Finally Saw the ENT After 3 Months of Waiting and...

Nothing.

I suffered from a head trauma in December. I have had post concussion syndrome (transient headaches, dizziness, nausea, hyperacusis) ever since including tinnitus which fluctuates in the left ear.

So I saw 3 people in the ENT Clinic.


1. Audiologist. Tested my hearing. Said it was perfect. No hearing loss. Said this is good news as there is no permanent hearing damage causing my tinnitus. Added that since it has been a few months since the assault, just to lay low, stay away from triggers that aggravate my symptoms, including the tinnitus, like stress, physical exertion etc. He said the tinnitus will likely go away in 6 months to a year, I just need to give the body and brain time to heal.

OPINION: Tinnitus is common is head injuries and whiplash. Give it time, lay low and it should go away.


2. Intake ENT Doctor. Told him all my symptoms. He said this is permanent and life long, get used to it. Said he has has never heard of tinnitus going away.

OPINION: Tinnitus is permanent. It is never going to go away. Has never heard of it going away.


3. ENT surgeon. After talking to Intake ENT Doctor, looked at my ears and said my ears look great structurally and that tinnitus is poorly understood but in my case, it has to do with mild traumatic brain injury. He said that I was young, looked to be in good health and that if I give it time, the brain can heal itself.

OPINION: Give it time. It is linked to a mild traumatic brain injury (concussion). You are a young guy. The brain can heal itself. It might get better and might go away.


So there you have it folks. 3 people in the same clinic with lots of experience of seeing people with tinnitus and 3 totally different opinions. I am not too frustrated, I knew going in that there was nothing they can do. It is a head injury and I am 4 months out. I just need to give it time and hope for the best. If I am no better at 1 year. Then I may be looking at something that is permanent but I still have 7-8 months.

 

I HOPE IT GOES AWAY FOR YOU AND STAYS GONE.

 

Oh yes, they also all mentioned something along the lines of the brain creating a noise in the ear because it is not picking up the proper signalling from the ear or something like that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Thanks! Likewise!

 

That's actually true, if you mean hearing loss can cause tinnitus which is the brain compensating for hearing loss.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4208401/

It's like a veteran losing a limb and experiencing phantom limb syndrome.

 

@Vin -- I have a history of head injury/whiplash myself, and was wondering if your tinnitus could as easily be from whiplash as the head injury itself. (Lots of tinnitus originates in the neck). If it's coming from head injury, then my take is HBOT is just about the best therapy that could help that heal faster.

Other brain targeted nutrients would also help, like Omega 3 fats. If your tinnitus is originating in the neck, then there are a number of modalities that could affect that as well, such as upper cervical chiropractic, yoga, stretching, massage, cranial sacral, etc. My latest therapy I'm getting good results from is Gua Sha, for the head, neck, TMJ, etc. -- Best!

 

Hi,

Yes, I had/have whiplash too! So I don’t know if it was/is from the whiplash or blows to the head/jaw.

What is HBOT?

Also, I could go for physio for whiplash I suppose? What is Gua Sha? Any links where I can learn about these things would be great.

BTW, I do eat lots of healthy fats but thanks for that tip as well.

Thanks!

 

Right. Makes sense. Except they said I have no hearing loss, at least on the standardized test. But the ENT said that concussions and tinnitus are really somewhat neurologically based because they involve the brain in part, especially when the tinnitus is due to whiplash and/or a concussion.

 

Have you heard of hidden hearing loss or central hearing loss from head trauma?

 

Yet we know that 13 billion years ago nothing exploded and made everything and then rocks made chemicals that turned into living cells and then fish turned into walking fish that turned into a monkey fish frog and then it walked on two feet and lost its "useless" tail and that was our grandparents.

 

Your ENT never heard of tinnitus going away. That ENT is ignorant, because tinnitus often does go away, just read the posts on this forum. People have had tinnitus for a few months and it is the end of the world, and then it goes away. It is the chronic sufferers who have tinnitus permanently that are a minority. These people usually have hearing loss as a result of over-exposure to noise.

 

You are being very hopeful regarding your tinnitus going away, when usually it's not the case. Maybe it will fade to a more tolerable volume but going away entirely seems to be less likely by what we observe on these forums

You can go around cherry picking comments on the forum, /r/tinnitus and Google search results and read stories of others who's tinnitus went away entirely but that's not the majority of people that have tinnitus long enough to join the forums and it will just give you false hope.

 

Did you think your Tinnitus was going to go away.

 

I've been on this forum long enough and have read enough stories to know that it does go away completely within 6 months in most cases. I'm not cherry picking. Even my ENT said that noise induced tinnitus often goes away, especially in a young and healthy person. Yes there are cases where it takes years, and other cases where it never goes away but that is the minority. If tinnitus in fact never went away, then there would be way more people with permanent tinnitus considering that it is estimated that 15% of the population experienced tinnitus. This is the reason there is very little funding for tinnitus, because it is rarely a permanent condition. Other conditions such as epilepsy for example, receive much greater funding and much more corporate interest in curing.

 

I think the threshold is about 3 months. Once your 3 months in I'm pretty sure you're in for good and the ones that lose it after that are in fact the minority.

 

Really? I always see everyone and anyone citing 6 months. Wild.

 

Well I could be wrong. I'm not even sure exactly where I saw three months but that's what's in my stupid brain.

 

My ENT and audiologist both cited 6 months to me.

 

6 months is the legal definition of Chronic.

 

Most academic literature reviews or meta analysis of tinnitus / tinnitus treatments cite 6 months. My doctors said “even after 6 months it can still go away. If it was 2 years then I’d say 100% you will have tinnitus for life.”

 

This is very bad advice and totally wrong.
I had the worst tinnitus imaginable 13 years ago caused by acoustic trauma. Easily a 10/10. It faded to ZERO in 2 years.

I am now in a second acoustic trauma, it has faded 95% in 30 months. This is typical. Most people's tinnitus fade in time, usually 1-2 years, and usually fades enough where it's mostly gone, lots of time totally gone.

I know there are members here who have not had it fade, but for the majority of cases, it fades within 2 years.

 

Hidden hearing loss yes, central hearing loss from head trauma, no. I will have to look into that.

Thanks!

 

I too have been told and have read most citing 6-12 months. Anything beyond that, is said to be likely permanent.

 

Every case is different, the best chance of noise induced tinnitus going away is if one lets there ears rest allowing them to heal as much as possible, as well as magnesium within the early phases.

There is no miracle cure, no guarantee, results vary too much. The most common theme I observe here is noise induced tinnitus lowers from it's original onset volume but it doesn't usually going away entirely.

 

I agree. I don’t know what this ENT was on about. I am 4 months in.

 

Bad advice, true. On the other hand, doctors telling patients it will go away in weeks or months is worse advice. Doctors giving either types of advice just show how ignorant and incompetent they are.

 

I don't think 2 years is even the cut off. I've had noticeable improvement in my tinnitus even after 2 years.

 

That’s awesome. Did you expose yourself to loud noises during those 2 years like bars, clubs, concerts? With ear plugs.

 

No, I now avoid concerts,clubs and sporting events, nothing is worth the risk of having tinnitus come back.

 

Exactly so once you get tinnitus - even if it goes away (fades to zero) - we will always be at risk of it coming back in full force if we expose ourselves to loud noise. Way more risk than people who never got tinnitus.