Tinnitus Worsening Despite Hearing Protection and Quiet Environment

[frank126266]

I've had tinnitus for a while, and it's getting worse each day.

Last night I was teaching a jewellery class. It wasn't noisy, and I wore industrial clamshell hearing protection. The hearth noise was about 75 dB, and occasionally someone might lightly hammer to shape a ring, but it wasn't loud, especially with protection. Overall, the class was fairly quiet.

Despite that, I woke up with extreme noise and torment from the tinnitus. I haven't been exposed to anything that would be considered loud. Even the drive home was just 10 minutes, and the car is quiet too.

I'm at the point of giving up. Things aren't getting better. I'm feeling desperate and now even paranoid about the noise from my car.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jupiterman]

This seems very simple.

If you want to avoid continuous worsening, then you'll need to consider avoiding all the noise that clearly makes it worse.

Even with ear protection, sound still travels through the skull—this is called bone conduction—to the inner ear.