Tinnitus in Right Ear from Concert → 3 Months Later Left Ear Has Tinnitus → Why?

Hi all,

Following a 110 dB concert on 17 October 2023 which I stupidly attended without earplugs, I’ve had chirping tinnitus, only in my right ear. First night was extreme Morse code, which went the next day and became arrhythmic chirping. No prior history of tinnitus. It had a huge mental toll on me.

Over the proceeding months, I got into a routine and managed to start sleeping ok again.

My nightly meds/supplements that I introduced since the tinnitus started are: 30 mg Duloxetine; 25 mg Trazodone; 2.5 mg Melatonin; 375 mg GABA; 600 mg NAC; 300 mg Valerian root extract.

I play a natural babbling brook sound at about 35-40 dB at night.

Now, almost 3 months later and out of the blue, my right ear has now also developed tinnitus (monotone + empty water pipe hissing). I haven't had any real big exposures, but we did have a small early new years dinner (not raucous, some young kids but nothing super loud) with some friends and I did the dishes afterwards (there was certainly some clanking of dishes).

I am at a total loss as to why suddenly my left ear has developed tinnitus - is it the mild dinner/dishes, or is it a cumulative effect of ototoxicity of the nightly meds/supplements? I am despairing.

Thanks for any advice.

 

Do you really need all that medication and supplements?

You have tinnitus that may worsen easily. It sounds like it started mild and is fast approaching moderate. You don't want it to get any worse which it can.

Get custom fitted noise reducing earplugs made or get noise reducing earplugs to use when at events where there is risk of loud noise.

Good luck.

 

Thank you for your reply. At noisy events (I went to a wedding for example) I use full foam earplugs, or at a basketball game both earplugs and industrial earmuffs over the top.

For normal things like people over for dinner or restaurants I would normally use my Loop Engage Plus earplugs with the mute insert. Do you think I need more than these?

At this New Year’s dinner at my house with one other family I didn’t use any earplug in my left ear, only in my (then) symptomatic right ear.

 

I think I've experienced the same thing. I had unilateral loud tinnitus in the left ear after a concert 4 months ago and so was mostly wearing earplugs in my left ear. I went out a few times to noisy environments (nothing major) with just my left ear plugged and had some tinnitus spikes which seem to have caused tinnitus now (at a lower volume) in the right ear.

I plug both ears now whenever I go somewhere noisy.

 

Manny people develop tinnitus in their right ear first, but experience the tinnitus sound in their left ear due to how our brains are wired. Signals from the left ear travel to the right auditory cortex, which is in the temporal lobe on the brain's right side. Signals from the right ear travel to the left auditory cortex.

My tinnitus developed this way. First left ear, then the right ear joined in. Could have been acoustic trauma to my right that caused tinnitus to be heard in the right.

Just my observation.