Beware of Noise Cancelling Headphones! They Can Cause Tinnitus!

Hi,

I'm 34 and have had constant tinnitus for a month that gradually started a couple days after using Sennheiser PXC 550 headphones.

Before the tinnitus really began there were signs, like strange sounds similar to seashell resonance when trying to sleep.

It was also the first time I had ever used noise cancelling headphones so I'm pretty sure that is the cause, because a lot here got it the same way and my doctor said my ears looked fine and my hearing is still like it used to be.

Wish I knew about the risks of noise cancelling headphones before using them, never had issues before after years of normal headphone use and now because of wanting more quietness it's possible I'll never experience it again.

Life has been very stressful even before tinnitus because I suffer from Hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) and made it worse when I was a teen with ETS surgery.
Had to give up a lot in order to make it livable and sometimes got moments of calmness where I I felt more normal... but now with this sound even that seems impossible because a lot that helped me cool off makes it unbearable loud.

If I ever get rid of this noise I'll be able to appreciate life more again, knowing how much worse it could be.

Reading the success stories here gives me hope, and I'll try a lot of the suggestions.

 

I'm sorry to hear of your now additional health challenge. I had never heard of NC headphones creating tinnitus but looking around I can at least find a report or two of it aggravating existing tinnitus, at least temporarily. I wore such headphones a year an a half ago both ways on a DC-LA nonstop but it was way after that when I acquired tinnitus, after an illness. Looks like there are so many vectors.

Hang in there and check the threads in the Research section if you haven't already, there really are some promising drugs under development.

 

Thanks will do.
I'm taking Ginkgo Biloba and quit aspartame because I heard that also could cause tinnitus and other problems... some even get cured just by stopping.

Btw this is one of the threads where you can find loads of people getting it the same way: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...fter-using-noise-cancelling-headphones.10403/

 

I had never experienced any sort of ringing or muffled hearing after concerts but the one time my hearing felt weird for a day was after using noise cancelling headphones for about 6 hours. They are over ear Sony ones that I use a lot at home due to having noisy neighbors

Since my ears didn’t ring or anything, just felt muffled, I didn’t really panic and thought I’d sleep it off.

I’m sure my tinnitus is due to accumulated damage, but just thought I’d point this out.

 

Hey Lumi, thanks for sharing your story.

I know it has been a while since you posted this, but I thought I'd still try replying here in case you see this.

I'm in the same situation as you were. Listened to not particularly loud music with new ANC Sony headphones for a few hours, and the tinnitus I'd already had for years became so much louder immediately after. It has been 48 hours now and I have yet to see an improvement.

I was hoping you could tell me — did your situation improve afterwards? Did the tinnitus become quieter over time? I'm so scared right now. Would like to hear how things went for you afterwards if you have a minute.

Thanks so much and I hope you're doing better.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your tonight is. I hope it's better now. We have to be careful about the idea of correlation versus causation. you could have simply got tinnitus by chance after using headphones. I don't think there's any physiological and medical reason that most canceling headphones could have caused tinnitus. I also found on this form and others about a million different things that can cause tonight is. I'm sure it's different for each of us but I drank about 100 oz or more of diet mountain dew a day for nearly a decade. it didn't affect my hearing or tremendous at all. I got tonight is 2 years ago due to the noise injury to my ears.

 

Hi, sorry for late reply, as I'm only seeing this now.

I still got tinnitus, but after a couple of months, it suddenly wasn't as loud (about 1/3 less) for a couple of days.

But unfortunately it returned then in full force, and still does to this day in the form of sudden loud high pitched peak noise.

Luckily every 10 days or so I normally get some better days.

If I avoid stress, watch out with food, especially salt, sugar, meat... it's possible that can make it better faster.

But it can also get louder during a rare good sleep, after drinking water...

I have to be very careful because I tried an ostheopath recently and that delayed my better period for around 10 days, so I was afraid they wouldn't come back... and it also became louder after eating.

It's mentally draining to have to keep rearranging my life when it becomes louder.
And I don't know how much longer I can hold on, especially if these good days would go away so I feel very grateful I still get them.

Hopefully over time it's possible it will get better for you too.