable". I don't know how they qualify those, but at least I'd take the results with a big grain of salt.

That's a good thing to do no matter what.
Good luck!

 

Thanks Greg. As far as I understand, taking the results of the Mimi app, I am on the border of "mild" hearing loss? It is not yet too bad, right? I will probably get another professional one done in the near future.

 

Yes it's not too bad. I'd happily swap my hearing with yours, but I don't think you'd want that.

 

Your Mimi results are unreliable (look at the data indications on the screen). Unless they are entirely solid, which they are not, you can't take much from it. Also, hearing loss needs to be in reference to something, as far as tinnitus is concerned. If you were born at say 10 dB hearing loss, then that is normal hearing and all losses are in reference to that. Anyways... you certainly look prime to benefit from bimodal stimulation

 

@GregCA Thank you for your opinion. I will look after my hearing .

@kelpiemsp I understand, I have no idea why it shows as unreliable. I will get a professional audiogram done again. Regarding bimodal stimulation that is awesome news, looking forward to it

 

@kelpiemsp What makes one prime to benefit from bimodal stimulation? Is it known hearing loss resulting in tinnitus?

 

Younger in age and minimal hearing loss!

 

I’m ready then. I’m not getting any younger with this waiting.

 

@GregCA and @kelpiemsp.. what candidate criteria qualifies for good Bimodal stimulation success? Also do you know if the worse the hearing loss the worse the tinnitus is? Thanks

 

Kinda afraid to post this due to what I'll find out, but here goes.

This is six months old. Anything jumping out at anyone? I'm 42 years old. I'm eager to get a newer test, but just haven't done it yet. This test was ten days in and I was an absolute mess. I look forward to one in calmer conditions. Thanks in advance.

 

It's a common realization, but it's not always true: there are people with great audiograms that still have T. The problem with hearing loss is that it's much harder to let environment sounds come in to mix with your T, so it tends to stand out more.

When I did my ear surgery, I had packing in my ear for about a week, and it was hell because all I could hear was my T. Now that I think about it, I should probably have looked into bone conduction headphones, although I'm unsure it would have been ok'd by my surgeon.

I also notice my T more when I am not wearing my hearing aids.

 

Have you been exposed to loud music/sounds throughout your life?

 

I don’t think any more than any other average person. I’ve never had any prolonged exposure to any workplace noise. I’ve worked as a nurse in the operating room for 17 years. It can be loud, but not to the point of sustained damage. I worked on a grass seed farm during college. It could be loud, but I always had ample protection. That was almost 20 years ago. No prolonged loud headphone use. I’ve been to less than a concert a year for the last 15 years. Almost always with protection. Loud restaurants and bars from time to time. I’ve gone to 6 or six college football games a year in a small stadium with maybe 25,000 people in it. A couple of kids that used to be real screamers. I’ve always considered my life a pretty quiet one.

Is there something in my audiogram that says otherwise? I’ve always been aware of protecting my hearing. If I cause this through my ignorance the. This is going to be hard to cope with. The audiologist and ENT I saw didn’t give this thing a second look.

I have a long history with anxiety/bruxism and TMJ issues. I’ve started treating that in the last three months, but any tinnitus improvement has been minimal. It may not be related at all. I feel like a moron for developing this.

 

It does look a bit like sound/noise induced hearing loss, although generally the music/sound losses are reflected with a notch around 4 kHz, so it's not a perfect match. Just curious.

 

Tinnitus started in September of last year due to noise exposure or a cold resulting in a perforated ear drum.

The result of which was a low hum in my left ear.

In December saw my first ENT who performed a Webber test and tested my hearing.

He concluding remarks were that thethe hear was fine and the tinnitus should fade (see uploaded file).

In February decided to try Sarcosine for tinnitus after reading an article in American tinnitus association.

After discontinuing the drug in March my tinnitus has changed from ear hum tinnitus to hissing head tinnitus.

Today I went to an audiologist the results showed an asymmetric hearing loss.

The Webber test also showed the right ear to have hearing loss.

The other results came back perfect OAE, and speech discrimination, tymp.

Furthermore, I had my hearing tested to 20k with mild hearing loss and I have also developed pulsatile tinnitus.

My question is it possible that my tinnitus is now the result of the sarcosine?

If so does it show auditory nerve damage?

 

Hey this is my audiogram from a couple months ago. Just needed a breakdown if anyone can assist me! Thanks.

 

What breakdown do you need? Your hearing looks very decent.
Do you feel any issues?

Have you done any "speech in noise" tests during the hearing test?

 

Was just wondering how it is for a 22 year old. I know it’s not covering the higher frequencies but yeah.

 

Finally received a copy of my hearing test results from the Audiology clinic. The Audiologist mentioned noticing a strange loss of mid-tones and due to this, proceeded to test levels they wouldn't usually include in a test. I was also tested with bone conduction headphones.



She also didn't go into much detail about what may cause this mid-range loss. I did ask about noise trauma but she wasn't overly convinced that was the culprit.

Has anyone had similar results and could shed some light on what this may be?

Apologies if this is a very opened ended question - I'm not particularly clued up with hearing, audiograms and their results.

 

I'm no expert on these things, but Ive been told by an audiologist that dips in the mid range are common amongst people suffering gunshot noise exposure. Have you been subject to that or something similar?

 

Yes I have, I did mention that during the consultation but I'm glad to get another opinion. Thanks mate!

 

I saw the ENT yesterday and the only good thing that came out from my visit there was my hearing test. I felt it was difficult to hear the audio tones because of all the noise from my tinnitus. But as you can see, I have pretty good hearing after all.

And I KNOW about hidden hearing loss already, believe me...

But I tested from an app that I’ve got, and at a quite low sound level I can hear frequencies up to about 16.5 kHz (I hear even higher if I turn up the volume). So what is happening? I just want to get well. I also started to see a therapist, who can help me with my anxiety and fear. I need to get on with my life, and at least habituate. I’m literally having a ringing bell in my left ear, and this annoying whistling sound. I hear it day and night! I don’t know if it lowered. Also my ear hurt a bit, but as I said, the ENT didn’t do much. He just killed my hope, just like many of the ENTs do for the rest of you.



Take care of you all out there.

M

 

Mymlan, what was your original outcome of the first hearing test?

I'm very happy for you as that's a great result.

I have noise induced hearing loss as well - a 35 dB dip at 6 kHz, but part of my fear with this is the ear fullness, which seems to come and go, and seems to make my tinnitus worse when it's feeling particularly inflamed.

It is my hope that if my hearing loss improves over time, the ear fullness will be gone. That's just one aspect to this whole thing isn't it.

I think to have such good hearing after 2 months is really really positive news for your prognosis.

 

@Rb86 Thank you!

I just had an appointment with the ENT, and they tested my hearing to begin with just to try and find out what is wrong. But as the test came out normal there’s not much they can do, he told me.

Yea, my left ear feels full, and kind of ”pushed” in.

I really hope that your hearing will improve over time! What sound caused your T?

 

Hammering sheet metal and a nail gun

 

@Rb86 Ouch!

 

From my own experience, I can say that modern equipment shows unrealistically good audiometry results compared to the old Soviet ones. I had the test on both the Swiss device and the old Soviet one. The ancient Soviet device found a hearing loss of 10 dB, and the Swiss one did not find anything at all (straight line). I mean that you, too, may have a 10 (15) dB hearing loss, but this is not critical either in terms of error and speed of response to a button press.

Nobody answered on this forum:
- how to diagnose latent (hidden) hearing loss?
- why noise occurs when the nerve synapse is damaged (what about hair cells when they're ok)?
- is regeneration of the nerve synapse possible?
- how mice are examined for tinnitus?
- in which of the organs there is noise in the cerebral cortex (brain) or in the ear?

This is a terrible story, this is a hell in reality.

Hope we will find help.