Hyperacusis / Dysacusis / Distorted Pure Sounds — What Do I Hear?

[streeter1985]

Hello

I dont know if I am correct here in the Hyperacusis area but I struggle after a hearing loss in August 2017 with distorted sounds.

I also posted a thread in the basic support area but I was not sure if I better fit here.

The damage of my hearing loss is at 5khz and above and in hearing tests I can hear each pure tone at each frequency BUT completly distorted like a "bzzz" instead of a nice pure tone. When the hearing test on one frequency gets louder also the "bzzz" sound gets louder. Thats ONLY in the damaged areas! Everything lower 5khz is not affected and completly normal. I have an air/bone gap but I hear the distorted pure tones on air and bone the same.

I tried wearing a hearing aid to support the damaged areas but I only get "bzzz" sounds so wearing hearing aids seems not to be a solution for me. Do I need to wear it to "retrain" the situation.

I am afraid as the ENTs were not able to find the root cause that another hearing loss could also destroy lower frequencies with the same distorted result! I have numb feeling of my skin left body side and face...no root cause. I feel like my left side is still "fighting".

I tried to get help on german hearing loss communities but they said thats completly unusual.

Is this Hyperacusis or Dysacusis what I hear? I was not able to find someone who has the same condition...unable to wear hearing aids I kind of get afraid. The "bzzz" sound also sounds like a part of my Tinnitus.

I add some summary here and my audiograms, hope you guys can help me to understand what I actually hear.

• No Rinne or Weber test yet
• CT sinuses, mastoid cells, middle ear etc and brain/head MRI - everything fine
• cervical spine MRI fine
• Blood tests fine
• Borreliosis/lyme disease - negative
• Tympanogram - fine
• Took antiviral medication - no result, dont know if it was useful
• 4 cortison therapies since August 2017 even middle ear injection

What I do next:

• "Neuronal" Lyme-disease antibiotica
• Hyperbaric oxygen therapy - starting with 15 sessions

Thank you so much!

 

[dingaling]

Hi, what you appear to have is neural type hearing loss and the amplification provided by hearing aids tends to fall off after 4kHz - therefore providing little or no benefit at higher frequencies.

From the information you have supplied, I wouldn't say you have either hyperacusis. Neural damage - or even cochlear damage can mean distortion

 

[Keremsv]

Its not hyperacusis

 

[streeter1985]

@dingaling @Keremsv

Thank you for your replies!

To be new in this condition I though that when you have hearing loss you only hear things quieter and can amplify sound with hearing aids and thats just it. I didnt know that there are that many different things that could happen. I was not able to get any clear answer about the "bzzzz" sounds. I mean it makes sense that damage in the inner ear can also cause those sounds but I was on different german communities to get answers and ENTs and they all had no idea...it seems not that common.