Risk of Getting Tinnitus in Good Ear

I have had tinnitus for one month in my right ear. Is it only a matter of time before I get tinnitus in my left ear.?

My audiologist thinks I have age related hearing loss. My right ear has a loss of 25 db from 250Hz to 2.5KHz sliding down to a 50db loss at 8KHz. My left ear which does not have tinnitus has a loss of 10db at 250Hz , 20 db at 1.5KHz 30 db at 2KHz , 45db at 4KHz and 35db at 8 KHz.

My audiologist says that tinnitus is caused by the brain listening hard for frequencies it is not hearing. Like an audio amplifier with the gain turned up.

Given this explanation, would wearing hearing aids delay or permanently defer getting tinnitus in my good ear because the brain would not have to turn the gain up. Also using the same logic would a hearing aid tailored to my tinnitus ear result in my brain being able to turn down the gain thereby reducing the volume of the tinnitus.?

I would greatly appreciate any feedback on these questions.

 

may i ask your age? your hearing loss seems noise induced.

Unfortunately hearing aids won't cut the tinnitus but they'll help to mask it.

 

Valentin,

I am 70.

 

Dubinvero,

I am 62. My hearing loss occurs mostly in the higher Freq. range just as yours..There is no guarantee you will develop Tinnitus in your other ear and there is no guarantee you will not.. I have had audiograms done on the average of every 1 1/2 years since I was 18..20 years ago my hearing loss was the same as today, yet I do not remember any tinnitus. My tinnitus stated about 10 plus years ago but was very mild and only in 1 ear. It remained as such until about 4 years ago when it started in the good ear and became worse. I believe stress set it off.

I have hearing aids but seldom wear them. They are equipped with built in maskers but I prefer the maskers alone. The hearing aids suppose to compensate for any audio lose I have. They do allow me to hear much better but do nothing for the tinnitus. They provide more audio input and thus should lessen the tinnitus but the tinnitus remains the same.

I only started wearing the aids after the tinnitus worsened. I did not feel I needed them before.

Knowing what I do now about tinnitus and if I had it to do all over. I would have started wearing hearing aids at a much earlier time. Perhaps they would have "filled in the blank'" that my brain is missing and not allowed my tinnitus to worsen. You have nothing to lose with starting to wear aids now.

 

@Relic Hunter what's your hearing loss like? Mild in higher or moderate?

 

Relic Hunter,

I believe my loss is considered moderate. My audiogram results are included in my first post on this thread.

 

I do not have a copy of my audio in front of me but remember it to be normal in the low ranges. I have 95% plus speech recognition. About a 60 to 65 DB loss in the 6000 range. I have never had a audio that went higher than the 8000 range. Both ears are almost identical as to loss.

I really do not feel that I have a hearing loss..When using aids that restore all the high freq. loss my hearing is so sensitive that even sounds like the rustling of a newspaper sound extremely loud. I do not believe my hearing was ever this good even as a kid.

 

Mild 26 to 40
Moderate 41 to 55
Moderately severe 56 to 70