Brand New to Tinnitus — I Woke Up with Buzzing in My Left Ear

I woke up two weeks ago (the day after my birthday) with a low buzzing in my left ear. The first week was very slight, just noticeable. This past week it is with me all the time. No loud noise, not stressed, etc. My first thought was not that I was a year older, it is age!

So far I have tried--with no change--anti-inflammatories, decongestants, sinus rinse, and am on day 3 of a 4 day regimen for ear wax removal although that has never been a problem. This all started just "out of the blue"!

On Monday, I will make an appointment, as it takes several weeks to get in, with an audiologist.

I read that Vit D may contribute and I have been taking that for almost 2 years as a COVID-19 preventative so will stop that and see about getting some sunshine instead. Could take 15 days or longer to notice if this elimination will help.

No hearing loss or tinnitus in my family tree as far as I know and I do not seem to have a loss of hearing so far.

Any other suggestions to overcome this will be appreciated!

 

Hi LMO,

Tinnitus can occur for no reason but usually something is responsible for its onset. The most common cause is exposure to loud noise and typically, it is using any type of headphones at too high a volume without a person realizing it. If you regularly use headphones, earbuds, AirPods, headsets, bone conduction or noise cancelling headphones to listen to music or other types of audio, then it's likely one of these devices caused your tinnitus.

Working in a noisy environment or regularly listening to loud music at a club, home through speakers, or in the car can cause tinnitus too. If the tinnitus isn't related to noise exposure, then it's possible that it's linked to an underlying medical problem within your ear and auditory system. It could be something simple as a build-up of earwax. Stress and some medications have been known to cause tinnitus too.

Please click on the links below and read my posts that I think you will find helpful. For now I suggest you try not to sleep in a quiet room, by using low level sound enrichment using a sound machine. More about this is explained in the links.

All the best,
Michael

New to Tinnitus, What to Do? | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum
Tinnitus, A Personal View | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

 

Hi @LMO -- Sorry to hear about your recent tinnitus onset. Did it by any chance coincide with getting a COVID-19 vaccination? Many have reported COVID-19 vaccines causing or exacerbating tinnitus.

 

Hi everyone,

My tinnitus came on suddenly a month ago. Today I say an audiologist and had an evaluation and hearing test. My hearing is fine. We discovered the pitch of my tinnitus and also the probable cause which is a bony grown in my ear canal.

Next stop is the ENT but I cannot get in for 6 weeks.

Apparently these are non-cancerous growths. Sometimes they are left alone or watched. They can be removed. It could be that if mine could be removed, then the tinnitus would be cured! That would be great! To live with the permanent buzz is something I would rather not do.

Peace,
LMO

 

Excess Vitamin D3 could have caused ear bones to grow (calcification?).

Did audiologist take X-rays and show the growth? How are they planning remove the excess growth?

 

Anti-inflammatories can drive up TNF-alpha... contributing to neuroinflammation.