Tinnitus for 3 Weeks After Flight

Hi, I am 17 years old and have had a rather sharp buzzing/ringing sound in my left ear ever since my last flight about three weeks ago. It is very irritating and hard to ignore as soon as things become quiet. For the first few days I believed that it would just go away but after 3 weeks of nothing changing I'm really worried it might be permanent.

It all started when I got off my last flight coming home to Sweden from a trip to Paris when out of nowhere an extremely sharp ringing started in my left ear. The severe ringing stopped after about 15 minutes but I noticed afterwards that a weak kind of ringing noise was still there. I went to bed hoping that it would be gone the next morning but it was still there.

After about a week of nothing changing I decided to get my ears checked as something was clearly wrong. A doctor looked inside my ears and I got to do both a hearing test and pressure test. Both tests came back perfect and he told me that it was most likely not permanent as I had no hearing loss but he could not find a clear cause to the tinnitus.

Anyways, I just wanted to share this as I have been really worried the last week. The thought of it being permanent and never being able to experience silence again really scares me. I am also quite confused as I don't understand what made this happen...

 

I know how you feel.

You are young and so you are probably more resilient than most of us. Chances are that it will go away, but it might take months or even years for this to happen. If it doesn't go away, there is a good chance that it will get even quieter, and in your case that would be almost like healing. Your T is quiet (and will likely get quieter), so in the worst case scenario you will likely eventually get used to it and will stop being bothered by it.

For more information, check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

You may have something minor causing the T - a flight by itself shouldn't cause hearing loss unless you were right next to the engines...more so if a prop engine. Of course flights have pressure changes and you may have some Eustachian tube blockage or issues which contributed. And...were you in loud concerts before the flight?

Could well be so, and at 17 your body should has a good chance of recovery.

Good luck!

 

I'd love to see this place on April 1st if people ever do respond with something like "You'll never heal. You've acquired a permanent condition that will only get worse over the coming years and decades. Escape is impossible".

It's pretty much the response someone gave me about my lower back injury, and yet I completely healed in over five months.

 

A common complaint about ENTs is them saying, "yup you got it, now learn to live with it." Backs are squirrelly maybe like T is. Thank goodness your prognosis was not correct.

 

Hehe, well this fella, who wasn't a doctor, pretty much said at the time "You'll never heal. You'll most likely die an early and horrible death from pain killer overdose".

I'm not sure if he was kidding either.