Hi everyone, can Tinnitus that was caused by a loud concert go away after 4 months? Also, how likely is it to go away completely? I read online that your ears can heal for up to 6 months or up to 1 year after loud noise exposure. I'm not sure if this is true or not though.
From reading others' success stories, it appears that your very best chance to make your tinnitus go away or improve dramatically would be to wear earplugs whenever you leave the house for a long, long time, possibly years. This means wearing them in the car, on the street, in the grocery store--basically everywhere.
This is hard to accept and cope with, and few have the patience to do it.
Much of what you read tells tinnitus sufferers to use ear plugs only for volumes above 80 decibels. Many will suggest business as usual, and to use plugs only for very loud sounds. This is certainly the easiest lifestyle, and what everyone, including me, wants to hear. However, if you do that, your chances of healing may be slim.
This is a little-talked-about subject, and it may be because people simply don't want to hear about a possible treatment that "might" work, yet requires religious and uncomfortable dedication for a long time. (Ironically, the alternative--carry on in the noisy world and mask the damage at night--appears to be an equally miserable yet accepted option.)
But common sense would tell you that earplugs are the way to go. Below is a link to a sobering article, which shows how damage continues to occur to an ear for months after the initial injury--without even additional sound exposure. It also would explain why so many return to forums with worse tinnitus. Contrary to many debates you'll see, it appears from photos in this article that a previously damaged ear is certainly now prone to further injury.
http://m.jneurosci.org/content/29/45/14077.full
If this doesn't make you want to wear earplugs, nothing will.
The "earplug treatment" for tinnitus should be discussed a lot more. There is a lot of support and airtime for many other topics. But people who attempt wearing ear plugs as a long-term attempted treatment need a whole boatload of support, too. You need a lot of encouragement to even consider it. If you have loud tinnitus, this is really, really hard. But earplug use for improving T is such an important possibility, it should really be tried, encouraged, and studied.