Bad Spike Not Subsiding After Loud Bar — Despite Wearing Properly Inserted Earplugs

Hi all,

I am currently going though a bad spike and I'm starting to worry a bit about it. I went to a loud bar for a friends birthday 10 days ago, and both ears have since been experiencing largely increased tinnitus that has not subsided in 10 days. Usually my spikes last no more than one week if I have been wearing earplugs. Plus, I have been to many louder places before with earplugs that have not affected me like this. I was there no more than two hours, I made sure to not stand next to speakers, plus I regularly went to toilet breaks or stood outside with the smokers – all seemingly to no avail.

It was loud – 95 dB average on my iPhone, with 85dB lows and 100db peaks every now and then. There was no real bass, and the speakers were very mid range-y – typical of a loud/crap bar. I wore fully/properly inserted and sealed silicone earplugs the entire time (22 dB NRR minimum). I know I was getting the full NRR stated protection, since I frequently made sure they were tightly sealed.

So, how on earth is my tinnitus worse in both ears if the maximum sound level (with plugs in) I was exposed to was 78 dB, with an average of 73 dB? I just do not understand.

This spike feels different from the others…and I am very worried that it is permanent. I really, really hope that is not the case.

To make things worse, I didn't even want to go. But as it was a friends birthday I succumbed, since I always seem to 'let down' friends these days by not going to their events due to my tinnitus. People can take it personally if you frequently cancel on them, but at the end of the day they do not have to live with this, and they are most likely not thinking of me now…

Any thoughts, please let me know.

Thank you all, as always,
R

 

Rust, did it go down again?

 

Sorry about your spike. As we all know, damage to the ear is cumulative. If you continually go to places with loud sound levels, even with plugs, you will continue to damage your ear if the sound is loud enough. Also 22 dB NRR is not a true 22 dB reduction. It's more probably more in the neighborhood of half that.

https://www.noisemeters.com/apps/occ/prot-nrr.asp

From my own experiences, my spikes have always gone back to base. For my really bad spikes, it took a little over 2 weeks for things to settle down. I imagine yours will too eventually. Going forward, I would avoid bars, concerts, clubs, etc. even with protection.

 

Hard to say if it fully went down, since I have experienced other spikes since then. I do know that after 2-3 weeks or so I stared to get along with life more so and not worrying about it. Though, I am now going though the worst spike I have ever had due to being stuck 3m away from an ambulance siren for 20 seconds on a bus with open windows! I had my fingers in my ears hard the whole time, but that didn't seem to work. It's been going strong almost a week, and I'm not even sure if it is a spike anymore - it feels so bad that it could even be permanent.

 

@Rust, it's been more than a month, what's the situation with your spike? Did it go properly down?

 

Hi there, it's very hard to say. I think it did improve to an extent, though I have experienced many spikes since then. Overall I feel that the level of my tinnitus has risen a bit. Each time I have got used to it, however immediately after each spike/noise expose it is never easy and also stressful.

I'm going thorough another spike right now. I was in a sandwich shop the other day and a staff member dropped a big piece of metal framing on the ceramic floor. It made a very loud crack on the floor and consequently a bad spike ensued. I was so annoyed I put my sandwich down and walked out - the girl doesn't have a clue how her slight mistake affected me. I'm just hoping it'll go down, but who knows.

I've even stopped posting on here every time since I can't even be bothered with it all.

Slowly getting more used to it? Or just giving in to it all and giving up? I don't know, but either way I've got a little better at not getting so emotional every time something happens.

R

 

Hi guys,

I haven’t been here for a long while, as mainly I’ve been dealing with my tinnitus very well and living my life.

Unfortunately 14 days ago that seems to have changed after I went to work drinks at an outside bar. For 3 hours I was sitting roughly 4 meters from a speaker that played music (measured by my app at 85-88 dB). The whole time I wore my custom moulded earplugs with full block filters (this is meant to be 25 dB protection, but it’s probably less). The music wasn’t crazy loud or painful, but over the course of 3 hours it did get tiring. I took regular toilet breaks for 5 mins to get away from the speakers.

For the past 2 weeks, my tinnitus has significantly spiked in both ears, and it’s showing no signs of recovery. I’m now worried, as my spikes from experiences like this before usually last 5-7 days. There has been zero improvement in both ears. Is this potentially permanent?

I have noticed that my custom moulded earplugs are not as good as my cheap disposable mouldable silicone earplugs I normally use in the loudest situations, so I don’t expect I received the full 25 dB protection. But even if I only received 10 dB protection, that’s 3 hours at ‘only’ 78 dB exposure - surely that’s not enough to cause a permanent spike?

I was okay for the first week as a assumed the spike would pass, though now I’m starting to feel lots of negative thoughts like when I first got tinnitus, having terrible sleep, feelings of hopelessness, and a new harsh/shrill sound in both ears.

What do you guys think? Can spikes like this last even longer than 2 weeks, or do you think there’s a chance this is permanent?

Any experiences or thoughts would be great.

Thank you in advance.
R

 

Stop going to places that loud. You have to maybe do it once or twice a year. I went to far too many loud bars and pubs with earplugs in last year. I was very unlucky and damaged my ears worse from deadlifting in December, then blew my ears out in a car accident in March. All of that contributed to my debilitating case. I pushed too far.

If you are going to these places, wear earplugs with a dB rating 30 and up. Custom ones will not fully protect you. I don’t know if you have hyperacusis or not, but if you have it mild, it can get very nasty If not careful. If any place has loud music, leave, it’s not worth ending up like me.

As a tinnitus sufferer I would go to bars where the people were louder than the music. I was ok until I started testing my luck.

 

Thanks for your reply, I rarely go to places like this - haven’t for a few years. I’ll be back to wearing my silicone mouldable earplugs from now on for sure. I hope it gets better.

 

Anyone else have any thoughts as to if my latest spike could improve to near pre-spike levels or not? 85-88 dB 3 hours with earplugs does not seem excessive to me.

 

And if you feel like you didn’t lose hearing, I think you will be ok and go back to baseline. Especially if you do it only once or twice a year.

 

I think you're realizing maybe the noise exposure measurements aren't accurate? Somewhat like the EPA mileage for cars?

 

The problem with that is decibel readings on a cellphone or crappy equipment are not accurate.

Anyway hearing takes a long time to get stable so relax and see how you feel in a few weeks. It's a slow process.

 

I know many won’t agree here but I don’t see how, even if it was 95 dB, that would cause any type of damage, especially if you don’t have hyperacusis. I imagine that sometimes the spikes can be psychological as an aversion to loud noise in general but from a physiological standpoint, I can’t see how any physical damage was done.

70-75 dB (after protection) shouldn’t really cause any type of permanent issues; however, the one caveat is high-frequency and low-frequency penetrating your ear protection. Then it becomes more than just dB ratings. Some people are more prone to bass spikes and, if there was heavy bass, you cannot expect really any type of hearing protection to help since the vibrations will penetrate through bone conduction. I believe this principle can be applied to very high frequencies as well. I notice that high frequency drive motors (running at 15k RPM for example) will cause me discomfort even with hearing protection on, well below my normal dB threshold.

 

That didn’t do any damage or make your tinnitus permanently louder. 85 dB isn’t loud.

 

It’s heavy traffic or a lawnmower, looking online.

 

Not necessarily. If one has a sensitivity to sound to some degree, that dB limit may vary. I've permanently worsened my tinnitus over the recent months due to sounds less than 50 dB.

Stacken

 

@Rust, did your spike subside?

 

No. I don’t think there’s an ENT or Otologist that would agree that sounds at those decibel levels would cause damage to the hearing, especially at relatively short durations. Otherwise, everyone in the world would have hearing loss. Hyperacusis aside, I suppose somebody with damaged hearing may be a lot more sensitive to noise.

 

I think so. My tinnitus generally seems to improve after a number of weeks/months from a spike. However, over the years my tinnitus does seem to gradually get worse little by little. So I presume that means all these spikes get mostly better, but some leave a small mark. Also, I get so many spikes from things, that I lose track of what causes what spike! There have been about 10 spikes since the above spike, so it’s hard to keep track! I hope that helps.