Tinnitus After an Outdoor Concert — And a Big Thank You

Hi all,

I've been lurking around for a few weeks on Tinnitus Talk already, so I thought it might be time to actually join now

Long story short: I got tinnitus at an outdoor concert (the Danish DJ Trentemøller) on the 27th of August, so about a month ago. Normally I always wear earplugs but well, this time, I didn't. Stood in the front row with a few friends, not far away from the boxes. The concert only lasted an hour and a half, but it was really loud.

However, my friends didn't have any issues afterwards. I did. The typically muffled feeling and ringing (well, actually, more buzzing) in the ears. Also a bit of dizziness. Couldn't really sleep but wasn't too stressed out. Thought it would be gone within a day or so.

That obviously didn't happen. I went to a doctor after a week and she called an ENT for advice. The ENT said it should fade out in a week or so. I'm in the 5th week now, and luckily it has subsided a bit. I can sleep well and when there's other noise around (car, music, shower etc), I don't notice it at all. Hopefully it will continue to fade, because it's still far away from how my ears were before the concert.

The first few weeks have been stressful and I really found a lot of comfort in Tinnitus Talk (especially the success stories) so a big thank you for all the kind people here.

Obviously I have avoided loud places, I also tried wearing hearing protection for a few days when in the car and while cooking etc. That ironically seemed to make it worse, so I stopped doing that. I did not take any medication (e.g., Prednisone), but I started with B12 supplements. I have no particular history with tinnitus, although I have visited a lot of concerts/festivals in the last 15 years (and it's been only a few years since I started wearing earplugs).

 

Good luck, and hopefully you'll experience sweet silence once again some day! ^^

 

Thanks! Seems like you're also only still a few months in. Wish you all the best as well!

 

Hi @Stephen1985 -- Thanks for sharing your story. You likely experienced a lot of unnoticed ear damage over those past 15 years that made you vulnerable to chronic tinnitus after a single concert. From all I've read over the years on this forum, once you sustain any kind of damage, especially if it's led to tinnitus and/or hyperacusis, your ears will be vulnerable for the rest of your life. It sounds like you're taking measures to protect yourself. I encourage you to continue with a high degree of vigilance. A "next time" has the potential to be much worse. -- Take care!

 

Thank you. Well, next time I'll definitely wear earplugs when I go to a potentially loud place. Ironically the week after I had my 'incident' tinnitus, it got a lot of media attention in the Netherlands with ENTs warning about the enormous amount of teens and kids diagnosed with it. There's a public debate being held about lowering the max amount of decibels in bars/concerts etc.

I never had any significant ringing/buzzing in the past, but I definitely already had my fair share of ear damage before this particular concert.

 

Hi @Stephen1985 - welcome to the community. As someone who spends a lot of time around youth, I think constantly about how bad the youngest generations are going to have it in terms of hearing issues. This is an awareness I had even before my acoustic trauma three months ago, and is something I'm even more sensitive to now that I know what living with auditory distress feels like.

Based on the current trend of your tinnitus decreasing in intensity, I'm holding out hope for you that you get to silence (if not 100%, enough reduction as to be easy-to-habituate to), and I agree with @Lane that, if you've been going to concerts and festivals for 15 years, you likely do have some underlying hearing damage that would warrant being super-diligent about protecting your ears from now on.

I wish you all the best!

 

Thanks for your encouraging words!

 

I wish more countries had these kinds of public debates. There's a lack of awareness for the danger of loud noises.

 

Thanks for sharing. You just need to make sure, going forward, you protect your hearing for anything above 80 dB if it’s going to be for a while.

 

[QUOTE="Stephen1985, post: 665606, member: 49213"Ironically the week after I had my 'incident' tinnitus, it got a lot of media attention in the Netherlands with ENTs warning about the enormous amount of teens and kids diagnosed with it. There's a public debate being held about lowering the max amount of decibels in bars/concerts etc.[/QUOTE]
While lowering the volume will absolutely help, the volume of the crowd is also an issue. Take a decibel meter to a popular, crowded bar that doesn't play music on a Friday/Saturday night. You'll see how harmful the level is just from people shouting over one another all night.

Now go to a football game where there is constant cheering going on. That will probably be even louder. That's pretty on-par with the cheering at a concert.

 

Quick update.

Last month a lot happened (my dad suddenly died, which caused a big spike for a few days) and at this point the progress of recovery seems to be stagnating. It still feels better than it did at the start, but it hasn't changed a lot the last weeks. Mornings seem to be the best moments, but then during the day the buzzing gets back. Really frustrating.

Can I still expect some improvements/habituation?

Thanks guys!

 

Hi @Stephen1985 - first, my condolences to you about your dad. I'm so sorry.

Second, it seems like the spike you're experiencing may be caused as much by the stress of your life right now than anything else. I'd guess that, since you were making progress, it's likely that things will calm down (and hopefully continue to improve) with time.

Take good care of yourself, and seek out support for your grief - I'm hoping for more healing to come your way!

 

Thanks for the kind words!

 

So I finally saw an ENT this morning. Where I expected something like “learn to live with”, things went slightly different.

While inspecting my ears, she noticed an inflammation in the right middle ear. After some more tests she concluded that my current buzzing/ringing is mostly caused by the inflammation and not by the acoustic trauma (although she believes that might have contributed to the inflammation).

Another thing she said: the ringing after an acoustic trauma is normally extremely high pitched (??, where as in my case it’s more buzzing). Haven’t heard that one before, but we’ll see.

Long story short, I’m getting antibiotics for 4 weeks (no Prednisone), and that should help to improve things a lot. At least she thinks so. I’m a bit skeptical at this point, but hopefully she’s right.

 

Exactly four months in today, and my tinnitus has decreased a lot lately. Improvements have been going a lot faster the last two weeks than any moment before. Not sure what caused the rapid decrease of noise. What definitely helped a lot was doing neck exercises (I use the OTO app for that). Never would have thought it could have so much impact.

At this point I hope it stays this way or improves any further, so I can slowly get the whole tinnitus at out of my mind (which currently isn’t the case yet).

 

Great to hear @Stephen1985! I would have expected you to attribute your improvement to the antibiotics. What about the neck exercises do you feel had been helping?

 

Thanks Joe. Antibiotics might have contributed, but it only started to really improve after I started the neck exercises.

The one that helped me most: keep your chin to your breast and slowly move your head to the left. Hold it there for 30 seconds, feeling the stretch and breathing in and out slowly. Then move to the right and repeat the same exercise.

 

Fascinating @Stephen1985, thanks for the tip, it's very timely. I've been noticing that, on my bad days, my neck--especially on my right side, which is my bad side--is rather stiff. I'll give this stretch a try.