- Nov 26, 2023
- 80
- Tinnitus Since
- 10/2023
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Noise and/or infection
I damaged my left ear in Oct '24 from a concert, which gave me unilateral tinnitus. Since then, I've diligently protected my hearing, and my audiogram has been stable for over a year.
I have been using the Aftershokz Opencomm bone conduction headphones for work calls. I only use the right-side headphones, thinking this would protect my damaged left ear.
Last week, somehow, the volume on my phone was set too high (75%) when I placed the headphones on my right ear to take a call. It was painfully loud. The Opencomms apparently have no volume-limiting safety features. I immediately took the headphones off and thought nothing more of it since it was on my good ear.
The next day, I got a massive tinnitus spike and saw my audiologist a few days later. I learned that I just permanently lost -10 dB at my tinnitus frequency in my left ear (despite only using the headphones on my right ear). He told me bone conduction, unlike regular sound conduction, is unilateral. The sound travels throughout your whole skull instead of only to the ear when the headphones are over.
So, if anyone is trying to protect their hearing in one ear using bone conduction on the other, it won't work. I would recommend staying away from the Opencomm headphones as they are apparently capable of going loud enough to permanently damage your hearing, even if only worn for half a second.
I have been using the Aftershokz Opencomm bone conduction headphones for work calls. I only use the right-side headphones, thinking this would protect my damaged left ear.
Last week, somehow, the volume on my phone was set too high (75%) when I placed the headphones on my right ear to take a call. It was painfully loud. The Opencomms apparently have no volume-limiting safety features. I immediately took the headphones off and thought nothing more of it since it was on my good ear.
The next day, I got a massive tinnitus spike and saw my audiologist a few days later. I learned that I just permanently lost -10 dB at my tinnitus frequency in my left ear (despite only using the headphones on my right ear). He told me bone conduction, unlike regular sound conduction, is unilateral. The sound travels throughout your whole skull instead of only to the ear when the headphones are over.
So, if anyone is trying to protect their hearing in one ear using bone conduction on the other, it won't work. I would recommend staying away from the Opencomm headphones as they are apparently capable of going loud enough to permanently damage your hearing, even if only worn for half a second.
