No Hearing Loss and No Damaged Hair Cells

hmm im confused right now today i took another hearing test and they test my haircells in my ears and the ENT said my hairingcells react normal for my age so how is it possible that i have tinnitus and TTTS and mild hyperacusis ? im pretty sure i got my tinnitus 2 years ago cause of noise trauma i went years to festivals without hearing protection

 

As I've learned from my time on this site, a standard audiogram may not detect your hearing loss. Because a standard audiogram only tests for sounds in the range of normal human speech, while your hearing loss could be much higher.

 

You have damaged hair cells for sure. Protect your hearing in future and avoid loud festivals and pubs, or wear effective protection. Take NAC, Magnesium, zinc, and vitamines C, E, A for prevention.

 

they did a test on my haircells and they respond all lik a normal ear

 

It's like what @MattK said: Yes, you had an audiometry exam and it showed no hearing loss. But my guess is they tested to 8000 hz, the normal level for most of these tests. That is because that is toward the upper range of what humans normally hear. But there are more advanced tests that go beyond that level -- so they can see how your ears respond to sound that is higher than what you normally would detect.

When I had my first hearing test done, I also was told everything was normal. But when I went for a full audiology workup, in advance of doing sound therapy, they found I did indeed have hearing loss, way up high... about 14,000 hz (I keep forgetting the exact number). My loss is mild in one ear, moderate in the other. Yet I never feel like I can't hear, because these frequencies are not in the range I normally perceive.

You will hear many folks on this board say they have tinnitus with no hearing loss, and I basically consider myself one of them. But in many cases, we just have a loss at a very high frequency.

The above advice @Johno gave was good: Always wear ear protection in loud environments, try supplements for protection as well (I personally go with NAC and magnesium).

 

what is NAC ?

 

@jonathanvg: It's N-acetyl cysteine. It is a natural antioxidant that some believe helps protect the neurological system. I use it short-term when I have unexpected noise exposure,but some take it daily. Here is a whole long thread that will tell you plenty:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/n-acetylcysteine-nac.395/page-4#post-65017

 

I agree with others. If you started tinnitus 2 years ago because of noise trauma, most likely some hair cells in high frequency are damaged. Do you have high pitch T?

 

no i dont i barely notice it its like SHHHHHHHHHH thats my tinnitus like but i have TTTS symptons and mild hyperacusis its the TTTS and hyperacusis that bothers me

 

I had severe hyperacusis which attacked soon after T. Had to wear ear plugs everywhere for a while. But foreign members advised me not to over protect for normal sounds. So I slowly removed the ear plugs and slowly the H just faded. I have read many people reporting the same fading H after they got it after T. It may take months to a year for that to happen. I am not sure about your H triggered by TTTS. Perhaps you can message cullenbohannon who is a very helpful contributing member who seems to have TTTS and hyperacusis and can probably help give you some advice.

 

thx, im going to do TRT 7 oktober i hope i get ride of that TTTS and yes it came both togheter

 

My hearing test also came back as normal, but i guess that was the standard hearing test. Maybe i should get a extended hearing test done, just for "fun"

 

My hearing test also came back as normal, but i guess that was the standard hearing test. Maybe i should get a extended hearing test done, just for "fun"

Well, if you are looking at doing sound therapies like Neuromonics et. al., you need to figure out what frequencies your loss is at because the sound your therapist uses targets those frequencies. Otherwise, don't know if it would indeed make much of a difference, except to give you a baseline to track any further loss or frequency changes.

 

Get an otoacoustic emissions test OAE and it will reveal damage to the inner/outer hair cells marked by present or absent for certain frequencies.

 

My OAE and audiograms came back normal. Most as they age experience some hearing loss in the higher frequencies.
And not all people with hearing loss have t.
This link is still unknown therefore.
Some have t however at the frequency of their hearing loss, which shows a more definitive connection.

 

My tinnitus is not high pitched so i dont know where my loss might be then

 

They haven't proved yet that hearing loss is connected to t in all cases (as my post above). What was the trigger for your original onset, do you know?

 

I would hazard a guess that t is linked to some vulnerability in the auditory system, with connection to the brain, but not necessarily the inner ear hair cells.
Could be middle ear - bones, muscle, eustachian tube, or somewhere along the central auditory cortex.
And don't forget t self resolves for some also. Damaged hair cells at this time do not.
In my case, I believe, and have been told by leading UCSF t doctor, that mine is central t, and not inner ear.

 

I would like to know to my ent said my inner haircells are not damaged maybe i should do à mri ?

 

An MRI is always good to do to rule stuff out.

 

I think a lot of theories point to the dorsal cochlear nucleus/auditory nerve. But I agree with you on many parts of the ear contributing.

 

I think, perhaps so, that T could be a response or signal from the body that we need to SLOW down.

 

When I got T, i wrote letters to all the specialist i found to learn more.
One of them wrote to me:
"...Sounds like you did nothing to
harm yourself. Tinnitus is a pain signal. Regardless of where it was generated (ear,
tooth, etc., the treatment is the same. Stay out of quiet. Play low level sound ALL
the time and stop trying to figure it out. Just give your brain time to habituate.
It is not a quick process. Worrying about WHY it happened only delays your progress..."

What was interesting for me was the part about the pain signal. Anyone?

 

Yes, in part this is a response to those who think all t is related to hearing loss due to inner ear hair cell damage, regardless of what shows in the hearing tests. Jazz shows some good research articles on the neurobiology thread to this effect. Also, the auditory nerve leads from the inner ear/cochlea to the central auditory cortex of the brain.
I am still of the humble opinion that not all etiologies are based in the inner ear. Especially as t resolves in some cases. And inner ear hair cell damage does not resolve at this time. Also, not all with hearing loss have t. This alone shows there is not a definitive connection between hearing loss and t.

 

The 'normal' hearing range is very wide compared to how little hearing loss can manifest in tinnitus. I had 2 hearing tests done 8 months apart and the second showed about 5 dB improvement overall, yet both were considered completely fine. The difference between unharmed ears can be greater than the amount of hearing loss that incudes tinnitus.

 

Read these please

1) http://www.tinnitus.org.uk/tinnitus-and-hidden-hearing-loss

2)http://www.audionotch.com/blog/tinn...hearing-loss-you-may-still-have-hearing-loss/

3)http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/

4)http://www.hearingreview.com/2014/0...anism-nerve-fiber-loss-discussed-asa-meeting/

5)http://acoustics.org/pressroom/httpdocs/159th/liberman.htm