I Used to Love White Noise but This Is Ridiculous! Tinnitus and Pain in Left Ear

Hi folks!

Wow, where has this site been for the last 6 years of my life? Anyway, glad I've stumbled upon it.

I have had mild to moderate tinnitus in both ears since 2009. As the title suggests, it has a ssssssss sound, kind of like ambient white noise. It's been a major annoyance, but I'm over the initial anxiety, and I pretty much just put up with it. I know there's no cure, but that it can be reduced and managed, and I'm very conscious of my ears these days - ear plugs at loud gigs!

My issue that brought me here is not really my T or my mild hearing loss, it's actually a pain that I get in my left ear, which is set off by loud sounds and sometimes just moderately loud sounds.

Like I said, I've very conscious of my ears, and always were musicians ear plugs at gigs, and when I jam music. My problem is that despite being conscious of volume, through noise making, (I'm into experimental music) I can often trigger this pain in my left ear anyway, and it drives me crazy.

I get this burning pain in my left ear, usually the next day (after the jam). It's moderately painful, and I get distressed, because it turns me off wanting to make music which is a big part of my life.

I wish I get some kind of diagnosis.

I've had Gp's tell me that it's a recurring infection, not related, to my T and that I need antibiotics but multiple courses of antibiotics didn't work.

I had a (poorly reputed) ENT specialist tell me it was Epstein Barr virus which has later been scoffed at by other GP's.

My latest GP, thought it was Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, but that was thrown out by my latest ENT specialist who thinks it is either related to noise damage like my T, or my jaws out of alignment.

Anyway, while I wait for my next ENT appointment and for my xray results of my jaw and brain, I'm hoping to find some answers on this site.

I feels to me like it's related to noise damage like my T, but my T or hearing loss isn't any worse in my left ear than my right. Anyway, bit of a ramble, looking forward to finding peeps with the same condition, some kind of diagnosis, and hopefully some kind of treatment. Cheers

Matthew.

 

Year ago the music made my both ears hurt, mostly higher frequencies. Drum overheads+ snare were killing me. Had an acoustic trauma with headphones, it took me a year off music to get back to listening music with laptop speakers, haven't dared to put my speakers on. Also sold all my headphones. This is serious stuff. My newborn keeps my ears busy as it is.

As much as I've been told is that ear organ(cochlea?) can exhaust, so it will swell like any other organ or body part. Now if your leg swells the skin will stretch, you take some work off the leg and it heals. If ear organ swells it has very little room inside the skull, so it hurts; skull doesn't stretch. So listening to sounds, especially full frequency range music makes the ear work, its like you try to walk or run with swelled leg.

This is one doctor telling me this, but it seems logical. Basically you should, if its not related to infection or something else, give your ears some rest. I would suggest if driving a car on a highway, shopping malls etc to use hearing protection. At home give yourself pink noise therapy at level which doesn't hurt, adding volume week by week, then move to the white noise- google that for more. Idea is that you have all the control of how much work your ears are gonna make. It took me a year to where i am cause i overprotected(it made my ears more sensitive) and didn't do any sound enrichment.

Anti inflammaton stuff can come in handy theoretically, taking down the swelling, try look into things like- onion, caspiacin (habanero-ay caramba!), A/C/B6 vitamin, taurine..

..these are things that i have noticed on my year old journey of moderate hyperacusis, might be constructive lol.
All the best and write here if you get any better. Also maybe get the second opinion from a doc on that swelling theory, id be very interested to get more in depth info about that too, coulnt find much from dr.google.

 

Call an audiologist and tell them you think you might have hyperacusis and ask them to perform a loudness discomfort level test on you.

In the mean time you can listen to low level pink noise through your speakers or headphones, just make sure it's low level especially with headphones.

 

Yeah, thanks guys, it seems ridiculous that I've been given the run-around by doctors and specialists, when I should have listened to my gut instinct; this pain IS noise related.

My goal is to get to a point where I can use musicians ear plugs again with 25db filters if I need them, play live, and not have to worry about my damn ears!

"Basically you should, if its not related to infection or something else, give your ears some rest. I would suggest if driving a car on a highway, shopping malls etc to use hearing protection. At home give yourself pink noise therapy at level which doesn't hurt, adding volume week by week, then move to the white noise- google that for more. Idea is that you have all the control of how much work your ears are gonna make."

Sounds like good advice rainman.

I need to accept that I have this thing, and rest up.

I'll checkout this pink noise thing and info on hyperacusis. Cheers!

 

do you have jaw problems?

 

Not really, a little clicky at times. I've just had some jaw xrays done, and waiting to see my ENT to check results. It's possible I grind a bit, but don't know if this has affected or contributed to my T or ear pain. Cheers.

 

wrong specialist for tmj!

 

Matthew

It sounds like you have Hyperacusis (pain from sound) and you need to adjust some of the social activities. First and foremost. STOP going to clubs and concerts, period. Even with ear plugs you're skull is absorbing high amounts of sound. This will cause more damage and you will suffer even worse. I know this for a fact and have learned the hard way. Protect your ears from now on. and avoid loud places forever. I was a musician for 20 years and had to stop completely. My T and H started in 2006 and by 2008 I had to sell all my guitars and gear and give it up completely.. This condition will only get worse if you don't change your activity now.

 

Whats the correct specialist for TMJ?

 

Wow, ok George, I haven't heard that musicians earplugs can be ineffective in stopping noise damage. As soon as I got T in 2009, I basically spent my rent money on musicians earplugs, and have been using them them with a 25db filter religiously ever since. My T has not gotten any worse. It only increases in times of stress, then drops till it's normal state which is usually fairly mild.

I have had a few jams recently where I was a bit careless with the sound and it's triggered my left ear pain (still undiagnosed). Bad me, I won't do that again. But I'm not ready to pack it all in yet, and sell all my gear. I do feel I can get some kind of management around these issues. It may mean modifying my sound, to avoid all harsh frequencies and volumes, but this is difficult when playing live, and I was hoping that M earplugs would protect my ears while allowing me to play at the volume I need to.

I will look into this idea that I could still be doing damage despite wearing M plugs, it's a bit sobering, eek! Sorry that you had to give up music completely, that must have been quite traumatic.

 

I couldn't imagine giving up playing my bass and music. When I have a spike, playing my bass keeps my mind busy from focusing on the T. My hearing was sensitive for a couple weeks after the T started, but the sensitivity is gone. I always wear my musician's ear plugs with 15 db filters and they do protect my ears from the loud band volume. There are a lot of famous musician's with T and are still going strong.

 

An ENT may be able to help, but a dental specialist at a TMJ Clinic is usually then best expert to see about TMJD.