New to Tinnitus — Noticed the Symptoms After an MRI

Hi, I have gotten the first symptoms of tinnitus a few weeks ago a day or two after an MRI scan.

I am not sure if this was the reason as I also had pretty awful sinusitis and lots of stress, so maybe everything combined?

I live with adult ADHD and endometriosis so this new condition really pushed me off the track...came from the left and is really hard to manage. I am so happy I found this forum and I hope I can get some help and support from everyone and be some support to others.

 

Considering that you noticed this after an MRI, I would think that the noise from the MRI damaged your hearing and this is the result. I'm not 100% sure as there are several causes but the fact that you mentioned that leads me to believe that it was the noise from the MRI.

What types of sounds, sensations are you experiencing if I may ask?

 

A considerable number of people on this site got tinnitus as a result of having an MRI...

 

Did they give you any contrast for the MRI?

Was it an MRI of the head or lower down? Was it noisy inside the machine?

 

I didn't get my tinnitus originally from and MRI can, but it was made worse from an MRi scan. Mine was a head MRI. The sound of mine is now more tinny/metalic and definitely more in my head too rather than just the ears.

I'e really annoyed as I went to great lengths to make sure the MRi wouldn't give me any trouble,ie found an MRi scanner with a quiet suite, made sure I was given both ear plugs and headphones (as provided by the manufacturer Siemens), drilled the radilogist by email for two-three weeks before the scan to ask every possible question under the sun only to be told there would be no problem and asked my GP who said I would be ok. Still got worse tinnitus.

Only to be told my scan was all clear!!! Man, I hate health professionals. Twice i've been burned now.

My advice is don't ever bother getting an MRI unless the doctors are pretty damn sure you have something serious.

 

That's a bit silly: if the doctors knew you had something serious, they wouldn't need the MRI. The MRI is a diagnosis tool: it's there to help you get imaging clues to either rule out or confirm a hypothesis.

In our hearing loss & tinnitus context, the use of MRI is generally to rule out an acoustic neuroma, when the patient presents unilateral HL/T (because it's extremely rare to have an acoustic neuroma develop on both sides simultaneously) that doesn't have any other reasonable explanation (acoustic trauma, otosclerosis, barotrauma, etc).

 

What I mean if they don't really suspect anything then don't bother getting an MRI. I go one, just because to!! And I tried my best to get an expert opinion on things and got burned. That's how I see it anyway.

 

I had and MRI, it was louder than I thought, but didn't get any spike or anything from it. Maybe you stressed so much about it you actually created a spike in your mind. That's what happened for my original tinnitus so...

I agree with @GregCA, it would be silly not to do it if it is unilateral.

But advice is welcomed so I will give mine: wear foam earplugs, it should be okay.

 

Glad at least to hear you had both earplugs and ear muffs for protection from the noise of the MRI. They are damn loud, and a delayed spike days after this type of noise exposure is far too common. Be sure to protect you ears vigilantly from further noise damage, including the vacuum, hair dryer, paper shredder and throw your headphones away. Give it some months, and it will most likely improve.

 

What I forgot to think about before I had my MRI is that the sound/noise would simply go through my skull. I only thought about my ears at the time.

 

Thanks for reminding everyone here not to get an MRI.


You do know what caused your tinnitus.

 

Don't get an MRI to eliminate a remote possibility of something serious...

 

Yes, at the higher db's, there is a certain amount of noise through bone conduction that reaches the ears. Earmuffs can reduce this a little, but the rest of the skull area is unprotected.