Fear of Going Deaf

Dear All,

I am a 42-year-old sufferer since childhood. Over the years, I have begun to loose my hearing in the 6kHz range and my audiologist thinks it may (or may not) worsen.

My worst nightmare is that I'll loose much more or all of my hearing and be left with the screaming noise in my ears.

Does anyone have any experience of hearing loss with tinnitus remaining or did your tinnitus go with the rest of your hearing?

Many thanks.

 

@Simon Johns,....My Tinnitus base became worse after experiencing some hearing loss.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't fret too much over just one audiologist thinking that your hearing loss "may or may not worsen."

That sure covered all bases! They can't possibly be wrong with that assessment....

 

First : does your family have an history with hearing loss ( genetic predisposition?) because if not, there is no reason your hearing decrease quickly than another person.

What was your age when you your hearing began to decline?

Do you have your audiogram? It could be interesting to comment the situation.


I don't think you'll become deaf. There can be a lot of reasons for an hearing loss ( diseases, noise... or bad luck) but it's not because the ear has a loss that hearing will decrease more quickly.

But if it do not convince you, there is a way to have a certain hearing for profondly deaf people, called the Cochlear Implant.

 

I'm 42 and have almost no hearing above 1k range. Hearing aides and reading lips can go a long way. Even with hearing this bad I can have days where T is barely noticeable. Even with levels this low you can still habituate believe it or not. There is not a direct correlation between hearing loss and tinnitus. It does get worst as you lose your hearing, but then your brain adapts again.
Most peoples voices are 1k and below from what I have realized. The higher frequencies do help with consonants. This is why you might be able to hear someone, but not fully understand them.

 

Many thanks one and all for the comments. Very helpful and reassuring. Since I joined this forum, coping with my tinnitus has been a lot easier.

I've got this far without going (too) crazy so I'll just have to deal with whatever comes along!

 

6khz and above hearing loss is very common in men over 40. The thresholds are not uncommonly 50+db at 6khz which is considered moderate hearing loss to 70+db at 8khz which is considered serious hearing loss. Again these losses are very common and most people don't even report a problem hearing when they have these high frequency defficiencies because it is not noticeable for most people. Lower frequency hearing loss is much more problematic for understanding speech and everyday sounds. Monitor your audiograms yearly and pay attention to any statisitically significant changes, probably 10db differences, to give you peace of mind that your hearing is fine. Nothing you've said suggests you are susceptible to further atypical hearing loss, but of course protect your ears and stay healthy.

 

Protect your hearing by using acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR) and N-L-acetylcysteine (NAC) works better than just one on its own for hearing protection.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15966690

 

That's very reassuring to read Leodavinci. Thanks very much.

 

Hearing loss due to aging is natural but I would worry too much about suddenly losing chunks of your hearing for no reason. Unless you are genetically predisposed, expose yourself to loud noise routinely or use ototoxic medication regularly, you should be fine.

You can take steps to ensure that you keep your hearing in the best shape possible by looking into otoprotective supplements. Like Danny mentioned, NAC has been shown to be very successful in multiple studies, and even moreso alongside ALCAR. You can also look into other supplements like magnesium, niacin, melatonin, zinc and gang of other supplements that have been shown to be otoprotective in multiple studies.

 

in cases with hearing loss like these. do you guys still use the same hearing loss guideline by ohsa saying the damage takes 85 db around 8 hours?
or are your ears a lot more susceptible and easier to damage at a lower decibel now with the hearing loss let's say it might take only 80 decibel instead of 85 db to further damage the remaining hearing?

 

bump

 

Here is an article regarding noise-induced hearing loss including high frequencies.

http://occmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/51/4/245.full.pdf+html

It is completely abnormal for a man in his 40s to have a 50 db hearing loss at 6 khz. The results on table 5 indicate hearing thresholds should be well into normal limits even at 8 khz.

 

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It's not a loss of 50db, its a threshold of 50db at 6khz. My ENT told me 50% of men over 40 have high frequency hearing loss. He was comparing my high freq chart with the thresholds I mentioned and said it wasn't uncommon. He might be wrong. Getting population audiometry data is not easy, I've looked. The table you mention only has an age group of 35-44 and for this group the total sample size was 11. The number reported for the group is a mean. It says little about how many have moderate hearing loss. Also the only relevant frequency tested is 8khz. I agree this group of 11 have mild high freq hearing loss on average at 8khz.

 

I don't think you're reading the table right. They tested for 0.25 khz until 18 khz. A hearing threshold of 50 db means 50 db hearing loss at this particular frequency.

You can actually plot the data in conventional audiograms ( 0-8 khz) and you find that none of the patients would be diagnosed with hearing loss as all hearing thresholds are well inside the arbitrary 20 db limit.

11 ears might be a small sample but it falls in line with bigger studies I've come across and trying to find now.

Note that the people exposed were workers in a steel pipe factory or air conditioner manufacturer. None of them would be diagnosed with hearing loss by an ENT/audiologist by today's standards.

I'm well aware that it is a mean, but even using the standard deviations which are quite small, you find that 99.7% of the data does not indicate any hearing loss at all.

 

Do you need to wear earplugs walking on the street, eating in a noisy restaurant 75-80 db, driving, doing grocery shopping, basically daily day-to-day activities do where decibel is 75-80 , do you need to be wearing earplugs because now there is 50 db at 6khz and 70 db at 8khz presbycusis ski-slope loss is it a lot more weaker susceptible vulnerable to a lower decibel intensity to damage it? or still 85 db for 8 hours, therefore you don't need to wear earplugs with this type of loss (aging slope loss) in your day-to-day activities driving, walking on the street, eating in restaurant, shopping?

 

Do not be afraid. No one would like to lose their hearing. It would be a big loss. But perhaps if you met some profoundly deaf people and learned what it was like it could help dampen your fears. I am a translator for the deaf and grew up around deaf people. Many of whom have absolutely no hearing at all from birth. I certainly wish to keep my hearing but do not have a fear of becoming deaf. But I understand what you mean about losing your hearing but being plagued by T. However there is nothing to be gained by worry especially over something that may never happen. Easy to say don't worry. Difficult skill to Aquire though! But I think having so many deaf friends (and by that I don't mean hearing impaired) is the reason I'm not afraid of it.

 

Do think the the tinnitus gets louder as the hearing gets worse over time?

 

Some people say it has, and some people have reported that their T has stayed constant despite noticeably worse hearing. There is no way to predict.

 

How such an unbearable and comum condition is so poorly understand.... not to say with better treatments but at least better understood

 

Hi am new here I have had tinnitus for 2yrs now it started off just ringing noises in 1ear now and again now it's all the time day and night I cart sleep tied all the time I have had a drop attack single seizure in a shop come round in an ambulance plus 2brain scans have to have another brain scan in 1yr also I just got a hearing aid don't know how much more I can take its making me insane

 

It's in both ears now

 

I agree with everyone here. It's important that you protect your ears! I have a question to ask: I'm 20 years old and on good days I can hear up to 13kHz... Is that normal or do I have some hearing loss?

 

Haha that's a good question. I mean sometimes I think that people have such bad hearing, that they can no longer even hear their own ears ring! Who knows.

 

Hope you all don't mind me asking a question here instead of making a new thread question. It's related to this.

With noise exposure damage that has happened once or a few times, there after, how long might it take to lose say 7 db of hearing in the high-mid and or high frequecies?