Tinnitus Worse After Short Exposure to Loud TV Sound — Will This Spike Be Temporary?

I've had tinnitus for 27 years. It got taken to a whole new level in 2018 when I was given Azithromycin and told it would not hurt my ears (I lost the top 1/4 of my hearing range and gained 4x worse tinnitus). I survived that (though barely - long story I ended up in the emergency room) and then the COVID-19 vaccine made the wavering tone in my left ear settle on the loudest part of it. And now... over this last week it's gotten worse again.

I think it's because of a freak accident where a TV remote got pressure on it unbeknownst to me and the volume got set to 99 while on the smart screen. When the channel selection changed the interface sound blasted. Short but really loud. Hard to know how loud and I'm afraid to try to measure it.

It got a little worse but then, after a day or two, it seems to be getting worse and worse until last night I couldn't even sleep - it kept waking me up. I thought generally audio damage increases happen worst at first and then go down some --- not a little bump at first and then get worse, but it's definitely getting worse for me.

If it wasn't that, the only other change is that I've been using MI paste a couple times a day for my teeth. But I've been using that for over a month, maybe two.

It's now been about 8 or 9 days since it happened. What are the chances this is a spike and not permanent?

Should I be taking Turmeric to reduce inflammation? I started this morning.

Awful how I've had tinnitus for so many years and once again I have to go through the phase of - can I live like this?

 

99.9% not permanent. It's probably already gone down back to baseline?

 

Not yet. It is not as bad as the night before I wrote this, but it's still a lot worse. It's just like the worst of when it would vary. I am still hoping it goes down. Also worried it feels like maybe I lost some hearing, but could be just that the width of the ringing got wider, not sure.

 

99.99% it will settle - been there 100 times over the last 18 years with tinnitus - but I jump on the “what if“ train every time