What Made Your Tinnitus Louder?

Hey guys, I know we are all different. But I am wondering, if you had a temporary or permanent worsening of your T. What was the cause of it?
And to compare it: what didn't make your T louder?
For instance: a concert made it louder, but a bombshell 20 meters away didn't.

Just to figure out if "sound peaks" are so innocent as some say.

Also: What sensations did you get when it was increased, A fleeting peak, pain, ears that stuffed? (Because a small increase in the T is sometimes hard to rate subjectively.)

Also did your increase go down later?

 

A popped balloon made it worse (permanently). But it did take a few weeks to get worse. I didn't realize at first and was exposed to loud sounds several times right after the balloon.

A 3 hours tour in a long-tail boat in Thailand was ok 2 years before that... (I had earplugs and earmuffs on but well). Those things are at least 100dB.

 

Permanent spikes: flights, colds and an ear infection. (Obviously pressure has played a big role).
Temporary spikes: colds, driving across mountains, poor sleep, large salt inntak and sometimes exercise.
Even though my T was noise induced I can't recall any direct worsening from noise. My T now is significantly louder than it was just a few years ago so I suspect that noise causes minor increases that goes unoticed by me.

I remember one incident where I was walking with a friend and a passing car made this really loud bang almost next to us. I freaked out but it didn't affect my T at all. My friend however developed T from this and has had it ever since.

 

What are signals of a new sound exposure that could be problematic? This seems like an obvious question but it's not, T goes up and down all the time.
Do you almost always also get a real spike or fullness or some other sympthons when a sound changed your baseline T?

 

Did you feel anything when the balloon popped? Was it close to your ear?

 

Yes, about 30-50 centimeters.

My ears immediately started to burn and to follow my heartbeat.

 

But your T didn't spike immediately?

 

No, a week later ;/

 

How is that possible? Did you do anything in time between?
How are you doing now btw, did your dentist peak settle?

I am trying to figure out what kind of noise actually makes T worse.
Since I am apparently unable to protect myself decently..
I had a few of these (big ones) go of yesterday a few metres from me. http://www.goodmarkgroup.com/party-cannons

 

I suspect it's because the spiral ganglion cells are weakened and begin to die off in the days/weeks following the noise trauma. I think this is what happened with my noise trauma (nerve damage).

 

I don't think there is an answer to that. Just look at what @Elinor wrote:

*mind blown*

A sound loud enough to cause tinnitus, was not loud enough to cause a spike. What. (on a serious note, I'm very glad you didn't have a spike @Elinor)

 

Is there something that can be done to prevent it?

 

Does NAC and Magnesium , Prednisone work for that?

 

You mean once the damage is done? I really don't know. I don't know if anybody does.

 

Yeah, I had a noise exposure on Saturday that I haven't even thought about but I fairly sure it caused a delayed onset worsening (spike?).

(I seriously doubt I'll get Prednisone even if I go to GP today. It seems that they don't prescribe it here for noise-induced tinnitus without noticeable hearing loss. And they certainly won't prescribe it to someone who is a complete anxiety wreck as I am)

 

Based on what I've read (what I remember at least) NAC and Magnesium are mostly preemptive. Just because a medication taken premptevly improves the outcome doesn't necessarily mean taking it after the fact will. That being said both are pretty safe to take and it can't hurt anything.
Prednisone is mostly for SSHL, it may help for noise trauma but it's a hail mary. It does have more side effects. In my opinion it should be saved for very obvious (severe) noise trauma.

 

Thank you for sharing your opinion

 

What was the noise exposure?

 

I just had to drive 3 hours twice during this week. But the full worsening took two months to appear. I made mistakes during this time though.

I'm going to write about my story, might help some people.

The dentist spike is at its worst. I'm in a dark place right now ;(

 

Well to be fair, my friend had a history of other ear related issues. He could have been more prone to it.

 

As I entered a relatively loud room, someone started talking very loudly before I had a chance to put on earplugs.

• <1min of no more 90dB (as explained above)
• 20-25mins of 70-85dB (with 20dB earplugs) while I was trying to get out of there

 

So sorry to hear that, mate. Hang in there!

Just to chime in, my T and H were at their worst about two months after trauma (gunshot), the first couple of weeks weren't that bad in hindsight, so this delayed onset/adding insult to injury-thing is very real indeed. Took about 4-5 more months before things started to improve again.

 

Most likely didn't do any lasting damage. I too am worried about spending too much time places with lots of people talking loudly and 'hard' acoustics such a restaurants though.

 

Guess you'll be fine, that can't do any damage for as far as I can tell.
I just had some of those party cannons shooting a few metres from me, what I guess is around 120 dB. Hard to tell. Maybe I am lucky that I was on NAC, Mag, Ginkgo, Prednisone, and all the rest.

Hopefully I won't see any symptons or worsening soon.. :/

Can you feel the nerve damage btw? In your neck or head where its located?

 

Thank you. Sick of it.

Took me a year to get a little better.... Maybe the Korean stem cells thing is the only way to find relief for now.

 

Best of luck man. Hopefully it will go better soon, as I've noticed here, thats more the case than not!

 

Thanks. Yes it's often getting better. But then you have people like @bill 112 @Telis and many others who got it real bad and don't find ways to cope...

 

Yeah, I know.. But we shouldn't always look at the worst I guess.

I've uploaded a raw video of what scared me and is giving me anxiety all day.
Had to film an event, and they started popping these things, bit unexpected, especially when I moved forward, the last one felt really loud.
It's hard to tell though, because the audio is auto-limited.
(I was just holding my camera, trying to get away from the damn blast, that's why it's all over the place btw)

Damnit should've known.

Clip36336

 

Does anyone know the dB of these things? Been looking for it everywhere on the net.

 

Red haired girl thought it was loud too.