Should You Avoid Loud Sounds for a Period of Time After Noise-Induced Tinnitus Onset?

With loud sounds I mean stuff that would normally be considered safe in moderation, but do you have to take any extra precautions related to loud noise after the onset of noise-induced tinnitus aside from the obvious of avoiding the same level of noise that caused it?

Do your ears need time to heal and during this healing period, avoid things such as headphone use completely in order to avoid making things worse? If so, how long is this period that you should avoid nonexcessively loud sounds for? Can the tinnitus spike permanently if you don't take things easy for a while?

Personally, I need headphones for masking the noise with music and to distract myself by gaming with friends etc. but I'm not sure if this affects the recovery of damaged hair cells. However I do not intend on giving up the use of headphones completely regardless. Also, I was once told by my Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy attendant that I shouldn't take any extra precautions after the treatment and just work to mask the noise as I normally would, including use of headphones, although this was around 7 weeks after the onset.

I recently got a new form of tinnitus in my right ear due to loud stereo in a friend's car (which I thought I could handle), but with no hearing loss or feeling of fullness in the affected ear. I think it already spiked for me two weeks later and is yet to recede back to its original level. I wonder if this is because it was still in "recovery stage" and prone to further damage because of that, which I might've caused by continuing to listen to music at my usual moderate headphone volume, or if it's just a temporary thing caused by the natural repercussions of noise overexposure. I'm now quite cautious about even moderate volume use, as I don't want this spike to remain permanently, nor to cause yet another spike.

 

Jinxy- you will have to avoid loud noise and head phone for ever if you don't want T to spike . Yes , it's sucks but no choice .

 

But surely not everyone's T spikes from headphone use alone? The tinnitus that I've had in my left ear for well over a year now has never spiked in any way due to loud noise, listening to music on headphones, or any kind of consumable food or drink including alcohol. I'm curious as to what would make headphones trigger spikes so easily. Isn't it just noise like any other?

 

Always protect your hearing. A spike is a louder than usual tinnitus sound. I'd avoid loud sounds all the time and try not to damage my ears further...

 

Why risk it? Trust me, you do not want to reach a high frequency - non maskable tinnitus. It is very difficult to deal with. I have this and its a challenge..so don't risk it.....

 

I'm a person who spends a lot of their time online. The use of headphones, whether that would be for listening to music in private or talking to friends, which make up the majority of my pastime activities, is and will be a very important part of my life right now. I would need at least a thorough study on how the use of headphones alone makes tinnitus worse over time for evidence to consider quitting using them for forever.

However the main question I wanted to ask is whether or not there exists a period of time where your ears have to heal after overexposure to noise and how long that period is, and whether you should take precautions and avoid noise more than you usually would in order for this healing process to complete without complications. "Avoiding noise more than usual" would include taking a break from headphone use until your ears have healed enough for it to be OK to continue use and normal lifestyle without risking further damage.

 

i use a pair of very good quality earbuds that can reproduces the treble which i have issues hearing and i cover these with my peltor ear muffs if its noisy around - and keep volume very low

 

I am similar to you. When i got t i still used headphones and went to concerts and nothing changed. Some people's t does spike but not everyones. I asked in another thread recently if there is any proof that abstaining from left loud noise for a period of time is actually beneficial or just wishful thinking:

 

My T rarely spikes. It's my H that flares up a lot. So yeah for some people, T isn't reactive.

 

Not a good idea to use headphones and even worse using music to mask the tinnitus in my opinion. Please read the articles below that you might find helpful.
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

Tinnitus and HA require a change in lifestyle to some degree for everyone. The sooner you accept this, the better off you and your ears will be.

 

@Jinxy This is for you
www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/noise-induced-tinnitus-nightclubs-are-too-loud.18433

 

Very true @Flamingo1 Unfortunately some people are not willing to change their lifestyle and risk making their tinnitus worse...

 

Your body seems to be giving you a signal that loud sounds that healthy people don't notice, are hard on your ears that had been compromised. Listen to your body.

My T switched from a nice hiss to a high-pitch tone after I pressed a loud phone to my ear more than a month ago. My T began to improve (a lot of that progress was undone by the phone incident) after I began protecting my ears from sounds like the sounds of a blender, vacuum cleaner, etc. I think it makes sense to protect your ears for at least 6 months (possibly even a year or two) after your acoustic trauma. It promotes healing, and reduces the chance of a secondary trauma. If you read this forum, you will see countless posts by people who learned the hard way that it is a good idea to protect their ears.

Some people here say "live your life, don't let T win". If you gave up any hope of recovery or improvement, then I agree that one ought to try to habituate and to get used to T. But as long as you might still recover, it seems to me that you ought to protect your ears. You can't do much for your ears, at this point, and so it is nice to do one of the few things you Can do for them.

 

I have neither hearing loss nor hyperacusis due to this noise-induced tinnitus. So far, it doesn't seem to me like my tinnitus is especially reactive. I won't go crazy on the volume of course, but I'm not planning on letting it take control of my life completely either.

See, that's what I'd like to know. I have yet to see any scientific proof that ears need time to heal after overexposure, and no doctor has ever told me to take it easy on my ears for a while either. I might take extra precautions for a few weeks just out of intuition, but for years? I'm pretty sure that the damaged hair cells would already have either healed or died by then. At least that's how I see it.

 

See, that's what I'd like to know. I have yet to see any scientific proof that ears need time to heal after overexposure, and no doctor has ever told me to take it easy on my ears for a while either. I might take extra precautions for a few weeks just out of intuition, but for years? I'm pretty sure that the damaged hair cells would already have either healed or died by then. At least that's how I see it.

Carry on as you intend to do @Jinxy and you won't need the sicentific proof to protect your ears you will experience how traumatic severe tinnitus can be. With respect, what you don't seem to understand, the majority of ENT doctors know very little about tinnitus. They know all about the anatomy of the ear and can treat it medically or surgically. When it comes to tinnitus they no nothing at all - only that it is a noise experienced in the head or ears often in both.
Michael

 

If you are convinced that you are not going to improve, then it makes sense to begin to try to habituate. The best way of doing that would of course be to try to act like you used to act, and try to ignore T.

If you think there is a chance that you will improve or even recover, then you want to provide the best conditions for your body to recover. We know for a fact that now that our ears had been compromised, sounds that are not particularly loud (that healthy people don't even notice) can lead to temporary or permanent spikes. Clearly that interferes with recovery. My guess is that sounds that are a not loud enough to cause temporary spikes are also not good for your recovery.

Since it is impossible to know for sure what hurts your ears and what doesn't, people who are serious about doing everything they can to get rid of T would want to eliminate all of the possible sources of risk. Of course, another way to look at it is that those people are "letting T run their life".

 

I have decided to give HBOT another chance beginning from tomorrow. I shall also ask my ENT as well as the doctor running the HBOT about both the existence of this "healing period" and possible complications of headphone use, and will then do as told by them. It's another 5-session long treatment over the course of 5 days. I will then report back either in this thread or my own HBOT thread, or both.

 

If your ears were still healing, wouldn't that mean that prednisone would still be effective. I remember seeing another one of your posts where you thought someone would spontaneously recover within 2 years. You didn't respond to me then, so I'll ask again is there a basis to thinking that the ears may still be healing within a 2 year period.

 

https://www.ncrar.research.va.gov/Education/Documents/TinnitusDocuments/01_HenryPTM-HB_1-10.pdf
"A general guideline is that tinnitus of at least 12 months duration has a high likelihood of being a permanent condition (Dobie, 2004b). However, it also has been suggested that a person must have experienced tinnitus for at least two years before it should be considered permanent (Vernon, 1996)."
Link to Dobie 2004: https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BqEq9Re3L5UC&oi=fnd&pg=PA266&dq=dobie+tinnitus+&ots=ekhmg_9Bdk&sig=lmay3bQPRsRcc-GypAfBTNxz1AY#v=onepage&q=dobie tinnitus&f=false

I remember seeing many more sources mentioning "2 years", but I don't have time to find all of them.

Your T depends on your ears and the neurons in your brain. It might not be the ears that are improving, but the brain that is able to rewire itself.

Here is an ENT who uses 30-months instead of 24-months.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...it-comes-back-anybody-else.22556/#post-260876

On this forum, one member had T go silent after 18 months.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-tinnitus-sufferer.21913/page-2#post-253700

 

@Bill Bauer Thanks

 

Hi.

I plug my ears whenever I come in contact with loud noises. Especially when other workers are smashing things like pallets, or anything else that causes a loud sound. Ambulances and Fire Trucks cause discomfort and lots of other disturbances in public can set of my tinnitus. It looks weird but who cares?

regards

 

Have you experienced Any improvement compared to how you felt back in, say, January?

 

I no longer notice it while playing magic or while running usually. It also seems less noticeable when I first wake up. Other than that it seems pretty much the same besides how I mentally deal with it.

 

Hopefully if it doesn't go away within the next year, it will at least fade some more...

 

I didn't read all the responses, but here is my take.

YES - avoid excessively loud situations for at least a year after onset of the big T. I look at it as a simple risk/reward equation. It's just not the worth the possibility of further damage.

 

I have gotten less tinnitus since joining here in January. It is always a good thing to see how others are dealing with this.

 

When you I use headphones( specially ear buds ) you can check online how loud it gets .
I got T because of ear buds ..my wife has T because of ear buds and we just found out our neighbor got T because of ear buds .
Loud noise cause spike for most people . Imagine if you have a broken leg..would you try to become a Brave a run a marathon ?
Our ear cells are fried and we have to try to protect it from more damage ( just my Humble opinion )

 

I used to this it looks weird but honestly no one cares and if they care it's should be none of our business . I also plug my ears like you do .

 

I try to avoid loud noises. But someone loud sneezing, smashing a door, etc are all non predictable. The only loud thing I did after more than 6 months was a festival with double protection. For a couple of hours, away from the speakers. My T spiked, so I guess it was too soon. I'll give myself a year now for any new long exposure. Always with protection.