- Feb 17, 2017
- 10,399
- Tinnitus Since
- February, 2017
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Acoustic Trauma
In this thread, I would like to write about all of the important lessons about tinnitus (T) that I learned thus far. They are in no particular order. I will add to this as I learn/remember more. If you have lessons of your own that you would like to share, by all means post them here.
The target audience are people who recently started suffering from T.
1. Many people eventually get to hear silence again
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/
2. After reading the posts on this forum over the past 10 months, I learned that in many cases T tends to fade: it gets quieter and its pitch gets lower (often changing to a hiss or even a soft hiss) so that it is easier to ignore. So in the worst case scenario if your T doesn't go away, what you are hearing now is likely not going to be the sound that you will get stuck with.
3. Many others, including me, found that staying away from even moderate noises (like that of a vacuum cleaner, blender, lawn mower, and hair dryer) promotes healing.
4. Our ears have been compromised. The noise that a healthy person won't even notice can cause a serious temporary spike or even a permanent spike for one of us. So just because the noise wasn't loud enough to damage hearing of a healthy person, doesn't mean that it can't change your life to a living hell. When I pressed a loud phone to my bad ear, my T changed from a hiss to a high pitch tone that was much harder to ignore. This lasted for over three months. After a glass plate fell 10 cm onto another glass plate (30 cm away from my ear), I began hearing T in my formerly good ear. I still hear T in both ears... I had major spikes as a result of doors slamming. Now I always wear ear plugs when I am outside of my home. Some people say that protecting your ears can lead to H. This might be true for some. I (and several others here) found that H began to diminish (and was eventually gone) once I began protecting my ears from moderate noises.
5. There are countless posts on this site where people describe how they found out the hard way that hearing protection like ear plugs or muffs can provide a false sense of security, and not be enough to protect you. Here is a sample:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-religious-purposes-in-nyc.24448/#post-294691
Some people report being ok after attending loud concerts while wearing hearing protection. Keep in mind that if you begin hitting a wall with a hammer, it will take some time before you see the objects on the other side of the wall.
6. Most spikes are temporary spikes (few become permanent). Temporary spikes can last a surprisingly long time:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/head-movement-spikes-tinnitus.25179/#post-290614
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/poll-how-long-do-your-tinnitus-spikes-usually-last.23110/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/poll-how-long-was-your-longest-spike.22099/
When you get a spike, it is natural to panic and assume the worst. My advice is to wait three months or so. If the spike is still there, as loud as ever, at that point you might start worrying about this spike being permanent.
7. If you get a new acoustic trauma, it might be a good idea to take prednisone. You can go to the ER, tell them that you have T and you are experiencing a spike as a result of having to stop a screaming fire alarm. There is a good chance that they will give you 5 50 mg prednisone pills. You can go to several emergency rooms (or urgent care clinics) and get several prescriptions. The rule of thumb for prednisone is to take X mg per day (where X = your weight in kilograms) for 14 days + tapering. If you experience a serious acoustic trauma (i.e., a gun goes off near your ear or in an small room, or you actually stopped a fire alarm [I recommend against doing that(!) just run away from it]), then you may want to get a full course of prednisone. Otherwise, you may want to take a 50 mg pill on the day of the accident. You know the trauma was serious if you experience a spike or ear fullness right after, or the next morning. If the spike is gone after 48 hours, I would stop taking prednisone (assuming the acoustic trauma was caused by something minor like a slamming door).
Some places and things that might be dangerous for people like us: slamming doors (do not open windows when it is windy outside, use door stoppers), falling glass plates, fire alarm (I disabled the fire alarm at my home, of course such an action is not for everyone; I carry Peltor muffs with me everywhere I go - they would be fast to slip on in case a fire alarm goes off), hand dryers at publish washrooms, busy streets where trucks and motorcycles can be loud when accelerating, watch out for police/ambulance sirens [carry Peltor muffs with you in your car - you don't want to be stuck in traffic with an emergency vehicle using its siren near you, as had happened to one poster here], bars, restaurants, and malls (where music can begin playing at any moment), fireworks, thunderstorms/showers during which you might hear thunder, do not be around any baloons - they are incredibly loud when they pop (especially in a closed space), try to stay away from kids (or wear hearing protection whenever you are around them), don't sneeze or cough when wearing ear plugs (Google "occlusion effect").
8. You might hear that if your T doesn't go away in 6 months, it is permanent. That is a myth. "Six months" is just a time interval that insurance companies use to classify a condition as being chronic. It has no medical basis.
Multiple sources seem to use "2 years" as their rule of thumb. See, for example
https://www.ncrar.research.va.gov/Education/Documents/TinnitusDocuments/01_HenryPTM-HB_1-10.pdf
"A general guideline is that tinnitus of at least 12 months duration has a high likelihood of being a permanent condition (Dobie, 2004b). However, it also has been suggested that a person must have experienced tinnitus for at least two years before it should be considered permanent (Vernon, 1996)."
Link to Dobie 2004: https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en...AfBTNxz1AY#v=onepage&q=dobie tinnitus&f=false
If your T keeps fading but is still audible 2 years after onset, there is no reason to think that it will stop fading after 2 years.
It will most likely continue fading. A number of members of this forum had stated that the first time they got tinnitus, they eventually got to hear silence after 12-18 months. This is evidence contradicting the statement above from that Dobbie 2004 study.
9. Many people on this forum got their T as a result of ultrasonic dental cleaning. There is no reason to take this risk. Insist that your dental hygenist cleans your teeth manually. I never heard of a hygenist declining such a request. Manual cleaning is as good as ultrasonic cleaning, and it doesn't cost more.
10. Beginning today, commit to taking better care of your teeth. You want to minimize the number of dental procedures you undergo.
It is probably not a good idea to wear ear plugs or even ear muffs during a dental procedure because of occlusion effect. You will want to ask your dentist to drill for at most 5 seconds followed by a 10 second break. If a laser can't be used, find a dentist who uses electric-powered drills (as opposed to the traditional air-powered drills) as they are supposed to be quieter. For more details, check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/dentist-laser-vs-ordinary.2791/#post-272983
11. Many people get their T as a result of an ear infection. Do what you can to prevent an ear infection. For more information, check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...tus-disappear-for-a-second.23966/#post-295711
12. Many get T after doctors remove wax from their ears using microsuction or syringing. There is no reason to take that risk. Ask the doctor to remove the wax from your ears using manual tools. I think the name of one of the tools is curette. Another tool looks like a wire loop. Make sure to use special ear drops for two weeks prior to your appointment to soften the wax. Also make sure that the person cleaning your ears is a doctor who has a lot of experience (and not a nurse with little experience).
The target audience are people who recently started suffering from T.
1. Many people eventually get to hear silence again
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/
2. After reading the posts on this forum over the past 10 months, I learned that in many cases T tends to fade: it gets quieter and its pitch gets lower (often changing to a hiss or even a soft hiss) so that it is easier to ignore. So in the worst case scenario if your T doesn't go away, what you are hearing now is likely not going to be the sound that you will get stuck with.
3. Many others, including me, found that staying away from even moderate noises (like that of a vacuum cleaner, blender, lawn mower, and hair dryer) promotes healing.
4. Our ears have been compromised. The noise that a healthy person won't even notice can cause a serious temporary spike or even a permanent spike for one of us. So just because the noise wasn't loud enough to damage hearing of a healthy person, doesn't mean that it can't change your life to a living hell. When I pressed a loud phone to my bad ear, my T changed from a hiss to a high pitch tone that was much harder to ignore. This lasted for over three months. After a glass plate fell 10 cm onto another glass plate (30 cm away from my ear), I began hearing T in my formerly good ear. I still hear T in both ears... I had major spikes as a result of doors slamming. Now I always wear ear plugs when I am outside of my home. Some people say that protecting your ears can lead to H. This might be true for some. I (and several others here) found that H began to diminish (and was eventually gone) once I began protecting my ears from moderate noises.
5. There are countless posts on this site where people describe how they found out the hard way that hearing protection like ear plugs or muffs can provide a false sense of security, and not be enough to protect you. Here is a sample:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-religious-purposes-in-nyc.24448/#post-294691
Some people report being ok after attending loud concerts while wearing hearing protection. Keep in mind that if you begin hitting a wall with a hammer, it will take some time before you see the objects on the other side of the wall.
6. Most spikes are temporary spikes (few become permanent). Temporary spikes can last a surprisingly long time:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/head-movement-spikes-tinnitus.25179/#post-290614
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/poll-how-long-do-your-tinnitus-spikes-usually-last.23110/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/poll-how-long-was-your-longest-spike.22099/
When you get a spike, it is natural to panic and assume the worst. My advice is to wait three months or so. If the spike is still there, as loud as ever, at that point you might start worrying about this spike being permanent.
7. If you get a new acoustic trauma, it might be a good idea to take prednisone. You can go to the ER, tell them that you have T and you are experiencing a spike as a result of having to stop a screaming fire alarm. There is a good chance that they will give you 5 50 mg prednisone pills. You can go to several emergency rooms (or urgent care clinics) and get several prescriptions. The rule of thumb for prednisone is to take X mg per day (where X = your weight in kilograms) for 14 days + tapering. If you experience a serious acoustic trauma (i.e., a gun goes off near your ear or in an small room, or you actually stopped a fire alarm [I recommend against doing that(!) just run away from it]), then you may want to get a full course of prednisone. Otherwise, you may want to take a 50 mg pill on the day of the accident. You know the trauma was serious if you experience a spike or ear fullness right after, or the next morning. If the spike is gone after 48 hours, I would stop taking prednisone (assuming the acoustic trauma was caused by something minor like a slamming door).
Some places and things that might be dangerous for people like us: slamming doors (do not open windows when it is windy outside, use door stoppers), falling glass plates, fire alarm (I disabled the fire alarm at my home, of course such an action is not for everyone; I carry Peltor muffs with me everywhere I go - they would be fast to slip on in case a fire alarm goes off), hand dryers at publish washrooms, busy streets where trucks and motorcycles can be loud when accelerating, watch out for police/ambulance sirens [carry Peltor muffs with you in your car - you don't want to be stuck in traffic with an emergency vehicle using its siren near you, as had happened to one poster here], bars, restaurants, and malls (where music can begin playing at any moment), fireworks, thunderstorms/showers during which you might hear thunder, do not be around any baloons - they are incredibly loud when they pop (especially in a closed space), try to stay away from kids (or wear hearing protection whenever you are around them), don't sneeze or cough when wearing ear plugs (Google "occlusion effect").
8. You might hear that if your T doesn't go away in 6 months, it is permanent. That is a myth. "Six months" is just a time interval that insurance companies use to classify a condition as being chronic. It has no medical basis.
Multiple sources seem to use "2 years" as their rule of thumb. See, for example
https://www.ncrar.research.va.gov/Education/Documents/TinnitusDocuments/01_HenryPTM-HB_1-10.pdf
"A general guideline is that tinnitus of at least 12 months duration has a high likelihood of being a permanent condition (Dobie, 2004b). However, it also has been suggested that a person must have experienced tinnitus for at least two years before it should be considered permanent (Vernon, 1996)."
Link to Dobie 2004: https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en...AfBTNxz1AY#v=onepage&q=dobie tinnitus&f=false
If your T keeps fading but is still audible 2 years after onset, there is no reason to think that it will stop fading after 2 years.
It will most likely continue fading. A number of members of this forum had stated that the first time they got tinnitus, they eventually got to hear silence after 12-18 months. This is evidence contradicting the statement above from that Dobbie 2004 study.
9. Many people on this forum got their T as a result of ultrasonic dental cleaning. There is no reason to take this risk. Insist that your dental hygenist cleans your teeth manually. I never heard of a hygenist declining such a request. Manual cleaning is as good as ultrasonic cleaning, and it doesn't cost more.
10. Beginning today, commit to taking better care of your teeth. You want to minimize the number of dental procedures you undergo.
It is probably not a good idea to wear ear plugs or even ear muffs during a dental procedure because of occlusion effect. You will want to ask your dentist to drill for at most 5 seconds followed by a 10 second break. If a laser can't be used, find a dentist who uses electric-powered drills (as opposed to the traditional air-powered drills) as they are supposed to be quieter. For more details, check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/dentist-laser-vs-ordinary.2791/#post-272983
11. Many people get their T as a result of an ear infection. Do what you can to prevent an ear infection. For more information, check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...tus-disappear-for-a-second.23966/#post-295711
12. Many get T after doctors remove wax from their ears using microsuction or syringing. There is no reason to take that risk. Ask the doctor to remove the wax from your ears using manual tools. I think the name of one of the tools is curette. Another tool looks like a wire loop. Make sure to use special ear drops for two weeks prior to your appointment to soften the wax. Also make sure that the person cleaning your ears is a doctor who has a lot of experience (and not a nurse with little experience).
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