No Hearing Loss, but Tinnitus

Hey everyone, I've had tinnitus for some time, not exactly sure when it started to be certain but I finally went to the doctor to get it checked out because a friend told me it's possible the cause is a brain tumor. I wanted to rule that out.
Did the full audiology test and my hearing in both ears is above average for an adult, they described it to me as 'enviable' and from the test where they hooked up the audio equipment to the skull, that I could hear a 'mouse fart in the attic'. Suggested I take care of it and protect my hearing.

So that doesn't explain my tinnitus. I've had plenty of possible causes for it.

-Exposure to way loud of noises as a teenager
-Accutane as a teenager (off the market acne medication, essentially chemotherapy, vitamin A)
-Concussion in football as a teen (not a brain-bleed)

The doctor told me they had no idea what was causing it. But said I could try a steroid and since I was concerned about a tumor, possible MRI/CT scan. I've heard bad things about steroids and how miserable they make you. I also doubt that's going to resolve mine.

They also said the possibility of it being a brain tumor is pretty slim, I'm not dizzy or have any other issues.

I did note to the doc (board certified neurotologist) that probably 15 years ago I first noticed I could hear high pitched noises that other people couldn't. I can still tell if there's a TV on in another room, I can hear the capacitors whine when no one else can. Much less so than on CRT tvs, LCDs are harder for me to tell. This has been verified by someone else turning it on and off and my hearing it matches whenever that's done.

So it looks like I'm just going to have to keep living with this. My ears are fine, and my issue is neurological which they'll likely never figure out. From what I was told, tinnitus with no hearing loss is a relatively rare case. Right now I'm probably going to do the brain scan just to be certain, but am planning on skipping the steroids.

First time I've posted about this online, got something good/bad/ugly to add feel free. Thanks.

 

A warm welcome to the forum.
Tinnitus can be caused through lots I f reasons even with no hearing loss .

A MRI will put you are ease and usually done routinely for most people with tinnitus.
Well done in coping with tinnitus for so long and their are ways to help if have trouble sleeping .
Try not to worry as it will make your tinnitus sound seem louder .

It's a lovely forum and always members around to give support round the clock....lots of love glynis

 

I wish they'd offer me some testing! I saw two ENTs as well as my Dr and the extent of my testing to rule out a cause was an audiogram! I find it pathetic that I tried both the NHS and the private route and got absolutely nowhere. NHS just looked in my ear. Now unless they have X-ray vision, I fail to see how they can positively diagnose something by looking in your ear. It irritates me to this day how badly treated my case has been.

 

Hello. It's called hidden hearing loss. There are two necessary parts of our auditory system that allow us to pick and process what we "hear". 1. Hair Cells - Inner/Outer - which pick up the necessary frequencies that objects of this world produce and 2. Auditory Nerve Fibers (spiral ganglion neurons) - which allows us to process the frequencies of the hair cells - the more nerve fibers you have, the better you'll be able to pick out sound - and which also connect the hair cells of the cochlea to the auditory cortex in the brain and other various regions of the brain. Studies have shown that the nerve fibers that make up the auditory nerve are much more susceptible to damage from loud noise than the hair cells of the cochlea. I can assure you that this is what you have. If you need links to articles and documents, explaining more of what I'm talking about just let me know. Hope things get better.

 

Al

I'd also like to add that Tinnitus has been associated with the loss of nerve fibers. The more lost in a short time frame, the louder your ringing will be, hence when one gets out of a concert their ears are ringing and may continue to ring the next day depending on how vast the damage was to their auditory nerve fibers. You can lose up to 90% of these guys without losing the ability to detect noise in a quiet environment. The standard audiogram test and through my experience the ABR (Auditory Brain Response Test) do not pick up this hidden/missed damage of the brain.

 

Hey Nick, thanks. I'll be sure to ask about this when I show up. My initial thought is that this doctor (board certified neurotologist who seemed very good), his audiologist and his assistants were really good and certainly would have not missed something like this. But I'll definitely ask them about this and see what they say on my return appointment. If you have a specific link that you think would be best to show the doctor on this, feel free to pass it along.

 

I don't know. I've had about a dozen doctors miss my terrible issues with hearing and had all my hearing and neurological tests come out as negative, I don't know what to think of what they'll tell you....

It's at the point where I now have to figure out what happened to my hearing and cognition. Starting classes soon to become a researcher in the field of hopefully neuroscience/audiology.

Best of luck. Let me know what they say.

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

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...den-hearing-loss-risk-study-article-1.2230945

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

http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/