Preventive Action Advice for Beginners

Hi everyone,

I started suffering from tinnitus 10 months ago. I had a permanent spike that came out of nothing (maybe stress) one month after the onset. But after a very painful 2 months, I manged to habituate pretty well to everything. My tinnitus is moderate, in both ears + sizzling in the head, but it was no more a psychological burden for me -- only a physical nuisance from time to time. I was back to normal life. But 2 weeks ago I did something stupid and went to a blues bar unprotected. It wasn't that loud, but I might have gotten a spike from this combined with other things. I am slowly coming to terms with it, and mostly, thanks to the forum.

My point in telling you my story is the following: People mostly come to this forum during the horrible days when they get tinnitus -- and what they look for is advice for a cure, or some success stories. In their despair, they search to make today better, not how to sensibly make tomorrow from becoming worse. If they go back to normal life, like me, they disappear. One thing people don't usually do during the initial days is to search for how to take preventive action in the future. My suggestion is to have a very visible place in the forum for newcomers, which should educate them about future protection and draw their attention to preventive action in the future. I was paranoid about escaping loud places after tinnitus. But one can always slip and make a mistake once life gets to normal. I believe educating fellow sufferers for sensible preventive action as early as possible would be very worthwhile.

What do you think?

 

This section, seems like a good place for that. Protection of the ears and reduction of stress are basic tinnitus etiquettes.

 

This is what I was trying to achieve when I made the thread below:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/learn-from-others-mistakes.29437/

 

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...noise-induced-hearing-loss-ototoxicity.31941/

 

@Bill Bauer , yes I have seen the thread. It's purpose it good, but it's title is a bit scary though
@Jack Straw , very useful information, thank you.
I guess what I had in mind was to have this valuable information listed explicitly somewhere that would make the newcomers really see it. Of course one can easily find it once one has suffered further damage, but we don't want that.
Let's see if the admins would say something about it.

 

-Manual ear wax removal only

-Make sure to use foam plugs+muffs and make sure you get a quieter mri model if you need a mri

-Find a dentist with a laser drill, manual scaling only

-If you have a family member who can use power tools, lawn mower, vacuum, etc. it is preferred to doing them with earplugs

-In general earplugs in loud noise is good but if it is loud enough it can still give a permanent increase (Concerts, clubs)

-Headphone usage at your own risk. Very controversial in T communities.

 

Intense vibrations from sound can be as hazardous as loud sounds. Ear plugs and ear muffs can protect the ears from decibals, but it appears they may actually increase sound vibrations. I come to believe this is likely the reason so many people get spikes from using headphones, even though they keep the volume quite low.