Recovery from Acoustic Shock? Looking for Success Stories

Hello all. Just wondering if anyone has ever recovered or greatly improved from acoustic shock? I see a lot about acoustic trauma but not acoustic shock, specifically a sudden, unexpected loud noise.

I'm 5 months in with multitonal intrusive tinnitus in both ears, 24/7 ear fullness. On my standard audiogram I have no hearing loss.

What's weird for me is my tinnitus and fullness initially appeared ~20 minutes after the acoustic shock in my left ear (which received the shock) but the fullness didn't appear in my right ear until over a day later. The tinnitus in my right ear crept up on me about a month or two in.

I know the tinnitus recovering is a gamble, although I never experienced any temporary tinnitus before my acoustic shock. But the constant ear fullness baffles me as it seems it isn't that common for it to last so long.

I guess I've just been having a rough time lately and am looking for a glimmer of hope.

 

Ear fullness is a typical symptom of an acoustic trauma, yes. And for most people it will go with time. How long it takes is very individual from days, to weeks, to several months or more.

What happened?

 

My then-5 week old son screamed unexpectedly right into my ear while I was caring for him. I'm not sure why my other ear is so affected.

I'm just hoping the fullness goes away soon as I'm hoping that with it maybe the tinnitus will reduce in volume.

 

I had a similar experience to you over 18 months ago and can say I’ve had no real improvement. That’s not to say you won’t. As the person above said, we’re all different. Being careful as to not further damage the ears is the main thing I would say.

 

I'm sorry you are suffering with this as well. I hope you find healing soon. May I ask how I got your tinnitus?

I know everyone is different and it seems the best you can do is allow time to heal and protect your ears. Not that easy to do with a young infant in the house though

 

@Ngo13, for me, Bio-Flavonoids helped with ear fullness. In combination with calming down the mind/anxiety and auditory system over time - and not overprotecting.

 

The problem with an acoustic shock is that subsequent noise insults build on it, on the injury that triggered the whole thing at the beginning...

You have to realise your ears change and will not cope with noise as well as before. That's why hearing protection is needed when there is noise around.

 

I am fairly confident my tinnitus was caused by general loud noise from all walks of life. I also understand the worry of having young ones as I also do. Protect, but don't over protect. Even this evening my ears feel more sensitive and I cannot really pinpoint a reason for this. I imagine the constant awareness of it is not helping. Stay strong!

Is this your first episode of tinnitus? Have you abused your ears in the past?

 

I'm trying not to overprotect but it seems like a sudden loud noise like a scream from my son could catch me unguarded at any moment. I've been using ear protection each time I interact with him but it does feel a little isolating. He's 6 months old now and it makes me sad I can't just find joy in playing with him, tickling him, etc. since he is pretty shrill and loud. He's my first child and I looked so forward to this time but since I got tinnitus when he was only 5 weeks it's just been very upsetting and I'm mourning the special times I should be having with him.

This is my first time experiencing tinnitus. I only ever experienced fleeting tinnitus before. I have gone to a couple of concerts in my life, went to some loud bars in college and probably listened to headphones too loud when I was younger. Nothing excessive or more than anyone else. I suspect my noise injury just came at the worst time in terms of healing since I was still recovering from childbirth, and physically/mentally stressed in having a newborn, nursing, only sleeping 3 hours a night, etc.

This really is an unforgiving condition. I never gave me ears a second thought before. I just hope I can be one of the lucky ones that gets some fading after a year or two. Hopefully yours does the same!

 

Have you considered anxiety as the cause? I have a similar problem. No hearing loss, but fullness. Every time I am startled by a loud noise. Your son’s screaming shouldn’t be loud enough to cause permanent damage. I think the loudest scream ever was recorded at 128 dB and point blank distance.

I did suffer acoustic trauma when I was younger. Fell off a 10 m diving board and fell into the pool right ear first. The water slamming against my ear caused a painfully loud pop and brief deafness in that ear. I received steroid IVs for 2 weeks and my hearing recovered fully, save for moderate tinnitus that comes and goes. Oddly, the feeling of fullness was short lived for the real acoustic trauma and wasn’t the main symptom. Hearing loss was.

I’ve seen several ENTs and the consensus seems to be that the muscles in your ear can tense up, which you will perceive as fullness. If your audiogram is normal, it might be just that.

 

I can say with absolute certainty that the thing that finished me off was the screams of my 2 children at close range. That was over 18 months ago and there has been little to no improvement.

I think for OP that there’s a good chance they will improve and recover as it appears to be their first episode but for someone who has had tinnitus a long time and abused their ears, anything loud could cause a seemingly permanent worsening.

 

Yes, of course. Repeated exposure to loud noises will eventually cause damage. Your damage is probably measurable though. OP has a normal audiogram, so I'd be hopeful it's really just tension from underlying anxiety.

I get the same issue and it's extremely annoying but ultimately benign. For the past 2 weeks I had fullness in my right ear after the neighbor set off firecrackers. Now, yesterday, a badly adjusted metal door at Panera slammed inches away from my left ear. Now the right ear is forgotten, feels normal again, and it's the left ear that feels full and staticky. Whichever ear I focus on has the issue and the more I think about it the worse it gets.

 

How are you now? Any updates?

 

I just posted an update in my introduction thread. I'm basically the same, maybe a slight increase in volume but it's hard to judge. Still have the ear fullness and thumping/clicking. I just went to another ENT/audiologist and my ears are still fine, hearing is pretty much the same (normal, biggest loss is 10 dB) as when I got tested a week after onset, despite developing increased tinnitus in my right ear since my first test. I'm going to an audiologist next week who supposedly specializes in tinnitus to maybe get more in depth testing and custom earplugs.

Mentally, I have a cycle of a period of a week or two where I feel like I can manage it, then a few days of despair. I started CBT. Overall, I am handling it better than the first few months. Still holding onto hope that it will reduce by 2 years.