Gunshot About Two Decades Ago and Concert Recently Causing Ringing

Hi,

I’m new to this forum. Here is my background: I am 38 years old, in my childhood I played occasionally with firecrackers and my ears was temporary ringing. Further, as a teenager I hunted without ear protection, also causing temporary ringing and in particular my left ear. Very stupid indeed

At the age of 18-20 I experienced a very mild tinnitus I think, and my left ear felt more sensitive to certain sounds. After that I have used ear muffs during hunting and ear plugs at concerts (with few exeptions for the latter).

One year ago I used an music ear plug with filter at a rock concert, and I felt some discomfort due to the high sound. Little bit muffed feeling afterwards, I thought it was due to bad quality of the plugs. After weeks or months I recovered back to my mild "baseline" tinnitus.

Three weeks ago I went to a rock concert with good quality music earplugs with filter (SNR 16db). Despite the ear plugs I felt some discomfort, in particular my left ear. Unfortunately I was trusting the ear plugs and did not move further away from the sound. After this concert I have had a much stronger ringing, in particular on my left ear, also the sensitivity towards certain sounds are worse. It’s like it is ringing at higher frequency in addition to the ringing I had before. After reading about SNR db I understand that 16db was too low protection for this rock concert.

I am seeing the doctor first coming week to get an ENT appointment. I find it easy to describe the tinnitus. My mild «baseline» tinnitus at both ears, being there for c. 20 years, is lower frequency. But after the last concert I’ve got a much louder and higher frequency tinnitus in addition, in particular the left ear (closer to the sound of cicadas, although not so pulsating).

What I find difficult to explain is the feeling in the left ear (been like that c. 10-20 years, but now worse). Certain sounds are a kind of painful, e.g. bird call, tapping water, ignition of gas oven or crushing potato ship bag, which gives a split second distorted sound. A bit similar to water in the ear, giving a popping or ‘plopping’ feeling, almost like a frequent tapping on my eardrum (although only for split second...).

To sum up, my mild low frequency tinnitus + distorted sound at the left ear has been there for almost 20 years, now recently it became much worse after a concert. The high frequency ringing and more sensitivity to certain sounds it's a bit similar to the feeling I got in my ears during childhood when I was swimming under water (both in terms of the muffled feeling and the ringing).

Since it is about three weeks since the concert I suspect that I have brought the tinnitus to new level and that I will not recover. It so frustrating since I used ear protection.

Regards Kes

 

Welcome to the fold.

If your tinnitus got worse at the concert even though you had hearing protection, it most likely means that there was some sort of aggravated damage building up somehow.

My tinnitus too, got significantly worse after a concert where I was using earplugs(a week after, though).
I have no real idea of how any of that works, and no medical professionals I've talked too seem to have any idea either.

I hope that ENT you'll be seeing can at least offer some advice.

 

Yes, I agree. But I should have known the importancy of the SNR rating. The concert was likely to be 120db, standing in the front with peaks to ~130, and protection of 16db gives exposure to db above 100db...

 

the sound sensitivity - H ..due to nerve damage will improve over (long) time..but the T may be there to stay unless you are very lucky I would try a course of steroids although after 3 weeks its not going to do much
And SNR only takes the best numbers from the low mid and high NRR will be even less

 

I would like to add that I got the cold (runny nose, sore throat, and little bit sneezing and cough) one week after the last noise exposure. I still have symptoms of cold, and I have one last hope that the high pitch sound in addition to my mild tinnitus is caused by this and not by the sound exposure...

 

It could be Tonic tensor tympani syndrome (TTTS).

 

I almost fully recovered from a mild T 4 month from the onset from loud show. But like many people, I was stupid enough to think earplugs were good enough, so I attended a outdoor concert 3 months ago. Since then my T has increased quite abit and is always there in the background.

I am still hopeful it will eventually go back down, but its very depressing to know you almost were free of T, only to be worse than when it first started.

 

I have been to ENT today. They did not find anything wrong. The audiogram was also very good, no sign of hearing damage

She agreed that I have T and H in addition on my left ear. Since I had no signs of hearing damage she said I had good chance to recover back to the «normal» mild tinnitus. Well I could hope...

She also will forward me to a spesialist to start treatment.

 

@newbieT What kind of earplugs did you use?

 

About 1 month has elapsed, H is back to normal, although the T is very annoying. I will go to a new ENT on tuesday to get a second opinion.

 

3M 29dB NRR foam plugs.

 

I'm surprised that such high NRR rated foam plugs were not sufficient. Are you sure they were fitted properly? See link:

3M™ E-A-R™ Fitting Foam Earplugs -...

 

Yesterday I got a second opinion from another ENT. The audiogram confirmed the first ENT. Very good, no sign of hearing damage, although a small drop was found for 6-7 kHz (but still within the normal range).

I believe that the T has changed slightly, but I'm not sure. Maybe I have started to habituate some...

 

I fitted it well. The problem is it does not block low frequency sound very well. I actually did a write up on this issue if you look at my past posts. a foam earplug will attenuate 20dB at best for a 60hz sound. And a typical concert peaks around 110 dB. So even with the perfect fit you are exposed to 90dB for hours.

For most normal people that is fine but if you already have T, that level of sound could have consequences