Increased Tinnitus Through Bone Conduction?

How is it possible that although somebody protects his hearings with e.g. earplugs (and let's say 30dB reduction) still may experience an increased T and in unfortunate cases the new T level remains?

It this because of bone conduction and outer and inner haircells still can be damaged?
Or is there another mechanism at play?

 

Bone conduction is an unlikely mechanism for subjective tinnitus as this is 'caused' by the auditory cortex responding to damage in the sensorineural pathways. You should avoid earplugs unless you have hyperacusis (increased sensitivity to sound). The more external sound you can be exposed to, the more likely your brain will have its attention shifted away from the tinnitus. With earplugs, you are really focussing the brain on on the main thing it can 'hear' - your tinnitus. By all means protect your hearing - stay away from loud noise and use earplugs (the molded type not the sponge type) if you cannot avoid loud noise - work, concert, party, etc..

 

I said much of the following on another topic somewhere, but....

I once read that loud bass of drums can vibrate through the skull and into the inner ear, triggering or aggravating tinnitus that's already there. I'm a part-time muso with intermittent tinnitus (it never totally goes away, but the loud ringing comes and goes), and I reckon this happens to me virtually every weekend.

I only do duo gigs these days (no drums of bass), but we have some loud backing tracks that really pound through my head. Of course, I wear earplugs (especially in my bad ear), and just when I think I'm gunna get through a gig without aggravation, we'll do a track with loud bass, and *bam*, there it is.

So, while I doubt that this can start/cause initial tinnitus, in my opinion, it's definitely a trigger.

 

I experienced just what you are talking about Meestijn, I was at a gig with earplugs that where supposed to filter 30db and my tinnitus aggravated. It is now after two months a little bit better than right after the gig, but it is still not as "good" as it used to be.

During the gig I could feel the bass quite well, so I also started to wonder whether bone conduction of the bass sound could affect the ear and the tinnitus.

Another explanation would be that the noise level achieved with the ear plugs was still too much for the ears. There are official recommendations about safe exposure to certain levels of noise, for example how long should be safe to stay in 90db. But those are general recommendations and it might be that some people are more sensitive to noise than others. My guess would be that people who got tinnitus (for example due to noise damage in the ear) have more sensitive ears and should be more careful about noise levels.

 

Has to do with shooting guns but still applies: Hearing Loss Through Bone Conduction Elliott H. Berger Hearing Conservation/NIHL 522

If a patient wears earmuffs in combination with custom made earplugs, can you still get hearing loss through bone conduction (through the skull) when shooting a variety of guns? What is the rate of attenuation from external noise to the cochlea through bone conduction?

Answer
The limits to the attenuation for a perfectly attenuating hearing protector, that are imposed by the flanking bone-conduction pathways, vary from about 40 - 60 dB across frequency. This means that even if a hearing protector could block all of the sound entering the earcanal, that sound attenuated by 40 to 60 dB would still get though to the cochlea, and like the sound transmitted via the air-conduction pathway, this energy can cause hearing loss. However, in all but the most extreme environments, this will be sufficient protection. For all but the most susceptible ears and all but the most extreme amounts of gunfire, noise reduction that equals the attenuation imposed by the bone-conduction limits should be quite sufficient. The much larger issue is making sure that the shooter is properly wearing the single or double hearing protection devices to get the maximum protection they can provid

 

Thanks for the answers.

 

Experienced the exact same thing with 25 DB earplugs. One bassdrop, right ear popped (but ENTs don't see any damage) and ears have been ringing for two months.

 

There can be bone conduction in the case of SCD and T

 

Why avoid the sponge type and not the moulded type?

 

What do you mean by bass drop?

 

Yes, i'm interested to know the answer to this also.

 

Honestly and with all due respect where do you get off advising people to not wear earplugs? you have given no real reason to avoid earplug use, just your opinion without any expert documentation or scientific explanation for this?

Then you contradict yourself with this..

Once again with no explanation as to why sponge type earplugs should not be used.

I'm afraid this whole post of yours is nonsensical and you seem to have little or no evidence to back these claims up once again misinformation which is giving members false information about ear protection.

Myself, I give no credence at all to bone conduction, which at the moment, has very little evidence to back it's claim up and until their is more conclusive evidence, we should not be scare mongering with unfounded and ill informed opinions!

I have been wearing foam earplugs for 20 + years with a good 60% of that time wearing them 24/7 and my hearing is the same as when I first got T 25 years ago, no so called bone conduction hearing loss at all!

 

I swear I read somewhere that our skull attenuates 40+db, that may be wrong though.

I also thought foam plugs were the best as they seem to block the most decibels, the ones I use are minimum 33db.

But I know literally nothing so I'm probably wrong!

 

Once again with no explanation as to why sponge type earplugs should not be used.

I'm afraid this whole post of yours is nonsensical and you seem to have little or no evidence to back these claims up once again misinformation which is giving members false information about ear protection.

Myself, I give no credence at all to bone conduction, which at the moment, has very little evidence to back it's claim up and until their is more conclusive evidence, we should not be scare mongering with unfounded and ill informed opinions!

I have been wearing foam earplugs for 20 + years with a good 60% of that time wearing them 24/7 and my hearing is the same as when I first got T 25 years ago, no so called bone conduction hearing loss at all!

 

Im curious after having T for so long do you have Hyper acusis? Thank you.

My H went down after eliminating Trazadon and weening off of Effexor. Unfortunately the T is up?
Its really hard to get a positive movement on this buggar!

 

Even if this was the case, 40 db is virtually as quiet as a whisper, (30db) which last I heard, no one ever got hearing damage from a whisper!

Foam earplugs are the best, I have worn foam plugs to Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, The Pink Floyd Experience and AC/DC, with no problems what so ever.

No your not and to gain more knowledge, do your own research, use common sense to weigh each claim on it's merits, evidence and logic and give yourself more credit than you do!

Yes only because I suffered depression and had a bad relapse but before that, H was never too much of an issue even though I did have it a little but only because of my over use of earplugs.

Your welcome.

 

This:

The Prodigy Heineken Music Hall Amsterdam 2015...