How Likely Is It for Mild Noise-Induced Tinnitus to Dissipate If No Hearing Loss Is Present?

@ChrisRA I did a massive review of the available literature and looked on many forums, and talked to multiple healthcare professionals to try to determine how frequently tinnitus went away after onset. There is no clear consensus on what proportion of cases fade away! Personally, I think it’s fair to say it happens much more often than people are given the impression of by doctors. Generally people are told this is for life. It is for some, but there is at least some chance it will either go away or fade significantly.

Roughly speaking, it would seem that a certain proportion have it fade away to nothing after a few months, and a further proportion fade away to nothing or a negligible level by roughly the two year mark. I have even read of some cases going away after that, but it seems to be much less common after two years

A tinnitus forum like this is inevitably mostly populated by the people for whom it didn’t fade away or who didn’t habituate. But I seem to remember it says somewhere on the introductory notes for this forum that most users disappear after about three months? Entirely anecdotally, it seems often this thing does seem to get quieter after about three months even if it doesn’t go away. Again, not for everyone, but many people on here who are new seem to report that

If you are already at a stage where you can only really hear it in a quiet atmosphere, that seems like a good sign

Something that a number of the scientific papers say is that the amount of attention a person pays to the sound may help to determine how loud it is and whether it fades in the long term. It is something to do with the link with the limbic system. Of course there are other factors that determine its intractability like hearing loss. But on forums people sometimes say “the more you fear it, the more you hear it”. Some people say this is not true for them, but personally I do find this to be true. Often on a day when I have lots of things to do the sound is actually quieter, and I’m sure mine began to fade a bit at the three month mark as soon as I stopped thinking about it as much

Nobody should give you the impression that this is definitely going to fade or it’s very likely to fade, because nobody knows that, the data isn’t there. But if yours is so quiet already you must have a fair shot. Even if it doesn’t go away altogether and only gets quieter still, very quiet tinnitus is so much easier to deal with. And if yours doesn’t go away and doesn’t fade from where it is now, it is even more likely you will find that your brain gets used to it and it doesn’t bother you

Mine isn’t so loud as it was at onset, but it is still there at coming up for two years. In my own case I have a strong feeling this is to do with many other stresses I have in my life relating to other health issues. I see a very strong link with stress in my case, but this is not true for everybody, some people see no link. The other advice healthcare professionals often give is to reduce stress in your life as much as possible.

 

I was told tinnitus usally doesn't get worse and that I'd be fine in noisy situations if I just wore hearing protection. I wasn't fine, my tinntius got significantly worse. I don't want to scare anyone but I wished someone would have been a bit more frank with me instead of telling me not to worry.

Nonetheless, I know many people with chronic tinnitus personally and online that are living a normal life and their tinnitus doesn't seem to get worse.

 

Tinnitus may have many different etiologies and by some estimations in about 50% of cases, no etiology can be determined. One reason for that is up to 70% may have physical property involvement or will develop some involvement from such things as turning the neck or development of jaw issues maybe from hypertension.

Some very distinct forms of tinnitus is pulsatile tinnitus or physical tinnitus or cause from inner ear damage and they all have synchronous natures between them. Pulsatile tinnitus development starts more often after having some form of other tinnitus.

Once tinnitus develops there are many warning signs to consider. Medications that can cause tinnitus, triple in value when one has tinnitus.

Age does makes a difference as to reference with so many input values. Older people may have health problems and have physical degenerative conditions and disease. This would include bones, muscles, veins, arteries, nerves, cardiac pulse and cycle.

There are differences in referral patterns in different patient populations. Acoustic source from within the body needs to be considered for acoustic objective source.

Rarely mentioned on this board and so important to include in discussion is physical properties. Not only can physicals or injury cause tinnitus, but can increase tinnitus by more injury that can influence more nerve damage and that can affect the ears and/or brainstem. On the other side of the this equation is that if some physical source is repaired, physical tinnitus may decrease.

 

Up to 70% of tinnitus is caused from noise exposure and 30% have other etiology. 20% have physical, injury and/or disease associations. Cross over patterns is possible - often stated up to 70% and hypertension needs to be added for any form of tinnitus getting worse. Certain meds, increased physical input/injury and more exposure to loud noise is always a concern for those with tinnitus from any cause.

I am hopeful for Susan Shore's device for some with physical tinnitus, but a few have posted that some device makers seem to have excluded physical tinnitus. I think that all devices may help with crossovers. One problem with PT and somatic is continued physical input. Thousands of physical inputs are possible. Some examples is GERD, ETD or sinusitis that can bring fluid to the throat. Questions arise per physical problems having to be controlled first for lasting results. There are thousands of causes of physical tinnitus and conditional crossover patterns where most have been discovered. There are lots of treatments, many in which the medical community is not up to speed with. Many healthcare professionals non study researchers can't even determine cause in 50% that has developed tinnitus.

In the last few weeks and months, several bio techs had good treatment results with conditions that are known to cause physical tinnitus. Much of this research has been given the go ahead by the FDA. There's 300 sectors within stock market investment. Medical is one group with over 30 sub divisions. The number one stock market performer is medical sub divisions of companies that are working on treatments for tinnitus related physical conditions. Many are smaller companies with some having financial support of larger medical or drug companies. Many of these smaller companies have soared 50 - 500% in stock price within the last year.

 

Thank you for your comment. I’m glad that you’re at a seemingly good stage, and I am also. I no longer get stressed out when I notice the ringing by any means. I do wish it wasn’t there when I hear it, but it doesn’t send me into anxiety episodes like it did the first two weeks. I’m 100% again, eating, lifting, playing guitar, etc., but I absolutely wear good quality ear plugs when I’m out now. I’ll continue that for a few months. I hope that my T reduces even further in time as well as yours..

 

I’ve seen your similar posts to this on other threads. I do think that my hearing test was up to date technology-wise, but I agree with your general assessment. It’s likely that I do have some degree of hearing loss even if my specific hearing tests didn’t detect it and even though I notice no difference in my hearing now.

 

I definitely get your point. I will say that I, like Farrah, know individuals who have had tinnitus for years and their cases never got worse. But by reading testimony on this forum it’s clear that many cases get worse and sometimes much worse. I appreciate your comment, and I will remain disciplined in preventing further damage for sanity’s sake..

 

Thanks for the information. I’ve come to conclude what you have. The tinnitus cases present on this forum are undoubtedly skewed to be slightly more severe than the average cases. I know quite a few men who have tinnitus, and they never experienced the initial panic mode that I and many of us did. It’s at most a minor annoyance to them. Truly everyone else I’ve met who have experienced tinnitus did not go through what I felt the first 2 weeks. And I’ve spoken to a few men who had tinnitus for 1-3 months and it faded within that time frame. Some forum members even doubt that occurrence because the cases present here are so extreme. Either way, I’m braced to endure what I will. I only hope that all of our cases improve with time..

 

Did they test for speech in background noise/music, or were you in a total silent room?

Did they test above 8 kHz?

 

I'm at 5 months going to 6 months. I haven't noticed to much of a change in my tinnitus, it's still noticeable but I gotten used to ignore it when I'm doing something. It's only when I try to sleep that it annoys me. I do tend to protect my ears in loud environments, but when I don't, I dont get a spike.

 

Present or detected?

 

I asked to be tested higher than 8K (thanks to some of your posts), but they didn’t have the ability. They did do bone conduction, speech recognition at varying volumes, background noise, etc..

 

What kind of situations made it worse?

 

I honestly don't want to think about it. A club visit with hearing protection because "you shouldn't avoid anything because of your tinnitus" and "loud sounds can't harm you, it's just your emotional reaction that makes the tinnitus seem louder when you're anxious". Other events where there was music.

And at the beginning, I didn't wear any hearing protection in my everyday life because I thought those sounds were safe (vacuumer, mixer, hairdryer, taking a bus or train) but I also don't know if those things actually made it worse. I had no hyperacusis at the beginning, it kept getting worse over the years like my tinnitus.

I know certain events made it worse but I also just tried to keep going and not focus too much on my tinnitus but it just kept getting worse. So I don't think it was just those few events. It felt more like a gradual increase overall.

Edit: Just wanted to say that I genuinely wasn't scared of sounds and didn't even know the word hyperacusis. But if you don't fall into the tinnitus norm, they just say your issues are due to anxiety and stress. And thanks to Jastreboff and TRT, people now believe that everyone's tinnitus is the same and it's just your perception that makes it seem loud and that's just not true.

 

I know that dilemma, at home I know what to do and I won't attend any loud events ever again even with protection. But commuting, working in a pretty noisy environment is tricky.

I got mild hyperacusis only after starting to worry about sound levels, protection and so on

Then I stopped listening to music at all even at low volume. Three months into this, my T has gotten slightly worse if anything

I'm hoping that my T will stay this way since I'm ready to give up almost anything to not make it worse. It just seems that doing everything "right" doesn't always prevent it from getting worse though