Please Help Me — Musician / Construction Worker with Tinnitus

[munkyec]

Hi

I'm 32, I work in the construction field and I'm also a gigging musician on the weekend - deadly combo for my ears
For years I've been very aware of noise damage and I do own a custom mold ear plugs and in ear headphones to minimize loud volumes, at work I'm also wearing ear plugs while everyone else is not .

I've had ringing for about 5 years now but in the last year its been a nightmare due I didn't feel like I changed anything in my lifestyle, I have a constant ringing high pitch in a fairly loud volume (even when a small fan is on).

as a person who is very careful on my ears I do hearing loss test from time to time, last one was about a year ago and results were perfect, as of today I do not feel any hearing loss - on the contrary - I can hear super low volumes very well and I am very sensitive to high volume and feel like being in a club without ear plugs is unbearable.

I do own a endoscope camera and I took some photos, my left ear drum looks perfect BUT my right ear drum looks a little weird and I'm not sure if its a hole I'm seeing or not, if someone here has any idea or experience that would be great.
I did go to a doctor but I was only offered some "water pills?", he took a 2 sec look inside and said it's all good and gave me a $200 bill so that was nice and make me feel like I should ask online a bit to get more opinions.

Photos are of my right ear drum, notice the "mark" in the circle - I do not have that in my left ear drum
Thanks

 

[Digital Doc]

Challenging image, and these are easier to see through an otoscope than on the static images. I think that you had a perforation on both sides, and they have started to heal. If you look carefully, you also have it on the left. You should see an ENT to diagnose this properly.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I do own a custom mold ear plugs and in ear headphones to minimize loud volumes

There are countless posts here where people describe learning the hard way that earplugs provide a false sense of security.

 

[Michael Leigh]

There are countless posts here where people describe learning the hard way that earplugs provide a false sense of security.

This is an excellent piece of advice that describes the dangers of those that believe earplugs and other forms of hearing protection will prevent their tinnitus from getting worse. This is defiantly not the case. Whilst they offer some protection they give a false sense of security and some people believe they can carry on regardless, in some cases reckless and subject their ears to loud sounds. These people do not realize that if external sound is loud enough, it will pass through the head/skull and be transferred to the inner ear by "Bone conduction". This can spike the tinnitus and in some cases increase it to a new permanent level.

@munkyec your problem is that you are subjecting your auditory system to high levels of sound, which is a combination of working in a noisy environment and being a gigging musician. The latter of these is almost a surety that your tinnitus will get worse. If you listen to music through headphones even at low volume the risk increases.

Sorry to sound so sobering.

Michael