Maybe Not Due to Acoustic Trauma?

I've had Tinnitus in primarily the left ear for 24 days now. The day before I was using an angle grinder to cut metal for a total of 2-3 minutes. My primary care and I figured it was due to acoustic trauma from the metal cutting. An audiology exam showing high frequency hearing loss (8k hearing beginning at 70DB in left and 60DB in right ear) seemed to confirm this. I have not taken anything for it but fish oil and multivitamins. I had a high tone ringing in the left ear, a fullness in that ear and a sense of pressure. I had 2-3 nights over the course of the first two weeks where for a few moments to minutes I had sharp pain in the left ear for a few minutes followed by a relief of pressure and reduction to almost zero Tinnitus ringing. Now, three weeks after onset, and for the past couple of days I have noticed a hissing sound as well as the high pitched ringing. Perhaps the ringing is lower in tone - its hard to say. I also have a small degree of ringing in the right ear that comes and goes.

Does anyone think that congestion or an ear infection that did not present itself at the Primary Care's office may be responsible? I have no history of loud noise exposure but I did not have a baseline audiology exam to compare to. I also got a follow up audiology exam that showed a 5-15DB improvement at 6k Hz and 8k Hz in the left and right ear hearing thresholds. I have been unable to schedule a ENT sooner than a week from now. I saw an ENT Physicians assistant who simply said she sees this often and to simply wait and it will in all likely hood go away. Very misleading and incompetent advice. I also got zero recommendation to avoid noisy environments, caffeine, alcohol etc.

I am returning to the GP tomorrow to request Prednisone.

The US medical care system is an abysmal failure. Self directed care and research is the only thing that will assure we get reasonable care.

 

It most likely is due to acoustic trauma. Audiogram shows hearing loss (which recovered some) and it popped up after noise exposure.

It is not too late to look into the AM-101 trial. It looks like you could benefit from it, assuming you don't get placebo.

 

Yours sounds similar to mine, except I've had no noise trauma. The whole thing started 7 weeks ago after I got water in my ear. It started with a high pitch ringing which then faded out & I was left with the hissing. I had otitis externa but they didn't believe I had a middle ear infection as no fluid or hearing loss. I've had the full feeling & pressure & shooting pains. 2 weeks ago the high pitch ringing came back & has stayed this time which is really depressing :-(

 

@Nucleo
Thanks for the heads up on AM 101. The tinnitustalk thread has a AM 101 poll with more respondents reporting and increase in T than a reduction. I realize it's not a scientific poll and that the increase may be temporary but still it's not encouraging. Anyone have any other information about the bad poll results? I will look into it further.

@nick1982
Thanks for relating your experience. I think you are very likely to have T eliminated once your inner/ middle and outer ear are cleared of infection and likely inflammation. Anyone with T under 3 months has an 80% chance of T no longer being "bothersome" at one year after onset. The percentage is likely higher where there is no noise trauma. Did you get antibiotics or corticosteroids for your ottitus externa?