Tinnitus Recently Getting Worse

Hey everyone,

I am 16 years old and I think I have always had at least a little ringing in my ears whenever I was in a quiet room. I thought it was normal for everyone until recently when the buzzing has gotten very loud whenever it is quiet. I have a sensorineural hearing loss in both ears. I inherited that from my dad. However, he does not have bad tinnitus; only an occasional quiet ringing. I speculate the cause of the tinnitus is a combination of my hearing loss, me being in a rock band, and possibly surgery I had on my lungs. (It seemed to get noticeably worse after that). I guess I just need to hear some success stories or anyone in a similar situation.

I need to know it will not go on forever. I'm going to try acupuncture and ginkgo biloba, maybe those will work. Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Thank you!

 

Hello @rsilvers, and welcome.

@Bill Bauer wrote the following post discussing studies that show a fairly high recovery rate from tinnitus ( https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/ )

I would also recommend searching out posts from @Michael Leigh as he possesses a great deal of knowledge on tinnitus. I would suggest you start with this post https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

I cannot tell you that it will go away, but the studies mentioned in Bill's post indicate that you have a fairly good chance of it clearing up. And, is not, many people learn to habituate (which is a fancy word for learning to ignore it).

You mentioned you are in a band, which instrument(s) do you play?
Do you use ear protection while playing? You may want to search this forum for information on that as well.

I wish you luck and hope you find everything you need here. Please keep us updated on your progress.

 

Hey Kolisar,

Thanks for your response. I will hope for the best and do everything I can for it to clear up but if not I will certainly use TRT to ignore it.

I play drums. And yes, I did use earplugs but not always. I probably should've been more conscious. I recently bought some good quality ones and will use them always and be very conscious of loud noises.

Thanks again for those links and your reply!

 

Hi @rsilvers

When tinnitus is caused by "loud noise" exposure, it is advisable to keep away from overly loud sounds. This means be mindful of attending venues where loud music is played because unfortunately, most hearing protection will not stop sound reaching the inner ear by "bone conduction" if the sound is loud enough, as it will pass through the skull. Since you play drums I advise you to be particularly careful. I also advise not to use headphones even at low volume.

All the best
Michael

 

Try taking NAC and magnesium. Search this forum for more information on these supplements.

 

Tinnitus has an unpredictable nature. We don't know if it will go away or stay. The thing that we do know is that, if you keep being in a loud environment, then your tinnitus can possibly get much louder/worst. You are very young and need to be patient and very disciplined. Lots of events will happen in your life and you need to protect your ears.

You still have a very bright future, enjoy it