Tinnitus from Ear Syringing

I go to festivals and concerts really often, and have always worn proper earplugs. With christmas I got a decent amount of money from my parents, and I decided I wanted some of those custom moulded ear plugs. At the shop they took a look into my ears and said I first needed to have some earwax removed, because they wouldn't be able to take the mould with the wax buildup.

Last monday I went to visit the doctor (assistant) who syringed my ears, and indeed there were some big chunks of wax in there. That night when I went to bed I noticed a high pitched ringing, I thought it would just be sensitive from the syringing, but the next days it only became worse. I would compare the sound with that high pitched noise from an old CRT television. I have been sleeping bad, and every night I hoped the ringing would be gone the next morning.

Today I went to see the doctor because of this. After telling him all this, he looked into my ears and couldn't see anything wrong, and told me to come see him again if it was still there in two weeks.

I'm really really worried I got tinnitus, I've always worn ear protection, and now I get this just from the syringing required to mould some top-notch earplugs. Isn't that some unfortunate irony?

 

Yep sure is wax removal should only be done after 7 to 10 days of putting ear drop to soften the wax. It can take a long time to adjust to the ringing.

 

Hi @Toxer95

Before having your ears syringed or microscutioned, it is always best to apply eardrops/olive oil to each ear 3 times a day for 7 to 10 days before having the earwax removed. If this is not done prior to having the wax removed problems can result such as tinnitus. Hopefully it will calm down. Since you have been going to clubs regularly, it is likely that the tinnitus was already there but in the background.

Please do not put your faith in earplugs or custom moulded plugs and think you are safe from noise exposure, because this is definitely not the case. If external sound is loud enough, it can pass through your skull/head and be transferred to the inner ear by bone conduction.

Please read the post below written by an audio engineer whose a member of this forum. Please click on the links at the bottom of the page and read my posts, that you might find helpful.

Michael


@Bill Weir

Hi!
I'm an audio engineer and now have T. I hate to have to tell you this but there are no earplugs that can protect you in the typical nightclub environment. The best protection will only lower the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) by about 30 db. Assuming the sound is typical, it's going to hover around 105 db A when measured using long term averaging, slow response on a meter. This means there will be peaks well in excess of 120 db"A" weighted. Weighting the scales of measurement on the sound meter gives more accurate readings. "A" weighting approximates what your eardrum is sensitive to... meaning sound with the deep bass filtered out. "C" weighting includes the bass and is generally 15-30 db higher than an "A" reading.

So, 105 db A (typical nightclub or major concert translates into 130 db "C" or more including the bass. How long do people generally stay in the average nightclub? Too long! 4 hour stay is average. A concert is generally 2.5 hours. Many people will stay in the club all night until they are "OK" to drive and be back in public LMAO. The drugs people do screws up their judgement and desensitizes them to physical sensation and people damage themselves without realizing it.

Sound levels pretty much everywhere are TOO loud IMO. Instead of the industry standard 105 db A (Live Nation SPL cap) I like to keep it at 96-98 for people. Why so loud? Above 96 db the fight or flight response begins to kick in and you get that rush of excitement you get at a concert. It's a lot of what people pay for. Deep bass goes in through bone transconductance. You don't "hear" it with your eardrum you feel it This is how it is possible to have bass with headphones. If this transconductance did not occur, the long wavelengths that make bass would not have enough distance to unfold when using headphones. So, earplugs DO NOT protect you from low frequency damage. Not even a little bit.

So, on the one hand, you're going to have 100db + peaks getting through your earplugs in the range above 100 Hz (low note on a 4 string bass guitar is 41.7 Hz) and the bass below will pressurize your cochlea like nothing is even there, straight through the bone. Some of the subwoofer arrays I have installed in places must have security grating around them to keep people from getting within ten feet of the subwoofer array because the array produces well over 150 db down at 35Hz at 1 meter distance and would make them nauseous or in some extreme cases even worse than that.

I can say this definitively from direct personal and professional experience. If you value your hearing and do not want your tinnitus to increase, avoid these places or if you must go limit your exposure considerably.


https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-to-tinnitus-what-to-do.12558/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

@Toxer95 ,
I really hope your tinnitus goes away and no permanent tinnitus was caused .
Time is a great healer so try stay positive.
Love glynis

 

Thanks for your comments. I'll try not to think about it too much for the coming weeks, and hope for the best.

About the olive oil, the assistent here said I should do it 3 times a day only for 3 days beforehand. I didn't know better, and only read about the ten days afterwards. Neither did they tell me about any risks involving hearing loss or tinnitus when syringing ears. If only I did some Googling first...

 

Many clinics that remove earwax by syringing or microsuction fail to tell clients to use eardrops, 3 times a day for 7 to 10 days before having the wax removed. They are running a business and only in it for the money. Next time use eardrops in the manner I've suggested.

 

That's how the founder of this community developed his tinnitus. By syringing...

 

That is some unfortunate irony indeed.

You can't blame yourself for not googling everything you are about to do. If you were, you'd probably not get into a car either. Also you'd be spending your life on google, probably googling this meta question first: "is it safe for me to spend my life googling".

 

@Toxer95 did they use an actual syringe, or was a machine used to pump water in? Actual literal "syringing" is not supposed to be done anymore I believe, at least in the UK. The modern way is to do it with an irrigation machine which uses less force to put the water in. But the term "syringing" often seems to be used to refer to removal of wax by actual syringing and also by water irrigation using a machine. Irrigation is supposed to be safer, but there are people online who got T from irrigation rather than syringing for sure. Sometimes even after 10 days of oil.

 

Yea, it was done by the machine you mentioned. It didn't come out at first so it took a little more time, which may be the cause. The left ear took longer than the right, and the T is a little worse too on that side.

 

Did your tinnitus get better?

 

Was your Ear wax removal done through actual syringing or water irrigator?