Mild Tinnitus — How Should I Proceed?

Hey everyone. I‘m new here and developed tinnitus about 1,5 months ago. I hope that you can point me in the right direction on what to do next and how i should proceed. I try to give you a short overview over the things that happend.

Also english is not my first language so plaese forgive me some errors

I developed tinnitus in the beginning of june together with a very bad cold (nose totally closed, eyes watery, could breathe just trough my mouth at night). I woke up in the middle of the night to a loud ringing in my left ear (like when you get fleeting tinnitus). It went away after about 30 mins and left me with kind of a mild ringing which subsided the following days. A friend of mine which sells hearing aids did a hearing test and i had some dips to 20db and 25db at 500 and 8k in both ears. But since he said it could also be because of the cold i should do the test again after everything cleared up.

However some days later i awoke to the same loud ringing in my right ear, it went away after about 10 min. but left me with my mild ringing which i still have today. Also i noticed for 2-3 days a bit of sound senitivity where everything was to loud. But that went away immediately.

I went to an ENT the some days later, he said i have no infection in my ears and everything is ok, so i should take a nasal spray (budesonide) and just give it time.

I took the hearing test again 2 weeks later and everything was back to normal except a dip to 10db at 500.

Then until half of june the ringing was getting better, i sometimes didn‘t even heard it at night or in silent rooms, just if i plugged my ears and searched for it.

I then went on holidays 1 week ago, 7h flight with a boeing, so it was a bit noisy but since my tinnitus wasn‘t noise induced, i didn‘t thought about bringing ear plugs. The following night i had a minor spike, in the morning everything was back to normal more or less, maybe a bit louder.

On my way back i tried to use some headphones without music to block some noise out, however at some point they seemed to create some kind of piercing echo with the plane engines so i had to take them off. When i got home(this weekend) i noticed another spike and a loud static in my left ear, but after i went to bed it was away.

So now my tinnitus seems like before, maybe a bit louder, but it fluctuates more, sometimes there is total silence, sometimes it gets louder. Mostly in the morning it is the loudest, and sometimes before sleeping. I also noticed now some twitching in my ears during the day(like the nervous twitching of the eyelid).
Also if i yawn i get a high beep in my right ear, and if i move my jaw forward or clench it i hear a really loud static. Sometimes also i get another sound in my ears if i do this.

I am 28 years old, healthy, never took any medication my whole life (except the occasional ibuprofene for headaches). I did a MRI 3 weeks before the tinnitus becaus of something else, and everything came back normal. I had a car accident in april where i developed a trauma (nausea, vertigo ecc.) for 2 weeks but CT came back normal. Also i recovered quickly from the accident.

So my question is, what sould i do? I have another ENT appointment (different doc) in the hospital on the 7th of August. Should i wait and do nothing? What do you recommend? Atm i live 95% a normal life (no clubs, no headphones with music, no concerts), i can sleep for 10h if i want without problems but i am quiet anxious because i feels so powerless with this thing.

Sry for the long Wall of text, i hope i wrote just the important stuff. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to red it and maybe leave me some indications

 

It’s completely normal to get some degree of anxiety with the T(short for tinnitus). It’s not as easy as said, but try to stay calm. We have no direct control over it, but freakin out normally makes it worse.

I think you’re doing the right thing about seeing another ENT. They can be very different. Be sure to mention to the ENT that you get these sounds when moving the jaw. Sometimes stress in the muscles can cause the T and can be relieved in certain ways. I’m no expert in that so can’t help so much about that.

I know it might be frustrating that you don’t know what caused it. But I think it’s good that you think about protection yourself against noise in the future even that it might not be the cause.

You’re lucky that it’s mild. Many has it way worse, so try not to worry too much about it. Adapt to it and enjoy life.

Don’t hold back on the questions. There is many kind and helpful people in here.

I’m sorry that I couldn’t be of much help but I hope my reply at least helps you to calm down about all this.

Hope you’re doing great

 

Thank you very much for your kind words so at least i know i‘m doing the right things.

I‘m doing fine atm, hope you too.

 

Anyone else an idea of what i should do? I also experience some kind of reaction to other noises (when im driving i hear a faint whistling or when there is strong wind i notice a whistling in there). Is this common? That bothers me more than my actual Tinnitus, since i never know if the sound is real or not.