Introducing Myself, Tinnitus as a Sports Official

[RingingReferee]

Hello, I have low-level tinnitus from blowing the whistle as a sports official (football for 28 and lacrosse for 3) for almost 30 years. For the past 3-5 years, I have been using clear musician earplugs when I work games. I have hearing loss in the 4000 Hz range but my hearing is in the 95th percentile in all the other ranges. I was told that when my hearing got worse, the tinnitus will go away. Gee thanks!

If one hangs around veteran sports officials, you'll notice that nearly all of them wear hearing aids. Most do multiple sports. I picked up my second sport three years ago and over the years, haven't worked a lot of games. The decibel level of a whistle is 115 dB, way above OSHA guidelines. I recently started using a whistle that is 90 dB and it seems to help.

 

[Contrast]

When it comes to hearing loss the test audiologist use are extremely inaccurate, a general rule of thumb is that you have more hearing loss then they tell you.
http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/#hiddenloss

 

[Contrast]

I was told that when my hearing got worse the tinnitus will go away.

tinnitus is a neurological response to a loss of hearing, if hearing gets better tinnitus should go away.
if hearing gets worse tinnitus will get worse.