Tinnitus After a Loud Concert — ENT Won't Prescribe Prednisone

Hi all,

I’m new to Tinnitus Talk and to tinnitus I’m general.

I got tinnitus in my right ear from a very loud 3 hour concert. I also had muffled hearing, but the hearing had cleared up by Saturday afternoon. The tinnitus hadn’t. I went to an ENT on Monday, who suggested that I wait it out a few weeks. I had a couple of tests which showed normal tympanometry levels, and a normal hearing range from 250 Hz to 8 kHz (no hearing loss).

I wanted to get on Prednisone but the ENT wouldn’t prescribe it to me. I’m now worried that if I don’t get the Prednisone, my tinnitus won’t settle down and will become permanent.

My tinnitus is very high pitched, at about 14 kHz. I can ignore it most times except when I’m in a quiet room or trying to concentrate at work. To my knowledge I don’t have TMJ, ear pressure, hyperacusis, hearing loss or other problems associated with tinnitus.

As the ENT didn’t prescribe Prednisone for me, I’m currently taking lipoflavonoids and Magnesium supplements.

 

I’ve heard that Prednisone can actually make tinnitus worse, but the ringing in my head is so unbearable that I feel like I need to try something, anything to soothe it.

I’ve also read in these forums that the best thing to do when you first get tinnitus is to wait, but this is day 6 and it’s still going strong.

 

It seems Prednisone is prescribed very easily in some countries, yet not prescribed in other countries. Are you from the UK by any chance?

In any case I think it's great you can only hear your tinnitus only in quite rooms and not all the time, this is already an improvement.

 

I’m from the US. I think it’s a country by country case because I got Prednisone relatively easily in Canada.

 

In order to get Prednisone you have to go the ER and say that you've suddenly lost your hearing and act freaked out.

Doctors don't give a s*** about tinnitus, but some do take the thing more seriously if they believe you've suffered from sudden hearing loss and Prednisone just happens to be the treatment for it.

 

That's not going to be easy - as the OP is already on the system and has seen the ENT people.

 

Well, sudden hearing loss can occur at any time, even if you had an audiogram yesterday, you could get sudden hearing loss today, right?

The key thing is to look scared, they probably even won't do another audiogram (if so, take it and fake it) and they'll just prescribe the Prednisone right away.

 

It is worth a try.

 

Don't count on it. Some doctors are assholes.