Otoacoustic Emissions Test (Tinnitus Update)

seems to be 4khz 6khz notch of acoustic trauma.
No audiogram is not normal and the ENT told you is irrelevant το read audiograms

 

@davidchampoux

I have just been told that OAE tests are only performed on newborn babies.
So how do you get an OAE test on an adult and it is possible in the uk to get one done? How long does it take and is it an easy or complicated and expensive procedure?

 

OAE is used on newborn cause it's easier to test their ear condition with this test rather than with the more usual audiogram, but anyone can have this test. I suggest you to ask to your local audiologist...

I've had this test here in Canada in a readaptation center where I go for a therapy for my tinnitus. It's no big deal, easy, quick, and painless.

 

From what I understood the brain is able to compensate the hair cells damage with the price of increasing its general 'gain' thus creating tinnitus and/or hyperacousis, usually at the frequencies that are the more damaged. However this plasticity goes sometimes 'wrong' and you can have a tinnitus at a frequency that does not seem to be the most damaged... I think (but it is only an intuition) that a musician have a particular capacity to compensate hair cells loss with auditory brain plasticity as its brain is likely to be trained and developed towards sound discrimination. This could perhaps explain the inconsistencies between audiogram and OAE results...

 

Very interesting... However, in audiogram, only pure sinus waves at specific frequencies are played. If the cells are dead, one shouldn't be able to hear those frequencies even if the brain compensates?

In a full program material, I could understand, but for a specific frequence??

 

Unless all hair cells are completely destroyed at a given frequency I think your brain is able to compensate with the remaining ones. However, OAE may be almost absent at this frequency... It has also to do with outer and inner hair cells that don't have the same role (but I don't remember the difference)...
May I ask how did your tinnitus appear ?

 

Just for curious souls, I have attached my OAE. I'm sure that my tinnitus has a strong reference to the dive at 6khz, and I'm also sure, that I didn't have that dive before my acoustic trauma. Also suits that I have tinnitus slightly more strong in left ear.

 

Thanks for the info... I'm curious to know what inner VS outer cells are used for?

My T started end of March 2011 following a VERRRY stressful 7-8 months period in my life. I won't get into too much details here, but let's assume I was in depression, with suicidal ideas, and I needed pills to sleep and also to attenuate some neurologic symptoms - Lyrica (some strange skin temperature sensations, and paresthesia in my hands). I've had pain in both of my ears for 8-10 days and one day, I woke up with T. A steady 14.5KHz binaural.

Stress and anxiety was at its maximum of course... I went to a few doctors, but had the usual results than everyone here: "we cannot do anything, get used to it"... I tried a few anti-depressive pills. None really helped. I tried to cut sugar, alcohol, cofee, etc. I've had a one year therapy to help me to settle down a bit and understand what was happening, etc.

I never really could eliminate the virus/bacteria theory. Still today, I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, per my doctor's opinion... I thought it was Lyme disease also, but I've been tested twice negative.

What doctors don't get is that I've had days with NO T at all. Then it comes back... Louder or softer... It's not always the same. But for sure, stress makes it louder.

If only I have known this forum in the first months... Maybe I could have done the correct actions to stop those T while it was still the time... Now it's probably too late.

 

One other thing... Sometimes in the afternoon, I need to sleep (like 1 hour, around 4pm). Then when I wake up, T are super loud! They tend to soften with time during the day... I feel usualy better around 7 or 8pm...

Is this normal? I thought it should be the other way around? Like more T when tired, and less T in the morning when fresh... ?

 

Thanks for the story... Looks like stress was the trigger as for many of us ! Concerning the sleeping/loudness pattern it is the same for me (louder after sleep) so it seems to differ from one person to another...
Are you a professional musician ? If so how do you manage with the T ? Have you noticed any worsening from noise exposure ?

 

Thanks for the follow-up, @drox!

Yes, I'm a professional musician, and recording studio owner/producer for 24 years now.

So far, I've managed my T's quite finely in conjunction with my work... I suppose that when I work, I focus so much on the music that I forgot my T. Quite frankly, I feel much better after a gig, or after a day at the studio. I know many people reported the other way around (more T after music exposition), but not for me.

Of course, I always take good care of my ears. I never really liked loud music anyway... I used to go to max 95-100 db in the studio but for short periods only... Now I'm never louder than 90-92 db, and most of the time cruising at 75-80 db. If clients want to listen louder, I have many headphones available for them, or I just leave the control room when they blast their ears with my big Tannoy mains. I never work more than 7 hours in a row, with at least a 30-60 mins break in the middle.

During live performances, I always use in-ear monitors, and I try to keep these as low as possible, with a very tight seal. I also always manage to get a very relaxed mix. I play bass, so I focus on bass drum, and my own instrument, then rest goes 15 db lower... 50% of the time, I don't take any electric guitar, to avoid those harsh frequencies and some heavy volume changes introduced by the player himself during his solos, etc. I don't take any cymbals neither, or overhead/room mics of any sort. I focus on the transients, and keep it as low as possible. Sometimes after the show backstage, I remove my in-ears and feel that the people are talking LOUD while they're just talking normally, just to tell you how soft I set my own mix... When I work with floor monitors, I always use molded plugs with -25 db filters. I also always carry 33 db pharmacy type plugs everywhere with me (in my car, my cloth bag, my partition bag, etc.) just to be on the very safe side, and if I use those, I put them VERY deep in my ear (they even touch the eardrum; not sure if it's good or not) but for sure, they keep the level down.

What's interesting is that the more I like the music I play/record, the less the T are in the way. There's really something psychological about T, there's no doubt about it.

Usually, I don't have T for a few hours after a live gig or studio work. And the next day, they come back slowly...

I agree that my job might be a big part of my T problem, especially in the eyes of the doctors, but to ME, it's 90% stress/anxiety related, or a virus in 2010 (that might still be there), or the Lyrica. Or a blend of all that soup.....

I never really totally recovered from that stressful period in 2010. I feel it inside of me. Something changed. I keep thinking that if I finally could get rid of this anxiety, the T might go away as well... Still hoping.

 

where is the evidence that stress has anything to do with getting T? Is there any? so all the holocaust victims in world war 2 should have had tinnitus then....cos they had more constant stress than any of us put together. Sorry to ask but i just dont get how stress does it and would love to understand. This is a totally respectful question asking how? Love for an explanation please if you can would greatly appreciate it

 

I do not think there is a relationship with anxiety and stress. Before the mysterious and indomitable deterioration during a beatiful summer 2013 (and the doctors gave ssri and benzos which further worsened the situation), I happened to everything in life, as is normal. Loves, disappointments, robberies, fights, lost the job, another type of job, house search by police. Normal life. None of these conditions has never changed or worsened my tinnitus. Now, whatever I do, even just a walk on foot, everything gets worse!

 

Then it's viral ... Or the sum of many things together...

 

so why does everyone keep saying that their cause of T is down to stress? I just dont understand that.

 

i had no viral anything at all. I was perfectly healthy albeit under tremendous stress.....just dont understand. Still under tremendous stress with an abusive drunken partner to whom i give chance after chance - tonight he is drunk again and doing it all over again. But i still dont see the relationship between stress and t.

 

There's no evidence of anything. That's my own interpretation. I don't know how the Holocaust victims in WW2 dealt with their situation, I wasn't there. For sure, it must have been an awful experience...

 

@davidchampoux thanks for the details I can strongly relate to your story and I have the same feeling about the role of anxiety !
@amandine there is no evidence but no counter-evidence either and statistics and intuition of T sufferers seem to confirm that fact... But as David wrote it is most probably just one ingredient of the soup... A doctor once explained to me that tinnitus is most probably a combination of hearing loss, stress and a good brain plasticity !
@Viking how did your tinnitus start ?

 

@dan showed me a report that distinctly proved that stress has a direct effect and can cause T. Something to do with the chemicals etcc..in the brain. Dont know where the report is but maybe @dan can find it again and put the link here for us please

 

03/01/2006 partially treated with surgery after later diagnosis of vascular conflict 2 years after (2008), worsened during a night of summer 2013 no loud exposure, no drugs or other ototoxic potentially agents. I was sleeping...at 4:00 am i wak up with a monster in the head.They are fluctuantin continous in lateralization and frequency, drug resistant to everything. I can not add more ... have "arrived" ....

 

@davidchampoux The auditory brain is very active while we sleep, and it is not unusual for people to have very loud tinnitus either upon awakening or if they awake in the middle of the night.

My tinnitus is very loud if I awake in the middle of the night, but by morning it is usually quite. Other people report awakening to loud tinnitus that gets lower during the day. There are various patterns to tinnitus fluctuations. But most people report loud tinnitus if they awake suddenly. So, don't worry. You're normal.

 

@jazz, thanks for this... I understand better now!