High-Pitched Noise Deterrent Device Made Tinnitus Worse

About 6 days ago, I started to get to tinnitus for absolutely no reason. I would say it was mild and I can only hear it in quiet places, but was enough to cause significant anxiety on top of already existing hearing issues causes by medication.

Today something awful happened. I was just about to walk into a bookkeepers and I was suddenly hit with a horribly loud, very high pitched noise. I went in and the man behind the desk told me it was to deter drunks hanging outside the shops. It was enough for me to hold my ears.

I have just got back and the tinnitus is 10x worse, now quite a loud piercing noise.

Is there any possibility that this could have causes any lasting damage? I was only exposed for about 3 seconds in total (in and out). Surely it must be some sort of regulated device, as it was a large chain.

Help!

 

I do not think so.
For many people tinnitus is reactive, meaning that it gets louder after an exposure to a loud sound, but it comes down after a while, do not worry. And your tinnitus may go away completely after a while. I was reading recently a story of a member whose tinnitus went away after 16 months, so do not lose hope.

 

Your T is very new and your ears are quite unstable. Hope it is a short spike and will go back to baseline. But you need to stay calm and not worry too much about it, as much as you humanly can. Stress and anxiety will trigger or aggravate T. So give it some time to settle down. In the mean time, you may want to mask your T if it bothers you much. Try some nature sounds such as heavy rain, waves, cicadas, waterfalls etc. for high pitch T. If you need some suggestions, here are a few choices. Take good care. God bless.

1) Mask at bed time if having trouble sleeping, by using a sound pillow or sound machine with pillow speakers. There are good sound machine & pillow therapy systems like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Oasis-...d-Oasis-Therapy-System-Speakers/dp/B00MH5HKTA

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds. Use wisdom in the use of headphones or earbuds as extended use or excessive volume may hurt your ears. Try set the volume slightly below that of your tinnitus.

3) With PC & speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds to see which one masks best:

TT's excellent audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: https://mynoise.net

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or click play to mix these sounds with this simple sound generator: http://asoftmurmur.com/

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

 

Thanks so much for your response, I have sounds of nature application that I am using.

Is it possible that the deterrent device could have causes permanent damage, because my ears are sensitive. I noticed a marked reduction in high frequency sounds tonight. Or would a single pitch not affect the whole range of high frequencies?

 

That's good, thanks for the words. The sound was brief, so I would imagine it couldn't possibly be damaging. I can't figure out what caused my tinnitus. The T is strange and comes in quick waves and flutteres, one second silent next second louder, never even.

I have almost perfect diet and exercise daily and don't drink or do any drugs apart from 15mg mirtazapine.

I read a lot of success stories of people just getting rid of it including it. Here is to hope!

 

I've seen one of these systems installed outside a bakery I visit on my way to work.

It has a sticker on it that says the system emits 120 dB.

Sounds at that volume could theoretically cause hearing damage, but probably not after 3 seconds...

 

I find it crazy that people are allowed to put these things outside shops. I guess that it doesn't always output that much, I'm currently looking into it getting checked to see how loud it goes.

 

I am not a doctor but it most likely hasn't done permanent damage even though it can set your unstable ears into a bit of temporary chaos. I think it will probably help you alleviate your fear by checking out these two sites which have a chart of various sounds, their dbs, and how long of exposure before there is damage done.

http://www.dangerousdecibels.org/education/information-center/decibel-exposure-time-guidelines/

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html

 

Most likely this is going to be only a temporary spike. But keep in mind that temporary spikes often last over a week (and sometimes can take longer than a month to clear).
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/poll-how-long-was-your-longest-spike.22099/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/poll-how-long-do-your-tinnitus-spikes-usually-last.23110/

 

Actually, that data is for people with healthy ears. Quieter sounds than the ones listed as being dangerous can cause a person with existing tinnitus to get a spike. This forum has countless posts from people who got permanent spikes as a result of being exposed to noises that are significantly quieter than the noises listed on those charts as being capable of causing damage.

 

I'm pretty sure they just have one setting. If it says 120 dB on the system then it probably does indeed emit 120 dB.

I'm actually not surprised these things are allowed, unfortunately. There's all kinds of unwanted-people-deterrent products for sale these days while the health and safety of the general public is largely disregarded.
Unfortunately, this is the state of being we have chosen collectively as a society, and until we get rid of a class based society we'll see more, and more of these products.