Worried I've Been Silly and Made My Tinnitus Worse

Hi all,

It seems after today my T is louder and I seem to have H back too. I'm worried I've made it permanently worse and would appreciate your thoughts. My noise exposure has been as follows:

15 minute drive at approx 85db

Football with ear plugs so I doubt any damage there.

I then got excited as my bet won and took my mind off everything. I was in a loud bar which was averaging about 95db for 15 minutes, peakinf at 100db

I then went to a restaurant for an hour and a half at about 85-90db, of which 20 minutes I was wearing ear plugs.

Then finally another 15 minute drive at about 85db. Also the usual loud car exhausts etc.

It's notably louder and I'm worried all of these combined has damaged my hearing further.

Could this be likely? It's the bar at 95db which worries me.


Thanks!

 

No damage.
The WHO's safe listening times are:

• 85 dB - the level of noise inside a car - eight hours
• 90 dB - lawn mower - two hours 30 minutes
• 95 dB - an average motorcycle - 47 minutes
• 100 dB - car horn or underground train - 15 minutes
• 105 dB - mp3 player at maximum volume - four minutes
• 115 dB - loud rock concert - 28 seconds
• 120 dB - vuvuzela or sirens - nine seconds

Temporary spike...I'd not worry. Seems you are having a nice social life, enjoy it - best med for T

 

Thanks, but say I had 15 minutes at 95db, that means I can have 2,5 hours approx at 85db, 1.25 hours at 88db, so thought I may have over done it if that makes sense.

I'm just trying to live a normal life just protecting my ears when necessary really!

How I see it is, you can either let T control you and stay inside, or control T your self and live your life. I start my new job next Monday too. This has actually made me want to make more of life!

 

You catched the point! Let's do this way. If that's not a temporary spike, I'll offer you a round-trip to Rome for a pizza - but don't cheat . Sounds really good you want to make more of life.Best of luck for your new job!

 

It's always the music. There are such a full spectrum of frequencies in (loud) music. All you have to do is look through the posts..
" I went to the club.. the concert.. the bar ... the dance.."

 

Haha thank you! Italy is on my list of places to visit!

 

When I say the bar, there was no music, just a lot of shouting and loud speaking as the football was on the TV.

 

I was once convinced that a loud restaurant and then my barking dog spiked my T.

These exposure incidents probably just made you think your spike was a result of them. -- I know it is hard not to think of every little thing but as the old Kinks song goes, "Paranoia will destroy ya." (especially with T).

Hang in there and keep the ear plugs handy for the bars. Mine is in my right ear so it goes in at movies, concerts, etc just to give me peace-of-mind..

 

Spectrum really? More like spikes of dB level and sustained at 120 dB

 

That's right...paranoia is a greater hazard to T than anything else. Wear ear plugs in known loud environments and live life normally. All people should wear ear plugs in loud environments. So in other words, if you have T, live life normally and try not to think that aliens are causing spikes in T.

 

The hair cells can bend and have no damage up to 85bd BUT when those hair cells are already damaged by loud sound those aren't going to be able to nicely bend anymore....Imagine a bamboo tree stick with a few cracks here and there..this isn't going to work as designed and as per the infamous scale..

 

Just my humble opinion:
What if those spikes after being in loud tiresome environment are caused not by cells fatigue (or damage)?
What if it is just brain excitedness, because it must process too much hearing information at a time? Yet spikes can occure also when you are tired/stressed, no matter on how loud environment you are.

 

Pretty safe to say, nobody knows the actual mix of cochlea hair damage versus brain noise. Many believe cochlea damage is generally the precursor to brain noise aka tinnitus but there may not be a precise correlation.
All we can do is protect our ears 'within reason' with or without tinnitis. To me, living too carefully detracts too much from quality of life.
Not a bad idea to carry some foam ear plugs in your pocket when going to a restaurant at night. I typically don't. But if listening to a band I do. I wear ear protection when using power equipment as well...around any loud noise exposure if not caught off guard. I have mild H as well...sensitive to loud noises.

 

Nice example Bobby. I think all my right ear 'bamboo sticks' are knocked down and never getting back up.. :-(

 

Is it possible that a literal 1 second at 114db in the ear can then result in damage? I ask this because after my wood mat that was rolled up and leaning on wall fell on my wood floors, it output that db level (I did it again with muffs with db meter at head level due to paranoia) and my T level I've gotten used to has gone up...drastically. Day 5 still bad if not worse.

I imagine it's more of an issue of sustain...but certainly at a certain db level even a short shock of loud will damage, and 114 is beyond loud. I honestly though it was a gunshot when it wen't off. I guess it's an unknown...how badly my ears are and what damage is there is different from everyone else...but shocking that was enough to increase my T for a simple 1 second sound.