Does Different Tinnitus Have Different Sounds? For Example, Hearing Loss vs Acoustic Trauma

[grotulon]

Do they sound different? If I had to rate mine, it's at a.. 3/10 and it's not always a ringing, but white noise mostly, a ringing if there is outside noise thats constant, maybe a fan, and even then the ringing is very low, I was wondering if hearing loss has a unique sound, or is louder?

Mine came about after I pushed gently against my ear drum with a paper tower around 3 times, so it'd suck if that somehow caused it, because I know ENT's sometimes scoop earwax off ear drums gently.

It may be that I pushed some wax in there.

Another question is how long do you have before it becomes permanent, I've heard that even ear wax induced T can become permanent if it centralizes.


Also not sure if related but.. for as long as I can remember, swallowing would pop my ears,yawning and chewing and sometimes they'd do it randomly, and I always have to hold my nose and suck in to fix it.. not sure if this can be the cause after years of doing it.

 

[Elinor]

As far as I am aware tinnitus is in general just different in everyone. If two individuals were in the same room and someone fired a gun and this induced tinntitus in both, it's likely that their T would sound completely different. Cause of T does not decide what the T will will sound like. However, low-frequency tinnitus is sometimes is linked to Meniere's, but there are sufferers without meniere's who also have low-frequency T. The volume is not necessarily determined by the amount of hearing loss.

There is no specific answers for how long you can have it before it becomes permanent. It really depends on the cause and if it's treatable. One can say though, that the longer you have it the less likely it is to go away. Again, unless it's caused by something that treatable.

Ear popping when swallowing and chewing is completely normal. Eustachian tube dysfunction can make the popping more prominent.

 

[Paul10]

That's normal for your ears popping. There's really no set timeframe for it being permanent, some say 6 months, some say 18 months; personally, I say there is no timeframe. T can go away at any time, or it can become much less problematic. As for T sounds, it seems that every sound you can imagine can be a form of T. I have about 3 noises now; some people on here have much more, some much less, and for most it seems to change over time before settling down into one pattern or going away.