Increased Tinnitus After MRI

Hi Everyone,

I have tinnitus since long time 1999 from shooting with machine gun. It improved after that and I went on with my life. But it went really bad 3 years ago after another noise exposure by accident (police car passed near me and I did not cover my ears). Within 6 months I improved and moved again with my life but this time I was very careful around noise I was going out with earplugs all the time I was so scared from the noise. My tinnitus is very reactive and that protection made me even more sensitive to noise. Anyway I was habituated to the tinnitus, I can hear it and it will spike from time to time for no reason or sometimes when watching TV but that's just temporary. It was nothing to worry about. I was avoiding noisy places and all was good.

Unfortunately I needed to to do an MRI scan on my head due to health issues. I went on the scan I put my 3M earplugs in ear and another earmuffs on the top provided by them. I was thinking I was safe. But I was wrong, tinnitus screams 3 days now. One hour is OK, the next hour is back it is fluctuating a lot. I could not believe it with 2 types of ear protection it got me again. The scan lasted for 30 minutes and the noise was not constant. I could hear the noise through the earplugs but I did not think is bad enough to cause any damage. As if that was the case I was going to ask them to stop. How wrong was I. I can feel my ears now feel different they are even more sensitive to sound.

I don't know what to do now. My tinnitus was always improving but now I don't think it will. I don't eat any food and I feel very depressed as I have now accumulated further damage already my damaged ears.

 

All cells in our body have experienced a huge dose of radiation.
Try high doses of NAC.

 

@BrStan@ Okay you have a setback but your tinnitus should improve with time. You improved before and can do it again. Just an FYI. Never use 3M ear plugs. 3M has been known to make defective products. Research 3M defective ear plugs, they knowingly hurt people.

 

@Yuri_ol MRI's work on magnetism, and there is zero ionizing radiation.

@Ken219 The 3M earplugs are a specific model used by the military that is dual ended, and made from silicone. 3M makes many different earplugs and the lawsuit AFAIK has nothing to do with their other models on the market, including the foam models.

Unfortunately, many hospitals use the cheapest earplugs, the PVC 3M ones, and while not defective, only are rated for 29 db of NRR, while the best ones available from polyurethane foam can do 33 db of noise reduction.

@BrStan@ MRI's are ridiculously loud- like > 100 db's in many cases. Your ear are fragile, and a single noise exposure can induce this type of severe T spike. What you can do is protect your ears, and give it some time. It may take months, but there is a chance that this will improve. Avoid further MRI's, and if truly needed, seek out a quieter one, or at least an open one as they are quieter and the noise does not reverberate in the tunnel.

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/crira/2013/510258/#B9

At least you had double protection in place, but in susceptible patients, a T-spike will occur from the prolonged, noisy environment on the MRI- even while protected.

 

If they did it to the military why would they care about the public! Did you not get the word 'knowingly'. To me that is criminal.

 

I think the defective earplug was made by a subsidiary of 3M- Aereo, subsequently acquired, and 3M inherited the lawsuit. I don't think that 3M even really designed the earplugs that proved to be defective. Yes, 3M did continue to sell them after they acquired this company and their contract with the military, under the 3M brand and they are absolutely culpable of that, which is why they are being sued. Still, this really has nothing to do with 3M's other earplugs, but you can certainly choose another brand, which I do. Still, on balance, I would not characterize all of their earplugs as defective, and nobody else has either.

My heart truly goes out to the military service members provided defective earplugs, and I thank them for their service under bad circumstances, made absolutely worse with a defective product.

 

Thank you for your response I I don't think I will ever improve as I have T since long time with hearing loss and it was getting worse and worse. I need some help already from a doctor. I have never taken any medication for T but this time has come. It is like my biggest nightmare came true.

 

I was reluctant to take medication 25 years ago. I gave in and here I am. Sleep is important. I have high end hearing loss. I pray for a better treatment everyday. G-D bless

 

Hi everyone, I am in a very bad situation. I need advice, please.

I have had tinnitus since 1999 - it's noise induced. It got significantly worse during the years but I got used to it. Some days were hard to handle it but most of the time I was OK and I was living somehow a normal life or something very close to it.

2 weeks ago I had to do MRI scan and that was my biggest mistake. My tinnitus is now very bad and to make it even worse the MRI shows a cyst in my right sinus. I need to go for a surgery to remove the cyst as I am in a lot of pain and my right cheek is swollen. I am so scared from the surgery as there will be a lot of ototoxic drugs (general anesthesia, painkillers, antibiotics). I am 100% sure they will worsen the tinnitus even further as my tinnitus is spiking from everything. And right now my tinnitus is screaming in my head, my sinus is hurting and I don't know what to do.

Every night when I go to bed I pray not to wake up but unfortunately I do. It will be so nice to just die and all will finish, no more anxieties, no more worries about tinnitus.

The last 3 years I was living in fear that tinnitus will increase and it did. I am just tired of tinnitus increasing and losing habituation. I have no more strength to fight.

Please if someone has severe tinnitus and has had to do a surgery give me some advice as I can't see any hope and have the feeling that I need to just end it all.

 

You have every right to feel this way, since from 1999 you have been fighting during each second, each day, each, week, each, month, each $#^$ year. You have done, and you are doing your best. I am not sure what to say, your fear of further worsening is reasonable. The hard part is to find a doctor who will listen and take into consideration your situation, so to provide the less dangerous options regarding the drugs. My heart goes out to you because nobody can understand this condition in its debilidating form. It's an ordeal beyond imagination.

 

Your statement is wrong. Try not to live with 'fear', because tinnitus will increase. You are not 'losing' habituation, you are habituating! I do not know your age but if you habituated you know it takes time and you can do it again!

You have had tinnitus since 1999, why have you only feared the last 3 years your tinnitus will increase?

 

I have severe tinnitus and the ENT did nothing but suggest to get an MRI. I decided not to since they are loud I am afraid of my t getting even worse.

I have the impression here that a MRI usually doesn't show anything related to the tinnitus anyway.

At least, yours showed something?
Sorry, I don't have anything else.

 

Because it got worse 3 years ago and the loudness increased and I had to habituate to this new level.

 

Don't do MRI it will further damage your ears even with earplugs

 

The largest two hospital systems in California are no longer having their doctors order MRIs for acoustic trauma with development of tinnitus. Hospitals do get a good financial return from insurance per a MRI. When I saw my GP last, he confirmed that he no longer will order a MRI for acoustic trauma. He said they are just too loud. He will order a MRI for a suspected brain injury or disease, but prefers a CTA for whiplash and for other causes of physical somatic tinnitus. The problem with multiple CTA's is radiation that can add more problems to physical and PT such as increased salvia and thyroid interaction.

 

What about CT scans?

 

At least CT scans are a lot faster, and quieter. I would imagine that the yield for MRI's for T is quite low.

 

The choice of imaging tech depends on what you are looking for, or looking to rule out.

If you have single sided hearing loss (and/or tinnitus), you often get told to do an MRI to rule out an acoustic neuroma (even if the odds are very small). You wouldn't be sent to a CT scan for that.

However, if your doctor suspects otosclerosis or something else having to do with bone structure, you would most likely be sent to a CT scan, and not an MRI.

You are sent to the imaging technology that best fits the diagnosis investigation.

 

@GregCA

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5690865/

"Imaging plays a central role in the screening, initial and follow up assessment of VS. Imaging can often differentiate VS from other entities such as facial nerve schwannoma, meningioma, epidermoid cyst, arachnoid cyst, aneurysm and metastasis. MRI is the preferred modality and can provide exquisite tumor characterization, surgical planning and post-therapeutic evaluation. A contrast-enhanced CT of the temporal bones can serve as an alternative if the patient cannot undergo MRI."

Looks like the CT with contrast is a reasonable alternative for those where an acoustic neuroma (or vestibular schwanoma is the alternative term) is of concern, rather than jumping to an MRI right away for these patients. Absolutely though, MRI is the modality of choice, and should be used if the clinical suspicion warrants it.

 

Did you use contrast?

 

No.

 

@BrStan has your tinnitus lowered since the MRI?

 

Avoid MRI's if at all possible. My tinnitus worsened significantly after an MRI (even though I wore earplugs) over a year ago and never went back to pre-MRI levels. If you absolutely must have one for some reason, insist on the doctor finding a quiet one, even if you have to travel for it.

 

I've done MRI of head/brain with my own plugs made by "Ohropax"(made in Germany).
Had 2 versions, 32dB (Ohropax classics) and 35dB (Ohropax color) - https://www.ohropax.de/en/products , both of them are very comfortable and easy to use, works well as I can't hear a s*it with them while plugged in ears.

MRI took about 20-25 minutes, maximum was around 95dB (based on info from MRI technician/salesman based on their measurement before the scan) and no issue at all afterwards, no worsening, no spike.

Ask them that you'll bring your own earplugs, don't use theirs and if possible, they should provide with MRI earmuffs to get it quieter a little more. (I didn't have earmuffs while scanning). Device was Toshiba Vantage/Titan 1.5 Tesla - marketing says that it uses piannissimo - quiet sequences but It's just marketing, It was as loud as any other 1.5T MRI like Siemens etc.

 

They wouldn't let me use my own earplugs, just the ones they gave me. Did you have your MRI before or after the onset of your tinnitus?

 

No unfortunately. I am in a very bad place at the moment. It was looking that somehow I was adjusting to the tinnitus and I had some good days. But now my tinnitus is very reactive. On Friday I was driving my mother-in-law's car with earplugs and earmuffs and that somehow made my tinnitus even worse. Don't ask me why, I can not explain it but it looks like even with protection and not that loud sounds my ears continue to get damaged.

 

Your tinnitus is very recent. Loud sound will not spike it easily. When you have had tinnitus for long years with multiple noise exposured and periods of habituation, that is what causes trouble. When I first got tinnitus back in 1999 I had many noise exposures. I did not know what a spike is but now the game has changed. Protect your ears once you have tinnitus. If you are not careful it can get very bad.

 

I wish I had known that.

 

I'm pretty unhappy with doctors as a group. My condition was initiated by one of the "harmless" prescriptions they told me to take (megadose ibuprofin), then after it settled down it returned full blast after I was given an MRI. Doctors need to be better-educated about tinnitus risks. It's a common condition and they completely ignore its risks as well as the suffering that it produces.

I was getting yet another hearing test a few days ago (no measurable hearing loss, again- can we stop this now?), and the audiologist put something into my ear for a special hearing sensitivity test which she said would be loud. I said I wasn't comfortable with that due to my tinnitus which can spike from loud noises, but she just kind of looked at me and ignored that & kept going with the test. When it quickly got too loud, I pulled the thing out of my ear and said sorry, but that's as much as I could do. She looked at me like I was a little crazy or immature or something, and just moved on. Sometimes they just don't care. They haven't suffered what we have and they just can't imagine it. Lucky them.

 

Absolutely agree on that. If someone hasn't been tortured by tinnitus they have not clue about it.