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How Does Hearing Get Damaged at Specific Frequencies?

Martinf

Member
Author
Aug 7, 2020
61
Tinnitus Since
02/2020
Cause of Tinnitus
Loud music
Loud sound damages hearing and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is generally a decrease of hearing sensitivity in the higher frequencies, especially at 4 kHz. This typical 4 kHz notch is due to the transfer function of the ear.
It's been also known that if you play for example a 1 kHz pure tone at huge volume you will most likely damage your hearing at that frequency which makes sense.

I got tinnitus myself after I was testing my ears with high pitch pure tones. It was ok for me to hear from 20 Hz to 12 kHz at a low volume but I had to turn up the volume loud to be able to hear 13 kHz and 14 kHz and huge volume to hear 15 kHz. It was at that time when I was trying so hard to hear 15 kHz I first started noticing dull hearing and headache and after one day I got tinnitus. My tinnitus is a high pitch hiss that varies from 6 kHz to 10 kHz and my hearing loss start after 5 kHz (my hearing is perfect at 4 kHz though, -10 dB).

My question is how come I got damage at 6 kHz while I was playing only pure tones at 14 kHz and 15 kHz that are at dangerous volume? Is it that the auditory cortex process all high frequencies "on one side" and thus you can damage your healthy hearing with high frequencies that you can't hear?

I am also wondering why did I not have tinnitus before because I don't think I did all the damage in one day, it was hard for me to hear above 12 kHz that day when I was testing my ears which means I already had hearing loss, but I know 100% I didn't have tinnitus, I am always the person who is really aware of what I am hearing and I always enjoyed silence.
 
I have hearing loss and tinnitus at 6 kHz as well. I'm pretty much convinced my damage was gradual due to my longtime use of earbuds and that the tinnitus was triggered by an event that took place that day. The same could have taken place with you while playing pure tones. Just a guess.

As a side note, playing pure tones, especially at my tinnitus frequency, always makes my tinnitus worse for the day.
 

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