Surprised by the Loudness of a Wedding — My Tinnitus Seems Worse Now

I've had tinnitus since 2017. But it was somewhat manageable. I could hear it in places where there weren't any other people. I could hear it at night in my room and in my car when I was completely still and the engine was off. It was annoying but not terrible. It was a high pitched noise that was mostly in my right ear.

Then I went to a wedding this weekend. I haven't been to very many weddings before. I didn't know what to expect. The bride and groom are fairly conservative people, and I thought it would be a more relaxing kind of event. It was my uncle's wedding and I went with my parents, so I didn't expect it to turn out to be like a nightclub. But it was. Four to five hours of blasting Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, all at extremely high volumes. I could feel my chest vibrating when the music got loud. I didn't have earplugs because I didn't think I would need them at an event like this.

I downloaded a decibel app for my iPhone at the event, but I'm not sure how accurate it was. The sound seemed to fluctuate over the entire four to five hour span between the values of 120 and 125 dB. I'd say the most common number that would pop up was 124 dB. Is that enough to make my tinnitus worse? I've been hearing it a lot more lately. I can even hear it over my tv when I watch shows. It's faint but always there. Will it get better over time? Thanks!

 

Sounds over 80-85 dB can be loud enough to cause tinnitus, and if that app is remotely adequate, those sound levels you describe are dangerous, and can worsen tinnitus for sure. Ridiculous how loud these types of events are.

Be aware that the tinnitus may worsen over the next few days, in what is known as a delayed spike. Especially as you had tinnitus before, you at high risk to get it again, even from less significant noise exposures.

 

Prednisone can help.

 

It might get back to your original level. However, if you continue to expose your ears to noise, the chance of it improving will likely be lower.

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Also check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

It would appear that for many of us, our ears have been compromised, and now it will be a lot easier to cause damage. The noise might not be enough to cause hearing loss (unless we are talking about the hidden hearing loss), but (as many of the people here found out the hard way) it might be enough to make one's tinnitus louder/more high pitch/harder to ignore. So if you aren't careful, it might continue getting worse.

When I began to avoid moderate noises (e.g., vacuum cleaner, hair dryer), I began to see improvement. When I accidentally pressed a loud phone to my ear and the person on the other end of the line had raised her voice, I was back at square one.

 

I'm really curious about this delayed spike phenomena. How do you know that this exists Doc? Is it just personal experience? Life on the board? Or is there actually documented evidence of this delay? (Not questioning your statements; just trying to get to the bottom of them).

 

@Digital Doc, are you a real doctor? Are delayed spikes reported in medical journals? That's concerning.

 

I have personally experienced the delayed spike phenomena as my acoustic trauma was on a Tuesday, and my T increased to a max on Saturday and Sunday. If you look around these boards, many others have experienced this delayed spike as well, occurring even more days out with a max of about 10 to 14 days. The medical literature does not discuss this, as I just confirmed with a search on the National Library of Medicine.

@Matt Edwards

Yes, I am a practicing physician.

 

Question is do these spikes ever fade.

If so, how long. If not, when do I think this us fucking it now.

 

I went to a nightclub about 2 months ago (with hearing protection).

I honestly didn’t think it was loud enough to cause permanent damage but I still spiked pretty noticeably and only gone back to normal in the past week or so.