High Frequency Hearing Recovering?

[Nathan]

Shortly after my trauma, I could not hear above 16000 Hz. Then, over time, I seemed to have regained super high frequencies back. For example, I can hear up to 19000 Hz if I have the volume on 70-75 percent on my left ear, and 17500 Hz on my right.

Anybody else have this "recovery" of upper frequencies?

 

[Contrast]

14,000hz went to 15,000hz tonal audiometry wise.

the first night of my acoustic trauma words were drooping and sounding muffled and for a few weeks my right ear could not hear crickets chirp at night, i may have had more hearing loss then.

now it's just high pitch background noise and low pitch noises merging together midly in my right ear and that's enough for me to be suicidal about.

 

[Nathan]

14,000hz went to 15,000hz tonal audiometry wise.

the first night of my acoustic trauma words were drooping and sounding muffled and for a few weeks my right ear could not hear crickets chirp at night, i may have had more hearing loss then.

now it's just high pitch background noise and low pitch noises merging together midly in my right ear and that's enough for me to be suicidal about.

You continuing to see improvement in terms of distortion and muffling?

 

[PolishSoldier87]

In what time after trauma this regeneration had to occur?

 

[Nathan]

In what time after trauma this regeneration had to occur?

I noticed higher frequencies starting in August. I could then hear 17500 hz in my left ear. Fast forward to today, and it's 19000 hz.

 

[Pero1234]

How do you measure the high frequencies? The youtube videos?

When I was 28 if I remember correctly, I could hear up to around 17500.

Today, ten years later, after powertools and lawnmowers, several concerts, a visit to a Tiësto's club in Vegas and that irresponsibly loud movie that gave me tinnitus... it seems like I've blown everything above 13500 away.

I do wonder how much of that damage I did over time... and how much happened during that one dreadful night.

 

[Nathan]

How do you measure the high frequencies? The youtube videos?

When I was 28 if I remember correctly, I could hear up to around 17500.

Today, ten years later, after powertools and lawnmowers, several concerts, a visit to a Tiësto's club in Vegas and that irresponsibly loud movie that gave me tinnitus... it seems like I've blown everything above 13500 away.

I do wonder how much of that damage I did over time... and how much happened during that one dreadful night.

YouTube tests are not reliable. One of the more popular tests cuts off at 15k. Check out the "Hearing Test" app if you have an iPhone.

 

[Telis]

I can't hear above around 7-8khz on a sweep test. My gf can hear to about 15khz on the same test, I miss my hearing so badly

 

[Manny]

I can't hear above around 7-8khz on a sweep test. My gf can hear to about 15khz on the same test, I miss my hearing so badly

Telis, do you know how you obtained this damage?

 

[Samir]

Shortly after my trauma, I could not hear above 16000 Hz. Then, over time, I seemed to have regained super high frequencies back. For example, I can hear up to 19000 Hz if I have the volume on 70-75 percent on my left ear, and 17500 Hz on my right.

Anybody else have this "recovery" of upper frequencies?

Loudness in relative terms such as percent doesn't say all that much.

At what percentage did you have the volume on when you tested your hearing up to 16k? Was it 16k on both ears?

I'm not sure if we can call it recovery, but I had a 30 dB dip at 6k on my first audiogram and it appeared to have improved to 15 db at 6k two months later on a second audiogram. It's nearly impossible to tell if any of the hair cells had recovered, as we cannot see the cells, we can only measure our ability to hear different tones.

 

[Michael B]

I'm not sure if we can call it recovery, but I had a 30 dB dip at 6k on my first audiogram and it appeared to have improved to 15 db at 6k two months later on a second audiogram.

I have a dip at 6kHz as well. I personally think it was caused by earphone use.

 

[Nathan]

Loudness in relative terms such as percent doesn't say all that much.

At what percentage did you have the volume on when you tested your hearing up to 16k? Was it 16k on both ears?

I'm not sure if we can call it recovery, but I had a 30 dB dip at 6k on my first audiogram and it appeared to have improved to 15 db at 6k two months later on a second audiogram. It's nearly impossible to tell if any of the hair cells had recovered, as we cannot see the cells, we can only measure our ability to hear different tones.

When I first got my hearing test app in July, I got a max of 16k at half volume on both ears, which was about 40 decibels, much softer than half volume normally. 70 percent volume on this app is 55-60 decibels.

Today, at half volume, I can hear up to 18500 hz on my left and 16500 to 17000 on my right. Also, the 16k tone appears more clear and sharp on my left ear.

 

[Telis]

Telis, do you know how you obtained this damage?

Antibiotic ear drops, combined with a bunch of other drugs to treat barotrauma— Sleeping pills, benzos, pain pills. Etc. Recently mri machine with wrong ear protection. The funny thing is prior to the ear injury I could hear incredibly well, I had a really fine tuned audio file ear, now no point in even listening to music, just a bunch of static. I guess I can listen if I cut the sound off at 6khz but that's just not music is it

 

[Manny]

Wow

Antibiotic ear drops, combined with a bunch of other drugs to treat barotrauma— Sleeping pills, benzos, pain pills. Etc. Recently mri machine with wrong ear protection. The funny thing is prior to the ear injury I could hear incredibly well, I had a really fine tuned audio file ear, now no point in even listening to music, just a bunch of static. I guess I can listen if I cut the sound off at 6khz but that's just not music is it

Wow. I'm really sorry for you. I know how terrible it is to lose music (I can't even bring myself to write that), even though my hearing loss is less than yours.
Do you have severe T as well?

 

[Telis]

Wow

Wow. I'm really sorry for you. I know how terrible it is to lose music (I can't even bring myself to write that), even though my hearing loss is less than yours.
Do you have severe T as well?

Yeah it sucks. Yes. I'm in hell.

 

[Manny]

Yeah it sucks. Yes. I'm in hell.

:/ I've no words. Hugs if you'd like.

 

[Samir]

When I first got my hearing test app in July, I got a max of 16k at half volume on both ears, which was about 40 decibels, much softer than half volume normally. 70 percent volume on this app is 55-60 decibels.

Today, at half volume, I can hear up to 18500 hz on my left and 16500 to 17000 on my right. Also, the 16k tone appears more clear and sharp on my left ear.

That is interesting. Is it also with this sudden improvement that you started having tinnitus?

It is possible that your hair cells have bounced back a little bit. The damage may not have been severe enough to cause a permanent hair cell loss, relatively speaking... because we do lose cells as we age even when not exposed to loud sounds.

 

[Samir]

I have a dip at 6kHz as well. I personally think it was caused by earphone use.

I know mine was caused by earphones.

There was a super loud noise that went through the earphones due to a technical glitch with my audio interface. I picked up the noise on a recording and I later analyzed it. The average frequency of the noise was 5.8 kHz if I recall correctly. Just around that area. I had muffled hearing for a short while immediately after, and then it cleared up. I started experiencing tinnitus several weeks later, and that's when I began to test my hearing and that's when the dip appeared. So the dip might have been even larger from the very beginning, immediately after the incident and before I did the first audiogram was done.

So yeah... that's that. You understand now why I say that mine was caused by earphones, for sure.

 

[dpdx]

I know mine was caused by earphones.

There was a super loud noise that went through the earphones due to a technical glitch with my audio interface. I picked up the noise on a recording and I later analyzed it. The average frequency of the noise was 5.8 kHz if I recall correctly. Just around that area. I had muffled hearing for a short while immediately after, and then it cleared up. I started experiencing tinnitus several weeks later, and that's when I began to test my hearing and that's when the dip appeared. So the dip might have been even larger from the very beginning, immediately after the incident and before I did the first audiogram was done.

So yeah... that's that. You understand now why I say that mine was caused by earphones, for sure.

I have a dip on the right ear at 6khz 15db and 3khz for left ear.

 

[Michael B]

I know mine was caused by earphones.

There was a super loud noise that went through the earphones due to a technical glitch with my audio interface. I picked up the noise on a recording and I later analyzed it. The average frequency of the noise was 5.8 kHz if I recall correctly. Just around that area. I had muffled hearing for a short while immediately after, and then it cleared up. I started experiencing tinnitus several weeks later, and that's when I began to test my hearing and that's when the dip appeared. So the dip might have been even larger from the very beginning, immediately after the incident and before I did the first audiogram was done.

So yeah... that's that. You understand now why I say that mine was caused by earphones, for sure.

Mine was from years of earphone use. It was a slow death at 6kHz.

 

[Nathan]

That is interesting. Is it also with this sudden improvement that you started having tinnitus?

It is possible that your hair cells have bounced back a little bit. The damage may not have been severe enough to cause a permanent hair cell loss, relatively speaking... because we do lose cells as we age even when not exposed to loud sounds.

I had muffled hearing after a concert, which came back fairly quickly. A couple hours after my hearing recovered, I noticed a 820 hz sound, which made me panic, and I ended up reading horror stories on the internet. The next morning, the old tone was gone and was replaced by a rather quiet but noticeable 14000 hz pure tone. Today, the 14000 hz tone is intermittent, but I have several other tones that come and go.

 

[Samir]

I had muffled hearing after a concert, which came back fairly quickly. A couple hours after my hearing recovered, I noticed a 820 hz sound, which made me panic, and I ended up reading horror stories on the internet. The next morning, the old tone was gone and was replaced by a rather quiet but noticeable 14000 hz pure tone. Today, the 14000 hz tone is intermittent, but I have several other tones that come and go.

This is a common theme for many of us. I have also had episodes of low tones, and even something which I thought was caused by the heating system in my bedroom, and then I learned it was this thing that some people refer to as "morse code" and it was in my head. My dominant tone is at around 6 kHz which was the average frequency of the trauma noise. I also panicked at first when I started noticing these noises for the first time. That initial phase when you realize that you have these noises in your head is the worst.

 

[Damien Cavanagh]

Great to hear(!) of your recovery. My upper frequencies seem to be coming back too.

My acoustic trauma was in Oct 18. After that all music sounded distorted and dirty, as if though a broken speaker, and I couldn't hear cymbals (I am a drummer.) I'd say the distortion effect has 80% cleared, and now I can hear hi-hats clearly, although ride cymbals sound washy and a bit weird still. Not very scientific or objective I know, but I've use the same audio equipment with and EQ box, and I know what I couldn't hear then and what I can hear now. I have avoided all ENT activity and objective monitoring of my hearing as I've tried forget about my hissy tinnitus and get on with life. It's still hard, I can hear it even in an aeroplane and sometime I need alcohol or tablets to sleep. But at least my hyperacusis has almost gone now too... I play gentle ocean sounds every night to give my ears a work out and bring down the hyperacusis.

 

[FGG]

Great to hear(!) of your recovery. My upper frequencies seem to be coming back too.

My acoustic trauma was in Oct 18. After that all music sounded distorted and dirty, as if though a broken speaker, and I couldn't hear cymbals (I am a drummer.) I'd say the distortion effect has 80% cleared, and now I can hear hi-hats clearly, although ride cymbals sound washy and a bit weird still. Not very scientific or objective I know, but I've use the same audio equipment with and EQ box, and I know what I couldn't hear then and what I can hear now. I have avoided all ENT activity and objective monitoring of my hearing as I've tried forget about my hissy tinnitus and get on with life. It's still hard, I can hear it even in an aeroplane and sometime I need alcohol or tablets to sleep. But at least my hyperacusis has almost gone now too... I play gentle ocean sounds every night to give my ears a work out and bring down the hyperacusis.

Over what time frame did you recover your hearing?