Audiogram and Other Hearing Test Results

I have a super hearing in my left at 1khz and 2khz (-5db). In a way I have always know this as I have been able to hear sound most cannot. Unfortunately, it is not so great at 6kz and 8khz with +60db. Left has also tinnitus.

 

Why the ENT said your hearing loss is genetic?

Hearing loss can be a result of many causes...

 

Because my audiogram is in U-shape and all frequencies are touched. Most causes of this kind of hearing loss is genetic.

 

Could someone take a look at my tympanogram?

I can see, that it's shallow, but can't make much of the reflex test. The written analysis states that stapedius reflex can be induced and it doesn't get tired. (I "mirrortranslated" it, so I hope what I mean is understandable.)

Thank you.

 

Here are my audiograms. One is a normal audiogram made in June, the other one is an extended one made in July. There's a big difference in both of them. One thing is it's a bit weird how the lowest frequency (125 Hz) has a lower score in the extended version. Don't know why this is, but it at least explains why I have a low frequency hum (aside from the high pitch hiss around 12-14 kHz).

Audiogram June 12th, 2020


Audiogram July 9th, 2020

 

Sharing my extended audiogram from last year. Based on some online research, the "notch" at the 16000 Hz level (where it goes down and then back up) is a sign of noise induced hearing loss. Is this correct? I'm surprised I did that well with the high frequencies. During the test, I remember thinking I couldn't hear a lot of the higher frequencies. Although, my tinnitus is very somatic so I am not sure of the cause.

 

Hi guys,

I hope you don’t mind me jumping on to your thread? I have been suffering with tinnitus for the last 8 months and to say it has been a struggle is an understatement.

My ENT believes my tinnitus is stress induced but who knows. Came on whilst I was putting olive oil in my ears... and got more and more stressed with it and then decided to have microsuction and not much improved. Not a huge headphone user although the day before my microsuction I did blare them in my ears for five mins as was so stressed with my ears at that point but don’t believe that was the cause of damage as I was already suffering.

The left ear is like a white noise sound but the right ear is the one that is so problematic. It is like a deep thud and the sound thuds if that makes sense?! It goes over the bathroom fan as well. In the day I don’t notice it just in a quiet room. When I plug my right ear it totally stops though. The ENT has said both ears look to be perfect...

Has anyone else experienced this?

What do you think about my Audiogram results? I had higher frequencies tested also! Sorry again to jump in on this post!

 

I wish mine was like that! (to be clear: you seem to have pretty good hearing)

 

Thank you for replying to me @GregCA - I appreciate it!

It does make me pray that me tinnitus will go away @GregCA but not looking likely after 8 months I guess... who knows. Miracles can happen I guess!!

 

Hi Lucy,

Sorry to hear you are still struggling.

I think the ‘thuds’ you are experiencing are Middle Ear Myoclonus.
We may have had this chat in another thread.
Not wanting to guide you away from Tinnitus Talk, but there is an excellent Facebook group for MEM.
If you need anymore info, please let me know.

Sam

 

Hi there @Samantha R, thank you so much for reaching out, it is so kind of you. I have done an extensive amount of research this morning and have been reading about MEM so it is interesting you have messaged me about it.

What is scary, is that there is no real treatment for it? Really frightens me. I feel like the calmer I am the less I let it get to me. I am currently in bed and it genuinely sounds like there is a car / truck idling outside my house.

I have noticed a fair few Tinnitus Talk members have tried nasal sprays and they seemed to have worked so I may go back to them and persevere.

Do you still suffer with MEM?

Lucy

 

Well, keep in mind that a "perfect audiogram" doesn't mean you have perfect hearing. There is such thing known as "hidden hearing loss". It's certainly better than have a rotten audiogram like mine, but it's no silver bullet.

What kinds of tests have you conducted with your doctor to root cause your T?

 

Hi @GregCA, this is true.

I’ve had the works. The ENT just tells me it’s stress induced but who knows. I can deal with my left ear as it’s extremely quiet but the right ear is dreadful, it’s a really loud drone noise. I’ve decided to start back up with the nasal sprays and see if that makes a difference.

 

I hear you but what tests have you done and how did the doctor reach that conclusion? I think "it's stress" is what doctors say when they don't know what's causing a symptom.

Did you do any blood work? MRI? CT scan? Xray? other?

 

@GregCA I have just had the blood work and the Audiogram done so far.

Are you able to read my introductory thread? It will tell you a little more about the background. I am awaiting a date for an MRI but would be very surprised if there is anything going on.

Unknown Cause of Tinnitus, Lasted Now About a Month

 

I'm surprised how many people have great audiograms and still have tinnitus. Some of the people on Tinnitus Talk have perfect hearing up to 18 kHz and 19 kHz and still they suffer from tinnitus.

 

Tinnitus can be caused by problems outside the ear: TMJ, neck injury, possibly some medications.

In addition, audiograms only show you outer hair cell damage, not inner hair cell damage or synapse damage. Audiograms are incredibly limiting honestly.

 

I was finally able to get my hands on my audiogram from last year. I have to say I’m feeling extremely sad about that notch around 2-3 kHz. Is this pretty indicative of acoustic trauma? Of course the audiologist made it sound like I had excellent hearing but this seems to show that I’m very close to mild hearing loss at a pretty low frequency. I am mid twenties and have hyperacusis and bilateral tinnitus.

Since it’s hearing loss below 8 kHz would this make something like FX-322 less effective for someone like me?

 

That's an excellent audiogram! There's no hearing loss at all. I would love to have your hearing hahaha... there is no sign of acoustic trauma either and no notch on that audiogram. Congratulations!

 

Yes!

No. Hearing loss doesn't always show on audiograms (see Liberman's work on hidden hearing loss).

Still it's better to have a "perfect audiogram" than not: a perfect audiogram is a necessary condition to perfect hearing, but not sufficient.

 

I know... I mean it is as good as an standard audiogram gets... for more complete testing a speech in noise test, and an extended audiogram (high frequencies) would be needed.

 

My audiograms are attached at the end.

Long story short, I got a quiet room tinnitus (can't hear it outdoors) after syringing done without Debrox . I'm 2.5 months into it now and hyperacusis (no pain) has developed and has been getting a bit worse. High pitched ringing seems to come out of my right ear (when I hold each closed to check) although I normally hear it as centralized. I get a fullness sensation coming just out of the right ear about once a day. My tinnitus is pretty quiet for the first 5 hours of the day and this has been consistent. It seems to be reactive. I'm 33 years old.

Okay, now onto my doctors:

Audiologist 1: Just said my hearing is in the normal range.

ENT 1: Is fully convinced that the slight dip in the 3-4 kHz range is hearing loss.

ENT 2: Flip-flopped. First said "good thing you don't have sudden hearing loss" on our first meeting (she also said that the audiogram should typically be flatter and thought it might be ETD). On our second meeting, I told her what ENT 1 said and now she's fully on ENT 1's side.

Audiologist 2 (who took the 2nd audiogram): I made sure to not mention anything the previous doctors have said. Said there's no hearing loss and nothing obvious that would trigger tinnitus.

ENT 3: I made sure to not mention anything the previous doctors have said. Said there's no hearing loss and nothing obvious that would trigger tinnitus.

None of them will acknowledge that the syringing is main cause of my tinnitus.

The part that doesn't make sense to me is that both ears show that same dip in the audiogram. It's odd because: 1) I hear the tinnitus in the right ear and feel fullness on the right ear. 2) How could the syringing have done a perfectly equal amount of damage to each side even though they syringed the left 2 times and the right just once? It's like that nurse hit the jackpot.

Also, I've been in contact with another person on this forum who also recently got tinnitus after syringing. He has shared his audiogram with me and it looks very similar. His doctor also said he's got no hearing loss. I'm going to ask him to post on this thread.

Please take a look at my audiograms and let me know if I have hearing loss:

1st audiogram (8/14/2020)


2nd audiogram (about a month later):

 

I have a very similar audiogram expect my 3 kHz notch is at 20 dB, I have a lot of tinnitus tones in the 2.5 kHz to 3 kHz, and yes, it seems there is very slight damage even if there is a small but obvious dip in a tone, I have no doubt my hearing is damaged in that range.

 

It's interesting that I just happened to post my audiogram on this page and there's already another audiogram (from Orions Pain) being discussed that's so similar to mine.

So did your doctor tell you that the notch was hearing loss?

I posted on here because I've been getting mixed feedback from multiple doctors.

How do you test your tinnitus tones by the way? Is this a known way of further confirming that your tinnitus might truly be attributed to hearing loss?

Does your tinnitus fluctuate?

 

Yeah I do agree that some damage is definitely there for me. My tinnitus is also pretty low pitched and sometimes with certain sounds it's like my ear misses a piece of it. Our washer makes this sound compromised of four different "ping" sounds and one of them sounds off. Music also sounds flat to me.

So disappointing considering this is clearly hearing loss of some sort. I had my audiogram done about 5 days after my noise trauma and they didn't offer Prednisone

 

I had an acoustic trauma very similar to a syringing/microsuction sort of thing. Tinnitus is in both ears but my left ear is by far worse off but same as you the dips come up on both ears almost equally. Very strange. I have pretty bad hearing distortion which I assume is due to this specific dip.

 

I just wanted to ask something you guys. Since the photo is of bad quality, here is description:

Right ear:
125 Hz: 15 dB
250 Hz: 10 dB
500 Hz: 10 dB
1000 Hz: 10 dB
2000 Hz: 10 dB
4000 Hz: 10 dB
6000 Hz: 15 dB
8000 Hz: 10 dB

Left ear:
125 Hz: 15 dB
250 Hz: 10 dB
500 Hz: 10 dB
1000 Hz: 10 dB
2000 Hz: 10 dB
4000 Hz: 10 dB
6000 Hz: 10 dB
8000 Hz: 10 dB

So my audiogram is pretty flat. Can hearing loss (from music mostly) look like that? I'm at 10 dB at almost every frequency, could I be born that way? I believe hearing loss should be more of a dip at 4 kHz than everything lowered, am I right there?

Also I'm going to get extended audiogram, but since I am able to differentiate between music lowpassed at 16 kHz and original I hope it won't be THAT bad.

 

Here are my two audiograms. The first was taken 36 hours after my acoustic trauma. The other was taken 5 months later.





Apparently both audiograms are completely normal. I also scored 100% on a speech-in-noise test in both ears. Despite this, I sit here 9 months after my trauma with moderate tinnitus in my left ear (and very mild tinnitus in the right ear).

I haven't had an extended audiogram. However, if I play pure tones above 8 kHz, I actually hear them better in my left ear than in my right ear (the left ear is the one with much louder tinnitus). Go figure I guess.

 

Can someone please help me understand my audiogram? I have tinnitus in both ears but a new tone in my left. My audiologist expects it’s ETD related and that I have an issue with my middle ear rather than NIHL. Any ideas or help? Thanks in advance!

 

Anything particular you're wondering about? Your audiologist probably knows more than us here. It does look more indicative of a middle ear issue like otosclerosis just to mention one example, rather than noise induced hearing loss or age related hearing loss. It shows hearing loss only in the low frequencies which rules out NIHL.

There is a cause for this audiogram. Find out what it is. Unlike many of us here, you will most likely be able to get to the bottom of the cause of your tinnitus. ETD seems possible from my limited understanding. Any fluid in the middle ear left side?

Can you describe your tinnitus tones? I'm curious.

The blue X's is your left ear. It looks like the issue is mostly in that ear?