Delayed Onset of Tinnitus After Noise Exposure?

[Cyberdrink]

hello all. sorry for the frequent questions! i'm just trying to get my thoughts organized regarding tinnitus and this forum is proving to be extremely valuable. thank you so much to everyone!

so i've talked with some people (both in the open forums and in some private conversations) that report their tinnitus had a "delayed onset" or even a "very slow onset" after their noise exposure.

so, i thought i would open the question up to a broader audience by posting a specific thread for it on the board...

@erik even turned me on to this great link http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2686891/ : "It is hypothesized that a reduction in auditory nerve input leads to disinhibition of the DCN and an increase in spontaneous activity in the central auditory system, which manifests as tinnitus.49This mechanism could explain the temporary ringing sensation that can follow exposure to loud sound.50The plastic readjustments in the DCN are slow and lead to tinnitus with a delayed onset. IHC damage prevents hyperactivity in the DCN"

so, here's the question...

Q: for those with noise induced tinnitus, how long after the noise insult did your T start? also, what was the speed of onset?

as i've noted in other threads, for me personally, there was a solid week or two between the time of my noise exposure and the time of my T onset.

 

[RaZaH]

In my case I think it was a week or so .

 

[daniel1111]

Mine was cumulative, I suspect over about 6 months. I only started to notice it a few weeks after I started meditating (spending a lot of time in silence) and just couldn't unnotice it!

 

[ceauses97]

No idea. Before the onset of my tinnitus, I had been blasting a lot of loud music, almost daily since i buyed my headphones in late October. My tinnitus occured 4-5 hours after listenting to loud music December the 6. I remember laying on bed and playing chess on my phone at night all in silence for 3 hours, and then I went to sleep and woke up 1 hour later with a loud firealarm in my head. at that point, I knew i was fucked, and hear I am...

 

[Cyberdrink]

@RaZaH interesting... i think this is more common that i initially thought.

at first i thought the slow/delayed onset meant that my T could not have been caused by my noise exposure (chainsaw use and log splitter use for hours without protection). so dumb! it was so loud my ears were seriously in pain with intense burning while using the equipment.

 

[RaZaH]

For me its hard to tell , i was quitting benzo cold turkey so I shut off my studio .
Then I went in to listen to a trailer that I made that was just out , pretty loud to be honest.
Then about a week later , i go this INSANE headache (probably my ears burning away the hairs)
A few days after that , boom , woke up with the demon in my head.

 

[Cyberdrink]

@RaZaH it may bring us some peace knowing that just because we didn't notice our T right after the noise exposure, it is still probably caused by noise exposure... at least that means it probably wont get any worse (as the vast majority of T caused by noise exposure is stable over time). see the below study of over 500 T patients.

"The vast majority of patients with noise trauma described their tinnitus as high-pitched and stable over time."

link: http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/detalhe_artigo.asp?id=125

 

[Mithrandir]

when the grenade burst, my ears became fulled and right one whistle. One week after, the music began...

 

[RaZaH]

Well, yeah ...mine could have been caused by Benzo withdrawal, munching on boatloads of Ibuprofen during that withdrawal or noise exposure...or all three . Im kinda fucked.

 

[walkthroughwalls]

One to two days.

 

[Buckaroo]

In my case I think it was a week or so .

@RaZaH Did you have any T at all right away from the onset of noise trauma? I, like you (I believe) are a musician and have been playing unprotected for quite some time up until around 2 years ago and then intermittently for a few months at a time but the last time I was around loud music was 6 months ago. Never has the T been delayed for me. Always right after rehearsal or a gig. I'm still tryin to figure my T after it arrived 24/7 two weeks ago. Perhaps some other source frequency tipped it off after a long duration of repeated noise - I was around a tile say a week prior to T but its so hard to speculate.

 

[Starlord]

Mine showed up 2.5 weeks after a one and only day where I listened to headphones and surround sound music for a pretty long time. Does anyone have input on if the onset time correlates to severity?

 

[Sparkle92]

Mine happened after a virus. I knew I had high frequency hearing loss two years prior and didn't have tinnitus until after the virus I got a couple months ago.

 

[Dave AUS]

Good question @Cyberdrink and interesting responses.

For me i had no t to start with. Went to loud concert and left with ringing ears. Next morning deaf in left ear. Hearing came back later in day but badly distorted. Ringing got worse and more nasty over the first month but mostly heard in left ear. By the second month my right ear joined in the racket but at a lower average frequencies.
So sudden onset tinnitus but damage severity was delayed. Hyperacusis too in 3rd month for a few months. That was awful (not that t isn't but that is a different kind of awful).

Hope this helps. Interested to read others noise induced tinnitus stories.

 

[CDNThailand]

For me it's unknown, within 2 weeks of "something"...

 

[bill 112]

I'm not sure what started mine but I'm guessing it was noise.I just woke up with a fullness in my left ear followed shortly by my right ear along with cracking sounds when I swallowed.
Two weeks later T suddenly appeared,why I don't know but I have my suspicions.

A month or two before onset I was dragged to a concert that I didn't want to go to but I remember experiencing a temporary threshold shift and T after the event.The next day I was fine with no symptoms so I can't say for certain if it was the cause or not.Also a few months before onset I hit my ear drum once or twice whilst cleaning my ears.My ear rang for a second on each occasion before quickly disappearing.I was also getting this weird brain zaps in the morning too and I wasn't even taking medication at the time,it felt like exploding head syndrome.

 

[maltese]

Mine started next morning, after few hours.

I remember going to sleep in silence.

 

[Jason C]

My left ear felt full and was ringing loud right after the alarm exposure, the next morning it felt bruised and swollen inside with ringing and beeping, the right ear felt ok and my hearing seemed ok.
The bruised swollen feeling eased over the next weeks but the ringing stayed, it was maybe 2 months later that I realised my balance was affected too.
Now 6 months later the ringing seems to be getting better then worse, balance is still off.

 

[MikeGreen]

Really? Did it improve? To what level do you think it improved?

 

[Jason C]

Really? Did it improve? To what level do you think it improved?

My ringing?? It hasn't improved at all it's very intermittent though, in silence it can almost go away. It amps up around other sounds like music etc i have interfearance in my hearing along with ringing.
It took me a few months too realise all the problems that come with this. I actually though I had a broken speaker in my car and that's why music sounded so rubbish but nope turned out it's my hearing.
This along with balance and even my eyes seem too bounce when I wake up in the morning.

 

[MikeGreen]

That is very strange. In silence you hear it dissappearing.. but with noise you hear it? I thought it would be the opposite.

 

[Jason C]

That is very strange. In silence you hear it dissappearing.. but with noise you hear it? I thought it would be the opposite.

It dosent totally go away in silence but it does calm way down too 1/10 I usually try and tell myself it's the sky box making the noise.

Yes me too, I also didnt realise music could sound so messed up or that someone with hearing loss would have a problem with noisy environments.
That balance issues are a constant reminder too.

 

[Lex]

Went to a music festival mid June. Left it feeling okay.

But I remember staying in bed the whole day after flying back home because I had a persistent feeling of deja vu.

Around mid July, I started feeling a burning pain in my right earlobe and pain inside my right ear. I also started getting facial pain (temples, cheeks, jaw) which I attributed to an on-and-off sinus infection.

And I remember feeling very fatigued around that time. I had stiff neck, dizziness, and tired eyes. I felt like crap.

Last week of July, I got T first thing in the morning. I remember waking up earlier than my alarm clock, so I thought I'd get a few more minutes of sleep. I remember the onset vividly -- blissful silence then a short and faint beep, followed by a long (and turns out, permanent) ringing.

First day of August, I got H with no pain. Everything just seemed louder and tinnier. It was annoying but I could adjust. Then first week of September, my ears started thumping in response to some sounds.

Everything went to shit from there.

 

[racerfish]

The times I had noise-induced trauma that led to permanent increases in the volume of my T it was always about 24 hours after exposure.

 

[JurgenG]

The times I had noise-induced trauma that led to permanent increases in the volume of my T it was always about 24 hours after exposure.

Did you encounter this "often"? Like after every long loud sound exposures? Since you said you had it for years and habituated (and even went down) until you got the antibiotics. Or do you feel you had your baseline for years?

 

[racerfish]

Did you encounter this "often"? Like after every long loud sound exposures? Since you said you had it for years and habituated (and even went down) until you got the antibiotics. Or do you feel you had your baseline for years?

In the 12 years I've had T, there have been 4 noise trauma experiences that were bad enough to make me see an ENT. In all 4 cases the T set in 24 hours after exposure. 3 out of the 4 resulted in permanent but slight increases that I eventually habituated to. Interestingly, if the sound is sort of loud but not dangerously loud, my T reacts almost instantly but goes back to baseline. If it's a really loud sound, my T doesn't react until 24 hours later and the spike is usually quite bad. These days I'm super careful with my ears. Always carry plugs with me and avoid loud places.

 

[Capricornus]

In the 12 years I've had T, there have been 4 noise trauma experiences that were bad enough to make me see an ENT. In all 4 cases the T set in 24 hours after exposure. 3 out of the 4 resulted in permanent but slight increases that I eventually habituated to. Interestingly, if the sound is sort of loud but not dangerously loud, my T reacts almost instantly but goes back to baseline. If it's a really loud sound, my T doesn't react until 24 hours later and the spike is usually quite bad. These days I'm super careful with my ears. Always carry plugs with me and avoid loud places.

May I ask what kind of noise traumas? I'm trying to figure out "safe noise levels", and sometimes I'm getting confused...

 

[racerfish]

May I ask what kind of noise traumas? I'm trying to figure out "safe noise levels", and sometimes I'm getting confused...

All were from either being in clubs or around live music except one bad experience at the ENT when he suctioned out my ear. Safe is about 85 db. Above that you should have ear protection. Anything above 120 db is not good even with ear protection and for that reason I no longer go to clubs or concerts.

 

[Nick07]

I started a new job in a warehouse. It bothered me that I couldn't hear properly, so about 8 hours into the shift I end up taking one of my ear plugs out. I noticed afterwards I couldn't hear in that ear. 18 days later I went to see an ENT. The nurse said maybe when I put the earplugs in it pushed the wax in. With my ears cleaned out I could hear "perfectly" according to the nurse. I only noticed the tinnitus after a few days. I did use slightly loud headphones and watch Sicario with it's loud gunshot noises and whispering voices, but neither of those should have been significant by themselves.

I always thought it was weird how I could take that hearing test and not notice the T, but it makes sense if this is common.

 

[Morg]

Mine started maybe 3-5 days after the last of my loud noise exposure. It came on with a cold, and took maybe 2 days or so to reach volume.