What exactly is considered a safe noise level?

Last month one of my tinnitus symptoms was spiked pretty bad so to sleep I had I used ear buds earphones for masking as the normal masking was not working well, I kept them all night but I was sure to put it at a low volume.
Unfortunately this seems to have made my tinnitus considerably worse for the past few weeks now I have a gotten a new tone which is pretty loud and it definitely was not like that before.
I did not think I was doing anything wrong since some sounds therapies require you to wear noise generators all the time.
Does anybody mask their tinnitus with earphones this way? This is horrible I don't know what I am supposed to do now.

 

Hey had to give you a hug. But i got tinnitus from ear bud headphones so i stop using it on the whole. I suggest if u want to mask before you go to sleep play the masker out loud. Headphones are in my book off limits. But if you want to use headphones the best ones to use is the type that lays on top of the ear rather than in
Hopefully your tinnitus will calm down. I doubt that it will stay that way, its just probably a lil bit aggravated

 

Hey bro, I use headphones that lay on top of my ears for my sound therapy which I have music playing at just under my T level and it's actually helping to lower my T volume so if you had the phones at a low level I can't see any reason why it would have made your T volume go up especially if you made sure the volume was down!
Give it a few days hopefully you find that it's just a temporary spike.

Rich

 

I hope you are right, its been a month now and still no improvement. I have only done this for 3 nights it is hard to imagine why it goes worse. I was only masking one ear do you think that could have had anything to do with it?

 

Have you been to see your audiologist? It might be an idea to discuss it with him or her, you can then show her what you have been doing with the masking, they will soon tell you if it was too loud.

Rich

 

I am just guessing, but I believe the problem may've been too much sound exposure. Even though you had the volume low, they were in your ears all night. It's much better for your ears if you have some type of background sound--but not playing directly into your ears. I do know that sound therapies will require you to wear sound generators, but I don't believe you wear them all day. Neuromonics, for example, only requires you to wear earbuds for several hours a day.

Another explanation could be your own individual sensitivity. Perhaps, wearing earbuds all night on a low volume is fine for some people, but it was not fine for you. Just as everyone's tinnitus is unique so too are individual's sensitivities and tolerance for sound. But I could be be totally wrong. This is just my guess from researching various things about tinnitus and noise exposure.

If I were you, I wouldn't wear earbuds any more--at least not for several months. Give your ears a break. Keep background sounds on, but use a machine or something. I'd also take look at the NAC thread. You might try some antioxidants for a while. They won't hurt you, and perhaps they will help repair any damage you might've done.

The good news is you're probably only experiencing a temporary spike. I'm sure you'll go back to normal, but it might take a few months.

Here's the link to the NAC thread:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/n-acetylcysteine.395/#post-28886​

You should also check out protocol for the clinical trial that uses antioxidants to protect from noise-induced hearing loss:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...amage-by-use-of-antioxidants.1354/#post-50470​

If you decide to take NAC, please also consider other drugs you are taking and look for possible interactions. WebMD is usually a good source for this type of information. For the link to NAC, click here.

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Same for me. Headphones/earbuds are now strictly off limits.

 

UPDATE:

There has been no improvement so far and T has gotten worse to the point that I am going tomorrow to get another hearing test.

Assuming my T increase was due to the use of ear buds should I see a change in the audio-gram?
Oddly enough the new tone I got is 1300 Hz and if I am correct this is not the frequency usually associated with noise damage?

I have also been taking 1200 mg of NAC / day for around a week but so far nothing.

 

I use headphones with music, low volume. Maybe it's making the T worse. I am told by doctors, audiologists etc to take the same precautions as someone without tinnitus. No idea what is right.

 

I just did another hearing test today including the OAE test at the same place I had done it initially and it is pretty much the same it was a year and a half ago despite numerous new tones since then, so at least that is good news.

My Audiologist said if it is low it should not have caused damage.

I guess it is possible to significantly aggravate T without actually doing any damage.