Does Anyone Else Have Multiple "Bands" of Distorted Hearing?

Good day all,

I figured I would share this information for both the benefit of others and my own benefit.

Upon running tone generators and conducting some experimentation, I have found that my right ear has multiple areas of distortion (cracklyness, buzzy, etc). Interestingly, when I set the tone generator on the following page to around 1% volume and localize it to my right ear I can swipe through the spectrum and get a rough idea of where things are gone bad within my ear.

Tone generator:
https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

The bands of distortion are (approximately) as follows:

Band 1: 700-800 Hz
Band 2: 1900-2400 Hz
Band 3: 3300-4000 Hz
Band 4: 4500-5600 Hz
band 5: 10,100-10,400 Hz

My audiogram and all other hearing diagnostic tests are perfect and aside from the distorted hearing, somatosensory tinnitus linked to my jaw and 24/7 chronic subjective tinnitus I am otherwise healthy.

I have used this new found knowledge to develop treatment regimens using General Fuzz's ACRN webpage:
https://generalfuzz.net/acrn/

On times, I have ran the ACRN with 6-8 tabs open running separate frequencies. The tinnitus nearly disappears following doing this. Fortunately, using the ACRN I can achieve a few minutes of "near" silence. Of course the ear doesn't feel right but I can quieten the tinnitus down a good deal which is beneficial and even a few minutes of relief are extremely valuable when you deal with this 24/7.

I guess my question or support query is; would this information be indicative of hair cell damage or supportive of cochlear synaptopathy? My hearing damage was caused by repeated firearms exposure. Wondering if anyone else out there is in the same situation and has tried this. I am also open to alternative medicinal approaches.

 

Hi,

I get distortions like that, too, and crackling at some frequencies. My otologist has diagnosed me with auditory neuropathy following ABR tests, we suspect it's in the synapses (synaptopathy). I can hear tones fine, but I get crackling on top of some. My audiograms (you can see I've posted some) are fine, within 0-10 dB all the way to 16 kHz. I can also increase the loudness of my high-frequency tinnitus by contracting my neck muscles.

By the way, that tone generator is how I injured my ears, don't ever increase the volume when you can't hear the tone. I did and still could not hear it, but it damaged my ears at that frequency and roughly half of it (16 kHz and 8 kHz, that's where I hear crackling).

My otologist says crackling can be a sign of recruitment, where nearby cells take over when the correct ones produce lower/no signal. I also have hyperacusis, so I get beeps over broadband sounds, I suppose I have some injured cells/synapses around those frequencies and the surrounding frequencies get amplified, resulting in the perception of beeping.

My 'alternative' treatment is going to be stem cell secretome as it helps people with neuropathic disorders like MS/ALS. I simply cannot take this shit anymore, my hyperacusis keeps increasing even though I don't expose myself to loud sounds, my tinnitus sounds keep increasing in volume/number, too.

 

I also wanted to ask, how do you honestly deal with the whistles and beeps over external sounds? Is it hard for you to ignore too?

 

Yes, it is extremely hard. I am depressed but I keep telling myself that either my stem cell treatment will help, or I will get used to it.