Noise-Induced Tinnitus Went Away Completely in 2010 (No Habituation)

Hello all,

I'm Vinnie, 31, from The Netherlands. This is my first post here. I have been lurking around the forums for a few weeks now and ultimately decided to sign up and, for a change, open up with a success story instead of a depressing one! Don't get me wrong, I'm currently suffering a second bout of Tinnitus due to loud noise exposure since last April 28th at some concert, hence I was looking around and found this wonderful forum.

Now to my success story... As I told above, this is my second bout of Tinnitus due to loud noise exposure. The first exposure was back in 2010 during the New Year 2009-2010. I was walking through a tunnel and someone behind me threw a really loud fireworks. I didn't see it coming and was too late covering my ears. I remember my ears hurt during the BANG and echo that followed. Instinctively I ran out of the tunnel and found out my hearing was muffled on the left side. The following night, when everything finally turned nice and quiet, I got my formal introduction with Tinnitus for the first time.

I didn't know what was happening to me, I heard a continuous high-pitched squeal that couldn't be muted no matter what I did. The Tinnitus was probably mild in nature, I could hear it over daily ambient noise, but some noises could mask it. I was scared to death regardless and didn't sleep for the few days that followed. Soon I visited a doctor who put me on Betaserc, which I religiously took for the following few weeks, even though it was for Meniere's.

I cried many tears during the time, spiraled into some form of depression, visited an ENT and Audiologist and had various audiograms made, all showing no significant hearing loss. Yet there was a mild Tinnitus! Of course, none of the doctors I visited could help me and I was put on benzodiazepines to at least get a night's rest.

Long story short; I don't remember the exact moment it went away, as during the later weeks I learned to seek distractions and went outside for long walks in nature. Looking back it took somewhere between 2-3 months to totally dissipate and was just gone one day. Even when I plugged my ears in a silent room I could hear nothing but blissful silence!

So for all the newcomers with noise-induced Tinnitus; it is certainly possible it goes away! Completely!

It didn't return until my last exposure on April 28th 2016 where I (spontaneously) visited a concert. Stupidly enough, I didn't have hearing protection on me, but figured it wasn't even that loud, as I was with a friend and we were still able to talk to each other without raising our voices too much. Unfortunately I have no accurate reading of the dB level, although it could have been well above 80dB. The strange thing is the Tinnitus didn't appear right away, but suddenly appeared about one week later (so there was a delay). I remember hearing no Tinnitus when I was in bed that night. I'm sure it has something to do with the concert though, as I had no other significant exposures during that time and wasn't on any meds...

I'm just into my second month now and it has been the usual rollercoaster with the highs and lows we probably all know; "I can live with this", "I can't live with this, when will this stop?!". I truly believe it can disappear once again. I'm not really an outgoing person, so my hearing doesn't have a history of much outrageous noise exposure. I believe that with rest, and really avoiding loud circumstances for a few months, it might tone down or completely disappear once again...

If ever I reach that point once again, I will report on the success... Just know that there are cases of it vanishing completely! Even the noise-induced variants.

I wish you all blissful silence someday!

 

As someone who also got T from inside a tunnel this gives me a lot of hope! I am currently 6 weeks into my T and it has considerably lowered in its volume but not completely gone! Thank you for cheering me up

 

You're welcome! Hold on to the fact that Tinnitus CAN resolve, no matter the cause. I know such stories are rare on the internet. When I first got it in 2010, I was combing the internet for any positive stories, which were unfortunately a rare find. I just wanted to put this out there for that reason, even though it was way back in 2010!

I hope this time it will resolve again for both of us.

 

Hey Vinnitus,
Thank you for your story, it bring hope to many of us.


hope this time goes aways soon.

how many months did it took for it to go away?
and how did you t sounded like?

 

Mario,

I don't remember exactly how long it took, as I cannot remember the exact day it went away. Roughly, it took somewhere between 2 to 3 months in my previous case. I guess the Tinnitus could be considered reasonably mild during that time. It was a high-pitched tone combined with some kind of hiss/static noise. I could hear it during the day without plugging my ears, but it was easily masked by sounds like a running shower. Of course the Tinnitus was easily heard during the nights as it was quiet. It caused me a lot of distress during that time. I guess it went kind of gradually as the tone + hiss became more faint over time, then one day I just didn't notice it anymore.

I hope my story is useful to you and maybe many others as well.

 

Thank you for your story. I've had tinnitus for 3 years now and during the last 12 months have had many more good days than bad. It never totally goes away but the times when I only hear it distantly are starting to increase. By your description it sounds like we hear the same type of sounds.

Would you say that your success was due to continuing with your life? I.e. not hiding away from sounds, social events, work, etc. Were there any other methods you used that you think contributed to your return to life with intrusive tinnitus?

Thank you again for your optimistic and hopeful post.

 

Hello TMLB,

Good to hear you are improving as well! Mine cycled a lot as well when I had it. Some days it was "high" and more audible than usual, other days it was "low" and still audible but less intrusive. The "low" days were increasingly prevalent when time passed by, which contributed to me being able to finally get some distraction (the first month I was a total mess I must say, and couldn't think of much else but the Tinnitus). When I went about my daily activities, I guess it must have gradually faded to the background even more as time passed...

I didn't avoid the daily sounds, but I totally avoided any ridiculous noise exposures for months (no concerts, nightclubs whatsoever) and always had earplugs with me during that time for the unexpected situations. I also took Betaserc during that time, but I'm not sure if that actually did anything as studies are mixed to say the least. It is supposed to increase bloodflow into the inner ear and I thought that wouldn't hurt anyway, so I took them three times daily for about a month...

Other than that I took the daily vitamin pills I always took (multivitamins), some benzo's during the first few nights and not much else... Just gave the ears as much a break as possible for the time being.

So for me it went in 2-3 months. I guess this is in no way a timeline to hold on to though. Maybe the "recovery time" (if there will be tinnitus recovery) can be related to the severity or type of exposure/damage done (and no re-exposures during that time of course)...

I took various audiograms back then and since my second bout, and they show no significant hearing loss in the usual range till 8Khz. I noticed though that in a ultra-high frequency test I did myself recently, that my left ear bails out at about 13200Hz and my right ear is able to go up to somewhere in 16Khz. So maybe the ring/hiss I hear now is related to some ultra-high frequency loss (the ring I hear now is pretty similar to what I heard in 2010, also high-pitched and continuous with static). I don't know if I had that "loss" already in 2010, since I didn't test that range back then...

 

Hey buddy,

You said in your first post that you had no "significant" hearing loss on your audiogram. How much hearing loss did you actually have?

I have a varying number between 5-15dB at 4kHz in my left ear and a deep, pitted 15dB at 6kHz ONLY in my right, and that's the maximum. I can hear at 0dB everywhere else up to 16kHz. My hearing loss is not "significant" according to doctors either, but it's still there.

 

Hello @Vaba

With no significant hearing loss, I actually mean two things.

• I had an audiogram made back in 2010, when I experienced my first bout of Tinnitus. The audiogram back then showed no significant hearing loss, meaning it was within the 0-20dBHL which are considered "normal hearing" on all measured frequencies (till 8khz). The deepest dip I had back then, was a 15dBHL on 2khz.
• Recently in May 2016, a new audiogram was made showing little difference to the one made in 2010. It is very similar in appearance and the audiologist mentioned nothing significant appears to have happened between 2010 and 2016 regarding my hearing ability.

So I mean that theres no significant hearing loss because audiologically speaking, its within the "normal" tresholds AND theres no significant hearing loss when compared to my audiogram made about 6 years ago. Of course the measurements made were up to the standard 8khz though...

The tone/hiss I hear in this case as well as my earlier case is very high pitched, somewhere >9khz. It leads me to hypothesise that my hearing loss (if any) is above the measurable hearing range for standard audiograms. The 2khz dip to 15dBHL appears to have nothing to do with it, as the tone I hear is much higher-pitched than 2khz.

 

My 2 months old T is at 13 khz, where my hearing starts to decreases from -5db to "deaf" @ 16-17 khz (I'm 37). Standard audiograms up to 8 khz are nothing but BS to me since lots of T are above this frequency range...

 

Agreed. Audiograms are designed for measuring hearing loss in the usual human speech range. For Tinnitus however, its pretty much BS if your Tinnitus is high-pitched, which partly explains the tremendous amount of Tinnitus sufferers with perfect audiograms.

 

Hey @Vinnitus this is my first battle with T . Mine was from going to the shooting range with ear plugs but I guess the left ear wasn't plugged right. I went to the ENT 3 days after the onset and I had moderate hearing loss in the high frequency. So he gave me a steroid to the ear drum which he said I had a 50/50 chance of recovery. It's now been going on my 6th week. I have mild T like you , it's easily masked even with the running shower. I hardly hear only when it's time for bed. Or in a quiet room. Which is way better than the first week which I had panic attacks n anxiety attacks . Now it's rarely noticeable until I start checking for it. Do you think I have the same chance of recovery like you? Since this is my first time and I'm only 27 I take magnesium everyday and every other day I'll take sum supplements.thanks in advance for your reply..

 

Although it is hard to say if it will disappear or not (Tinnitus is very unpredictable, as you might have noticed), it is definitely a good sign you a) started caring about it less and b) it seems less noticeable now. Tinnitus tends to fade little by little in quite a lot of cases (but unfortunately can be pretty persistent in other cases). It is however important to remember that Tinnitus CAN disappear, even after a longer time. There are (anecdotal) case reports of people who had Tinnitus for a few years, after which it faded, disappeared, or they just did not notice it anymore one way or another.

Did you get a more recent measurement of your hearing tresholds to see if the prednisone perhaps did anything to recover your moderate hearing loss? In what frequency range was your loss considered "moderate" (6-8Khz or higher)?

 

Hello @Vinnitus, how is your T doing lately? Have you had any moments or days of silence yet? Does your hissing continue to cycle from medium volume to a lower volume? My father got T when he was in his late teens the same way you acquired it back in 2010. His T faded in 6 or 7 years.

 

Hello Rick!

Well, it is still the usual pattern; some days it is barely noticeable (almost silent, yet still there), other days it is very present. It also depends on exposure to sounds. Mine seems to get aggravated by white noise typed sounds, for example the fans in a computer system will make it louder. This will usually continue for the day (even if the exposure is ceased) and reset upon sleep. Furthermore the somatic element keeps being present as well. When I press behind the pinna of the affected ear, the Tinnitus pitch greatly increases temporarily. Trying this at the same spot for the other ear does not result in a high pitch. Next there is the ear fullness in the affected ear and a constant "tired muscle" feeling in the jaw. It feels like some muscle is constantly pulling the ear drum and eustachian tube. This results in constant ear popping during swallowing or moving the jaw. All these symptoms have been going on for more than a year now. I am still being positive that this can improve however. I have been slightly less bothered by the whole ordeal compared to a few months ago. Do you remember your father mentioning these components of Tinnitus as well?

How has your Tinnitus experience been so far?

 

@Vinnitus , my father really doesn't have a clear recollection of his T symptoms. His T adventure occurred over 50 years ago, he's currently 75. From reading your collection of symptoms, have you thought that maybe your T might not be from acoustic trauma? Maybe your first bout with T left you with an increased capacity for an easier re-occurrence of T. Who really knows for sure?? Today is my 12-week anniversary. My T was cycling with a day of medium volume hissing to a day of lower volume hissing to a day with no hissing but with this persistent high frequency tone in my head. In the last week in a half, the tone days have abated. Now I have a day with medium level hissing, then a day with lower volume hissing, then the 3rd day with hissing so low I can barely hear it (this was a nice change). Unfortunately, the next day brings back the medium level hissing all over again. Sometimes I am a bit down on the louder days but seem to be happier and more hopeful on the super low days. I too have somatic T when I chew or move my neck a certain way. I also share your experience with the T amping up after being introduced to morning sounds. Back when I 1st found this website, I read your posts many times when I needed some hope. You, Gian, and a few others, I'm sure are read by 100's of lurkers and members.

 

@Vinnitus no I haven't gone back to see if I had any improvements in my hearing. Due to financial problems. And since the first time I went I was a self payed patient.it really sucks I don't have insurance due to other issues And it was Dexamethasone steroid shot. Not prednisone. I'm not sure in what range is considered moderate. I just know it was in the high frequencies. Does that make a difference?

 

@Vinnitus Is there a difference between dexamethasone and prednisone , that you may know ? I have emailed the ENT office to try and get a copy of my hearing test and I will post here once I do get it. ENT assured me I would be okay because I had no drainage or damage to the ear drum. That my hair cells might have just been shocked..that he was kinda surprised being a young with ear plugs that a shot would really be going thru this. That maybe it was because my immune system was weak. And he probably right because I never did take any kind of vitamins before this. Like at all

 

Both dexamethasone and prednisone are corticosteroids. The advantage of dexamethasone is that it's a short-acting corticosteroid, making the chance of side effects lower but also lowering it effectiveness for some other conditions. Dexamethasone is often seen as nasal spray due to it's short acting characteristics; it can quickly reduce swelling in local inflammation (like in the nose or respiratory system). Prednisone is more often used as systemic treatment; it's side effects are potentially more serious (especially when taken long term), but the amount of conditions it can be used for is more numerous as well.

 

I think you're confusing frequency range and amount of hearing loss. You can have "moderate" hearing loss in any frequency from 20Hz to 20kHz. A moderate loss in any of these frequencies, means you can only hear sounds in that certain frequency when the loudness (in decibels or dB) exceeds a certain amount. Moderate loss means your loss in a certain frequency is between 40dB and 70dB, meaning you need between 40 and 70dB of sound in that frequency before you will hear it.

 

I've indeed considered other causes to my tinnitus, but the appearance of all these symptoms a week after my acoustic exposure seems to make a strong case for noise-induced hearing loss and it's consequences. It is since then I started to develop the above stated TMJ-like symptoms. It is also since then I started to develop ear-popping and the perpetual feelings of fullness.

I've done measurements on myself and although it's a crude way to measure, I've noticed a few gaps between 12 and 14kHz (I have to increase volume here to hear something, while outside of the gaps I have a steadily increasing sine way at the same volume level). From 14600Hz my hearing goes out and I cannot hear anything anymore. This also supports the case of "ultra high frequency hearing loss (>8kHz)".

The rest of your story sounds familiar. The tinnitus experience is still very much volatile and not stable at all, even after a year. I too have near silent days, louder days, days where the ear fullness and popping is more prevalent and days where it is barely there at all. I have tried numerous things throughout the months, among them notched white noise therapy. It tends to give me a more quiet time the following day after I used it (but even that is not always the case), but as my Tinnitus has a reactive component, for the rest of the day I used notched white noise it will be noisy.

You're only at 12 weeks and your tone days have abated, like you said. This is positive and I would surely hold on to that. I personally think your tinnitus might improve even further if it doesn't have a progressive nature. Quite a lot of people improve very slowly (and with ups and downs). It might take months or years, but improvement CAN be expected.

I'm glad to hear my story is useful for people. I think these stories are important to keep around. It really did go away for me the first time around. This time, I appear less lucky so far as it at least is taking longer. But I keep good hope for small steps towards improvement. Your father's case is inspiring to me and a lot of us here; it provides a case where tinnitus fades after a longer time (6-7 years). These cases seem so rare, but I am sure they happen more often than we know about here.

 

@Vinnitus , I just checked the time in the Netherlands... Aren't you the night owl.

It seems as though I lied about the tone abating. It's back today. Very low volume somewhere in the head. I haven't had a tone in 2 weeks so I thought I might have been onto something.

When you mention ear popping, you're referring to the E Tube? My ears sometimes produce this weird clicking sound that seems like it's coming from one of my 3 hearing bones behind the TM.

The reactive component... Do you have the same type of reactivity to sound like you did the first time? Do things like showers, running water, or any louder background sounds cause your T to amp up temporarily?

 

Hey man - id say you're effectively cured. Get off this site and go live life! Get some custom plugs that fit this time though.

 

This is my first hearing test. Which I don't really don't know how to read..

 

Hi Houston looks like right ear within normal limits and left ear has mild to moderate hearing loss but I might be wrong . There's more qualified people on here than me .

 

@john mccluskey yes I see that but I wanted to know exactly what @Vinnitus was asking me of my threshold..

 

Vinnitus: You feel that acoustic trauma may have caused your TMJ. Your posts are very informative, detailed and helpful, but could you explain more. Thanks

 

Hello Houstontx,

I'm sorry for the late reply.

Looking at your audiogram I can see the "classical" noise notch which signifies noise-induced hearing loss at around 3kHz. Most of the times, these notches tend to centralize around the 4kHz area, but sometimes they can appear at 3kHz or 5kHz too. Your notch at 3kHz is 60dBHL. This means a sound at 3kHz needs to be at least 60dB in loudness before you can hear it in that ear. I can see your audiologist noted down that it's considered a "moderate high frequency hearing loss". Personally, I consider 4kHz and higher to be high frequency and 8kHz and higher to be ultra-high frequency. That is however a difference in terminology, as audiologists often only measure the hearing ability up to 8kHz, while the human hearing spectrum actually extends till 20kHz. It is for example possible to have hearing loss above 8kHz and have a "perfect" audiogram, because the measurements are only done till 8kHz. That's the misleading part, but this doesn't seem to be at play in your case; a clear notch is visible.

All you can do in such case is take a short course of prednisone as soon as possible during the first week after the trauma has taken place. It seems you have taken dexamethasone. How was this administered exactly? I am not sure about the effectiveness of dexamethasone versus prednisone in the case of Tinnitus, but even prednisone's effectiveness is up to debate and hasn't been scientifically proven to work for Tinnitus (well, no medicine has as of yet). It is however the only thing we have right now (it is sad, I know). You can still take an audiogram in a few months from now, to see if there is any change in your situation. If your hearing loss is still the same after a few months, you can safely assume the hearing loss will stay that way. Despite all this your Tinnitus can still diminish or even disappear. There are no clear rules when it comes to Tinnitus. Even people with hearing loss don't always have Tinnitus. It isn't a given.

Looking forward, there are a lot of interesting human trials coming up for new potential treatments for hearing loss (and perhaps also Tinnitus as a nice "side effect"). Seeing as you have a clear case of hearing loss, you might be able to apply in one of the various clinical trials starting at the end of this year or in 2018. Especially Frequency Therapeutics is worth to keep an eye on, as the hopes are high for that one and the science behind it seems solid. It is being worked on as we speak. You (and we) are lucky to be alive in this age where people can have some legitimate hopes. One can only imagine what it would be like to live with this in the 1700s, with no outlook on anything like a treatment or human trial at all.

 

Hello Greg,

I must honestly say this is in the realm of speculation, as I believe there has been no solid research on the possibility of developing TMJ as a consequence of acoustic trauma (and hence I have no references). But think of it; an acoustic trauma gives you some kind of "nerve insult" in an area where nerves are closely intertwined with each other.



As you can see in the above image, all nerves in the facial area come together in the trigeminal nucleus. It wouldn't be far-fetched to think that an insult to one of the nerves in this crowded area can have side effects in other places near this area. These nerves control muscles in the area; muscles near your jaw, muscles near the eustachian tubes and the tympanic membrane. If these nerves are going to send unexpected signalling due to an insult somewhere in the network of nerves, the muscles are potentially going to behave erratically. This could result in muscle twitching and hence; jaw pain, ear popping, feelings of fullness, sensation of pulled or stiff muscles, issues opening the mouth (also muscles). In short; TMJ-like symptoms. That's my personal theory.

Also look into the work of Susan Shore, she is on a similar path. Not specifically regarding TMJ, but somatic tinnitus.

 

Yes, I tend to feel more energised in the darker hours. I find the night inspires creativity, so to speak. I have always been like that.

Sad to hear the tone returned, but it might be part of going forward. Tinnitus should be viewed over a longer stretch, maybe you will notice the "tone" moments becoming lesser over time.

The popping indeed seems to come from the eustachian tube and also from the muscles behind the tympanic membrane. It is like there is a persistent issue with middle ear pressure regulation caused by these muscles not working well. This causes the popping sensation.

The reactive component still goes strong as it ever did. Ironically, I have one of those "white-noise" machine thingies as is often recommended. However, in my case it makes the Tinnitus worse during use (the Tinnitus "dances" on top of the white noise) and quite some time after using it. Not really helpful at all for me. White noise is hence not a solution or tool for everyone, far from it.