Temporary Hearing Loss That Returns to Normal — How Common Is This?

I suffered temporary hearing loss in each ear following noise exposure on two separate occasions. Those were the same occasions that led to my tinnitus onset. and in each case the hearing loss lasted for around half an hour at a significant level, returning to normal again over the next two or three days. The first of these was 12 years ago, the second in April this year.

More recently on two occasions I suffered further unexpected noise exposure. After the first occasion which lasted just a few seconds I experienced ear fullness and immediate slight hearing loss that thankfully returned to normal after three days.

The latest occasion was just yesterday after a boat trip. The boat turned out to be quite old with a noisy engine which I measured at 76 dB. I was exposed to this on a return trip of 90 minutes each way. I had only my filtered plugs with me which can remove up to 20 dB only.

Really hoping the hearing loss I am again experiencing returns to normal as before. My tinnitus is a little louder again but nothing I haven't experienced after previous spikes which have subsided.

How common is this, and how concerned should I be? How many "lives" do you get before the hearing loss element becomes irreversible and significant?

Should I see a doctor - again? At least they may start to take me more seriously if I have more hearing loss to talk about, rather than "just" tinnitus...

 

Google about Charles Liberman's research on hidden hearing loss and cochlear neuropathy.

Even if muffled hearing resolves there can still be permanent synaptic damage in the cochlea.

Don't know. I experienced the same hearing fatigue you mentioned early on. I don't wanna find out.

 

It is called a transient threshold shift.

 

That's something individual, changes for each person I guess..

After many years with hyperacusis now I have hearing loss derived from one-off noise exposures, basically loud beeps from various sources, loud sound by any standards.

Also think that the cellphone sonometer usually does not produce accurate decibel readings, so it is hard to evaluate if you are taking too much sound.

Hearing loss is strange. There are some tiny sounds I can hear, but extracting meaning from sound (speech for instance, and specially speech in noise) is a lot harder. Also it tires the brain so fast. After a full day communicating, talking to people etc, I am just exhausted, because my brain is making an extra effort to hear and decipher what people are saying.

Be careful with noise, although it is just impossible to avoid noise or very loud situations all the time. These things just happen.

As for going to the doctor: they wont solve anything if you have hearing damage due to loud sounds. You will recover, like it happened before, a couple of times, and then there will be one day when your hearing will not go to baseline and you start losing hearing progressively. That's at least my personal experience with H, T and hearing loss.

 

@Juan Do you use hearing aids, can I ask?

Your reply confirms what I suspected, but I had hoped it would be years rather than months before I had to contend with hearing loss as well as T and H. The ENT docs I've seen have said because I don't have significant hearing loss I should basically just "learn to live with it", but with added hearing loss I wonder if they may be more willing to give me some effective treatment whether through drugs or hearing aids. I've got another appointment with my GP in the meantime. They'll be getting sick of the sight of me!

 

Or complete and total mind fuck and downer in layman's terms.

 

No, I dont use hearing aids. I dont have so much hearing loss, just some trouble with speech in noise and turning TV up a bit, nothing remarkable really, I can get by but the progression is kind of scary.

If you get hearing loss from H it should be years rather than months, although this basically depends on noise exposure and the particular noises that kill your ears. Some people have trouble with certain sounds more than others.. over time you will know exactly which are the sounds that totally kill your ears (these may be different for different people) and those you have to avoid them.