It Doesn't Make Any Sense (Confusing Test Results)

I've never been to a concert in my life, whenever I've been exposed to loud noises I've protected my ears, with a few exceptions, but nothing extreme like a gunshot or explosion. I used to use earbuds, but no more than any other person my age, and I didn't blast them at max volume for hours on end. When I used to play PC games frequently, I always wore over-ear headphones (never in ear) and played them at normal volume. My father has worked with power tools his whole life, been to 40+ metal concerts, front row, with no hearing protection. He's a type-A software engineer and he doesn't have T. Meanwhile I've had T since I was 15 which got worse as I aged. I am now 21 and it is unbearable. I know it will only get worse, and I can't take it as it is.

I have two "tones," a LOUD one in my left ear that absolutely cannot be matched to a pitch (but seems to be very high, above 6800Hz) that is accompanied by an intense, unrelenting feeling of ear pressure and numbness, and a fluctuating whistle in my right that changes between 2 or 3 sounds constantly (usually around 1500Hz). Sneezing or any kind of valsalva-like stress changes the tone in my right ear from a fluctuating whistle to one single high pitched tone, while also making it quieter as long as the ear STAYS pressurized. Once I move my jaw and the pressure clears, the tone goes back to being loud and fluctuating.

The little bit of hearing loss that I DO have changes every time I have an audiogram.

This was my first audiogram late last year. The tones were masked and played twice only. Confusingly, the 12kHz result here is -20db in both ears. In the high-frequency test I just had a few months ago, it was 5 db...



This was an audiogram I just had a few weeks ago. They offered to play high-pitched tones three times instead of two, giving me more time to pick the tone out from the T noise, because my high-pitched T masks the sounds during the test. As you can see, the results are far better, all within 0-10 db except 6 kHz in my perfect (right) ear, mostly normal for my age (21)



This is a high-frequency hearing test. I was tested up to 16kHz. As you can see, my high-frequency hearing is spectacular in both ears up to 16kHz, where it is still in normal range... Apparently my ultra high frequency (8-16 kHz) hearing is even better than my normal 1-8 kHz hearing? -0 to -5 dB... I I can detect sounds up to 19kHz if the volume is set medium-high. When people turn on an old tube TV, my head turns like a dog... I can hear that from a mile away. I thought you were supposed to lose your high frequency hearing first when you got noise damage?



I just don't know what's going on. Don't suggest "hidden hearing loss" either - I've had BAER/ABR and OAE tests. They came back great. All sounds reach my brain like they should. MRI indicated no acoustic neuroma, but they didn't check for anything else. Are there ANY reversible causes of constant high-pitched T out there that I could be suffering from at all? Allergies? TMJ Disorders? Neck tension? Is a 10-15db loss REALLY all you need to get horrible, permanent, ever-worsening tinnitus? I can't deal with this anymore.

 

Those tests can't confirm with a 100% accuracy if you have hidden hearing loss or not. @bill 112 what do you think??

 

Firstly I'm in the exact same boat,perfect hearing etc but none of these tests are accurate enough to detect hidden hearing loss,in reality there is currently no real test to detect hidden hearing loss at all this is why they are currently developing much more accurate tests to detect a hidden loss.With audiogram,OAES etc like this they mainly give a general view of cochlear function but they can't 100% say if there's damage or not,I learnt this the hard way.