Tinnitus Despite Wearing Earplugs During Concert

Hi all,

Three months ago I attended an electronic concert which gave me tinnitus two weeks later..and my ear plugs (which I had in my ears for every second of the show) apparently didn't help in preventing it. I did NOT have tinnitus before this gig other than occasional fleeting tinnitus.

I suspect that my hearing system was brought out of balance by a few deep and very loud bass drops that entered the cochlea through bone conduction. The companies that market ear plugs do not warn about hearing damage through bone conduction so I hope many people will find this post through Google and realize that wearing ear plugs during music concerts and festivals can still be insufficient.

Anyway, four weeks after onset of tinnitus I had a course of Prednisolon. I have the opportunity to do infusion therapy in Germany which will be a combination of prednisolon and pentoxifylline (trentol).

The first (tablet) prednisolon course didn't really have an effect on me. Do you guys think it's worth it to try the infusion therapy in addition to this? Or is this outright dangerous?

I'd like to add that my tinnitus is not of the tonal type. It's hissing all the way and it switches from left to right on a daily basis. It is never in two ears at the same time.

Many thanks for your time!

 

I hope anyone can comment on the infusion therapy part, as I have one chance to decide if I go this Monday.

Thanks so much!

 

What is your opinion of doing a second round of steroids within the 3 month window? (infusions vs. tablets)


@jazz

 

The window of opportuity is a lot smaller than 3 months. Within 48 hours is best but some benefits can be had up to 1 week.

 

Thanks.

@erik and @Nucleo

I must say my T doesn't bother me at all at the moment. Prednisolone can have some nasty side effects and I've already run a two week course 4 weeks after onset. That was ended with a nice tapering down, so I guess I am just hesitant to drive 4 hours to Germany and have more steroids plugged into my veins.

I liked the tablets because I could control the intake

 

If you've already had a course of steroids and you're 3 months in at this point (from your profile info) then you likely will not see any benefits from another treatment round.

 

Thanks, you just saved me another 400 euros for the trip, hotel and dope.

 

My girlfriend. She's sick of me whining like a little b*tch, and guess what? She's right.

I have 25 DB hearing loss at 4Khz which will never come back (rest of my hearing is fine), but my youth will also never come back. It was an amazing era of party, travel to nearly 30 countries and DJ-ing which I wouldn't trade for anything.

The soft hiss in my head is just that, a reminder of how fortunate I was during the first 35 years of my life.

Thanks and god bless you.

 

Considering bone conduction is known but with scant evidence of it posing a problem with jarring of the body as in physical activity with ear plugs inserted, as well as sound from bone conduction only reaching the equivalent of 40 odd decibels, it would be a stretch for your T to be caused by attending a concert with ear plugs in especially not actually getting Tinnitus till 2 weeks later seems a poorly thought out self diagnoses to me and is probably the reason why their is no warning about this from earplug company's!

I really do suspect that your wrong and my fear is that posting this as fact sounding that you think you got T with the use of earplugs from bone conduction is sending a bad message to other forum members and newbies who unfortunately take every post written as fact.

Question. If you are indeed correct that you got T from this concert, could you have had T straight after but not noticed it till 2 weeks later? You did say that it was only a faint hiss?

I have been to 4 concerts up until 2 years ago, with foam earplugs and have had no change in my T, no pain or feeling of discomfort with my ear drums, and these concerts were not tame, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and The Pink Floyd Experience, (indoor).

I have very sensitive hearing and can not handle everyday noise without the use of half ear plugs so I have been a great guinea pig for this so called bone conduction.

The bass from the AC/DC concert was bone rattling at times but with good foam earplugs it did not cause me any discomfort at all, and AC/DC is LOUD!
My hearing test results which I got last year was virtually exactly the same as the one I got when I first got T from noise trauma in 1990 when I was 21, I'm 46 now.

Bass is a hell lot safer than a high pitched tinny noise which is how I got T in the first place.

I mean no disrespect to you, obviously how you got T in the first place is pretty irrelevant, fact is you have T and the advice that you have received thus far should be followed.

Misinformation from post's on this forum seems to be the norm and I don't think self diagnosing and ill informed theorizing helps anyone unless it is stated as such.

Peace out.

 

Hi @RichL ,

Good to see a New Zealander here, I have some roots there as well.

Did you know that the top tinnitus clinic is based in Aucks and Otago?
Here's some links: http://www.otago.ac.nz/dsm/people/expertise/profile/index.html?id=1297
and http://www.clinics.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/our-services/hearing-and-tinnitus.html

Anyways I have to agree with you that the cause of my tinnitus might have been something else than the SOUND at the concert during which I was wearing earplugs. I am writing that in capitals because I clearly remember jumping up and down with my jaw tightly CLENCHED because I was affraid that someone would elbow me in the face. I am also experiencing headaches and neck pain before and after the concert and am now under treatment by both an orofacial and manual physiotherapist.

I found out that when I do THIS neck exercise my T pitches especially when moving my neck to the left (fast forward to 13 minutes into the video)

Tinnitus & Headache - Habits to Avoid and...

So yes, you might have a point that I falsely marked the concert as the specific point in time where this started.

It's good to hear that you can still enjoy concerts. I had a great time at Rhythm & Vines in Gisborne 2013, and the Big Day Out in 2004

Cheers man.

 

Hi guys,

Don't know much about bone conduction, but just wanted to pitch in that I have seen a few times people mention that their t started a couple of weeks after a noise exposure. My own original mild tinnitus came on like this, although when it got worse that was a fairly instant response. I don't have any links or quotes to back this up unfortunately, but my foggy memory is suggesting the name @nills to me, so I've tagged him just in case he can shed any light for us.

Cheers!

 

@dboy I see that @Beessie experienced something similar

 

I guess that could be interpreted literally as getting t after 12 days in a row of clubbing (imagine!). Maybe a holiday in Ibiza or something. I'm sure I have seen the delay in onset mentioned more than once though, and my t came on after a delay. Maybe the noise exposure and the t are not connected... it is possible I guess.

Edit... Ah yes, followed the link from the quote and it seems the delayed onset is a common experience.

 

@dboy @pactribe my Tinnitus had a delayed onset but still not sure if the noise exposure is/was the cause.

I didn't went clubbing 12 days in a row (sorry for my grammar) it was just one time.

Personally I don't think it is related to this, I didn't went out a lot before my T kicked in, due my thesis.
It is still a mystery for me, but muscle relaxing therapy has helped to lower the volume in my right ear for 80%, left ear 0%. Or this could also be because I realized this shit is here forever and accepted it.

about this, in my experience no one knows, I asked the following people:

1st GP: Yes, noise exposure is the cause
1st Ent: No, Tinnitus can't be started so long after clubbing (12 days later)
2nd GP: No, noise exposure is not the cause, it is probally stress
Audiological student: Yes, this could be the cause, (we dont know about it)
Audiologist: Stress is probally your cause.
et cetera..

I dont think it is really connected although it is common.. A lot of (young) people go out on a weekly bases and experiencing Tinnitus for a few hours. In this cause delayed onsets seem to be more regular offcource.

Anyway, hope it helps you a bit.. Contact me if you need more info

Bas.

 

Thanks, it does make it clearer. Glad to hear your right ear improved.

 

If we can get hearing loss through the bone I wonder why everyone doesn't have tinnitus?
I have heard you can still damage ears
Through the mastoid /bone area.how do we protect ourselves then?like mow grass or everyday loud noises?

 

Re: My post earlier, sweet FA evidence of hearing loss through the bone, in other words it sounds like paranoia from T sufferers, If this was the case I would have had hearing loss in this way, but my hearing has had no change after 20 + years of wearing earplugs full time!

Excellent, yes my first audiologist that I dealt with was Grant Searchfield in Auckland he was very good.

Unfortunately since my bought of depression and a bad spike earlier last year I haven't been able to enjoy concerts and looks like I won't in the foreseeable future.

 

@Beessie Thanks for joining in.

A question for you; with your hearing being good (which I read elsewhere in your posts), do you mean that you have '0' (zero) DB loss over all frequencies in your audiogram?

From what I know hearing loss between 0 - 20 db is considered normal hearing. Some scales even say that 0 - 25 db is normal. I have 20/25 db loss at the 4Khz mark, everything else is fine.

Some very interesting thoughts were passed on to me from down under as well:

Could the delay in perception of tinnitus after onset be caused by the brain needing its time before recognising that there is actually 'input missing'?

 

@pactribe

No, I dont have zero hearing loss but it is considered as this fluctuates on both ears from 0db to 5db. As you considered above this can be seen as normal hearing.

The small 5db dips has more to do with less concentration or distraction during the audiogram. I have done 3 hearing tests up to 8khZ all had a maximum of 5db hearing loss but every time at a different frequency. I think everyone has these small dips.

Good question, no one knows probally.. But as my audiogram is normal I don't think Tinnitus has anything to do with my ears or hearing. I dont know about acoustic trauma sufferers but does they hear or heared Tinnitus in the ears or also like me only in the brain?

An interesting thing for me is the following: NVVS (Dutch hearing organisation) says that when you would cut the auditory nerve Tinnitus will stop in 50% of the cases. This means that the other 50% their Tinnitus is located in the brain part of the human hearing system and has nothing to do with broken haircells in the ear itself (own theory, sounds logical if you watch how sounds are going trough our brain).

So in 50% of the cases the Tinnitus is only in the brain (according to this source) the question is for me: what is the correlation between people who suffer from acoustic trauma's (with visual hearing loss) and cutting their auditory nerve with a successful stop of their tinnitus (and hearing.. ).

anyway this whole T thing is just unclear even for the best doctors. Know that their are a lot of things that can cause Tinnitus, I still dont know what my cause is, yours seems to be a mystery so far aswell. I don't think your T is from the concert because you wore earplugs, it should be safe in that case.

 

@Beessie I think I've got my T because I started looking for it.

This reddit helped me big time:
http://www.reddit.com/r/tinnitus/comments/trn2m/tinnitus_16_years_later_tinnitus_oh_yea_i_forgot/ 

Also look up Julian Cowan Hill.

I am leaving this forum now. Best wishes and God bless you.