Tinnitus Caused by Ear Irrigation — Two Months In: Can It Still Go Away?

Evening all! I guess I’m still sort of a newbie when it comes to tinnitus. My tinnitus started on September 28th, 2020. I remember that day like it’s my birthday.

I’m 20 years old and I’ve never ever had tinnitus in my life. But, for the past one and a half years I’ve dealt with earwax buildup in my ears. So, a couple months ago it was a point where it got pretty annoying so I went to my local urgent care to get my ears irrigated.

Keep in mind, before this, I did not have ringing in my ears. Just earwax blockage. Anyways, the nurse irrigated my ears but I believe she did it for way to long. She irrigated my left ear (the blocked ear) a lot more than my right. She did it to the point where I felt nauseous and I thought I was going to faint.

Ever since, the day after and until now, I’ve had tinnitus. My biggest question is, will this go away?

I’ve been to an ENT where I got a hearing test done, and my hearing is fine. I do not have hearing loss. I have no eardrum ruptures. I’m perfectly fine. But, the ringing is still there. Some days it’s good, some a little louder than usual. Also, for a few brief seconds sometimes it just go “beep” and it’ll go back to its usual pitch.

Will this type of tinnitus caused by ear irrigation go away? It’s been two months. I hope it does but I’m also learning to live it. Which I have to say, I’ve improved tremendously with it from when I first got it. I still have my moments where I get freaked out because of the spikes but I just ‘ride the wave’ as a another user said on here.

Anyways, much love and hope to hear from y’all!

 

Have you experienced Any improvement?

It is encouraging that it's not relentlessly at the same level. Would you say that the fraction of the good days has increased, or that the good days these days are better than 6 weeks ago?

You will want to attempt to stay away from the things that cause your spikes.

In any case, if you Had experienced some improvement, than it ought to continue to improve. It might take 1-3 years to get to "can hear it only in quiet rooms" stage.

You will want to make sure that you don't hurt your ears during this period of vulnerability as your body is healing. You will want to avoid taking ototoxic drugs and not let your dental hygienist use an ultrasonic scaling tool on you (a manual tool should be used). For more details, see

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

 

I would have to say yes for sure. But, may be a little to early to tell. I’m not technically two months in with tinnitus. But, 1 month and 21 days. But, like I stated earlier, some days good and some days bad. Thankfully, I haven’t got any episodes where it’s EXTREMELY loud. No, just days where I can hear it a little more over the TV, etc. But, I think it may just me thinking about it to much.

Honestly, how would I know if it’s a spike? Sometimes I won’t be doing nothing, just sitting or laying down. And, I’ll just hear a “beep” for a few seconds or the sound becomes increasingly loud but than lowers to its normal level. Does it mean my tinnitus will get worse or is that normal?

For sure! I’m still learning to get used to it, so I think the days that it’s more annoying is just the days when I think about it. And, the good days are when I’m just doing my own thing and paying no attention to it. At, night though it’s a little tough because it’s quiet and my mind just starts to think. So, it becomes more noticeable at night when I’m in bed getting ready to sleep or just winding down.

But, since my tinnitus was caused after ear irrigation, do you know or have heard if people have recovered from it after a couple months or still dealing with it for years? Because, I’ve never had it before. Happened immediately the day after the irrigation.

 

Awesome.

At this point all you can do is ensure that you don't hurt your ears again. Listen to the signals given to you by your own body. If a sound feels uncomfortable, try to get away from it. If something causes a tinnitus spike, try to keep away from it.

Ears take forever (months or even years) to heal, but if you have experienced some improvement, they ought to eventually heal. Few people report hearing silence again, but most of those whose tinnitus begins to improve report getting to the "can hear it only in quiet rooms" stage where they are also not really bothered by it any longer.

The next 3-12 months will be tough, but it ought to get better.

This isn't how I got tinnitus, and I admit that I haven't been paying attention to that particular subset of posts. Having said this, everything depends on how badly one got hurt and on the state of one's ears. In other words the person who recovered/hasn't recovered might have had exposure that was different from your exposure. The important thing is that yours isn't relentlessly at the same level. Those are the tinnitus types that often don't get better.

If you've already had it for over a month, it will likely not be going away in a couple of weeks...