Do You Think Tinnitus Sound Change from Ringing to Hiss/Other Types Means Something?

[RonnieThailand]

I'm only referring to the initial 2-4 weeks when a person first encounters tinnitus, not people months or years later who either only have ringing, or have a wide range of different sounds. But of those who go to a concert and get ringing for only 48 hours and it goes away, none of them ever seem to get hissing or other sounds, am I right?

So this must mean that once the initial ringing changes after week 1, week 2, or week 3 for SOME people in the early stages, something fundamentally has changed in their brain or body that may indicate a more chronic expectation. I've known people who have had ringing for weeks after a medication or a concert and it goes away after 2-3 weeks. But would it have gone away so quickly if they had reported a hiss or other sound at that time?

Is this a question maybe researchers should be asking? I see a lot of people trying to make sense of their noises once it's already become chronic, and heard some people say "well it changes to a hiss as it's getting better." I'm not referring to that scenario, where someone's hiss comes on 6 months later. I mean just in the early stages.

Because mine started out as a ringing for the first few days, then changed to a hiss, and I wonder if this was a "point of no return" where I should have just accepted that it wouldn't be going away in 2-3 weeks like my ENTs said. I know there's no exact science to anything, but maybe this one thing is an indicator that something, such as a noise-induced trauma, has now become a brain problem and not just an auditory problem when it happens quickly after an incident.

Any thoughts on this? A way of gauging if someone is more likely to be a long-term (months or years) case?

 

[BuzzyBee]

Mine changed to a hiss after a couple of weeks (maybe longer, I forgot) and has been hissing for 5 years.

 

[L34]

Mine changed from a pure tone to a high frequency sound all of a sudden after one week exactly. Has stayed high frequency since then, almost a year. I have no idea of what it means, when the sound changes so dramatically from one second to the next.

 

[RonnieThailand]

Thanks for the replies. Mine was pure tone for the first few days, then started with the hissing and a week later turned into that plus insect sounds, with ringing every now and then.

It must mean something because it seems as if it never starts out as a hiss for anyone. I doubt we can find anyone who said their first noise was anything other than ringing. I wonder if it's some type of indicator that an ear problem has now become a neural/brain problem.

I bet out of all the recovery stories posted here, none of them had hissing and were all pure tone sufferers. I'm starting to think that once it becomes cicadas, insects, or hissing, that any hope of recovery is gone because it's now a problem with the brain and not just the ear. I think this is an important question I don't see many people asking.

I know this sounds crazy but just a thought, I wonder if worrying so much about the ringing in the initial stages then causes the brain to treat it as a threat, and then the hissing and other sounds begin to take shape. Maybe that's the brief window a person has to stop it from becoming chronic. I think studies that are testing medications in the acute phase should be looking to see if those who recover in the first few weeks from it progressed to the hissing/other sounds at any point or not.

 

[Brain Tumor Dave]

Thanks for the replies. Mine was pure tone for the first few days, then started with the hissing and a week later turned into that plus insect sounds, with ringing every now and then.

It must mean something because it seems as if it never starts out as a hiss for anyone. I doubt we can find anyone who said their first noise was anything other than ringing. I wonder if it's some type of indicator that an ear problem has now become a neural/brain problem.

I bet out of all the recovery stories posted here, none of them had hissing and were all pure tone sufferers. I'm starting to think that once it becomes cicadas, insects, or hissing, that any hope of recovery is gone because it's now a problem with the brain and not just the ear. I think this is an important question I don't see many people asking.

I know this sounds crazy but just a thought, I wonder if worrying so much about the ringing in the initial stages then causes the brain to treat it as a threat, and then the hissing and other sounds begin to take shape. Maybe that's the brief window a person has to stop it from becoming chronic. I think studies that are testing medications in the acute phase should be looking to see if those who recover in the first few weeks from it progressed to the hissing/other sounds at any point or not.

I have 5 different sounds of tinnitus. A constant high pitch screech and a constant medium humming (for 50 years now).

My brain tumor added random wind whistling through a window crack, multiple overlapping cicadas, BBs rolling around in a can, and a sharp, stabbing pain associated with what sounds like water drops in a full sink.

 

[Ehren M]

I'm starting to think that once it becomes cicadas, insects, or hissing, that any hope of recovery is gone because it's now a problem with the brain and not just the ear. I think this is an important question I don't see many people asking.

The fact that brains remain developmentally plastic throughout our lifespan makes me think about this the other way around. A problem residing primarily in the brain may be fixed in many ways by development of new neural pathways whereas there is probably only one way to fix a problem with the hardware of the ear, and it is generally accepted that ear hair cells do not regrow.

This suggests that a problem centered in the brain leaves more hope of recovery than a problem centered in the ear. But the distinction is probably superficial in the case of noise-induced trauma, which as I understand it affects both the brain and stereocilia of the ear.

At any rate, I personally have a close friend who recovered from noise-induced tinnitus after 2 years, and others who have posted about their recovery here have listed experiences with reactive, buzzing, non-pure-tone-tinnitus.

I think it is not so simple, and that is why the phenomenon you mentioned has not been the focus of research.

 

[RonnieThailand]

I have 5 different sounds of tinnitus. A constant high pitch screech and a constant medium humming (for 50 years now).

My brain tumor added random wind whistling through a window crack, multiple overlapping cicadas, BBs rolling around in a can, and a sharp, stabbing pain associated with what sounds like water drops in a full sink.

So sorry Dave I just looked in your posts and read your story. I'm glad you've taken charge of your life and found ways to do the things you want to do despite having the tumor.

 

[RonnieThailand]

This suggests that a problem centered in the brain leaves more hope of recovery than a problem centered in the ear. But the distinction is probably superficial in the case of noise-induced trauma, which as I understand it affects both the brain and stereocilia of the ear.

That's a good point, I didn't think of it that way.

I have been looking into this and asking people since and have realized that it can simply start out as hissing or other sounds from Day 1 as some people said theirs was never ringing and started out that way.

I also saw the post from someone on here who said his was TMJ related and was "pulsating crickets" which surprised me that something like that could cause such a strange sound. So I've since abandoned my original theory.

I would still like to see more studies on why the sounds differ though, but I understand, it is very complicated.

 

[DimLeb]

@RonnieThailand, interesting points there! From my experience, however, mine started at first (March 14, 2021) as a mild hissing/white noise/crickets sound only in my left ear and after 3 months (June 17, 2021) it spiked to 3 new pure tones in both ears plus the hissing.

That spike subsided by 95% after 1 week exactly (June 24, 2021) and kinda returned to bassline but there is some very mild stuff in both ears (hissing + very very vague tones) now. I'm almost back to normal hopefully since I can barely hear it.

My case is probably caused by noise and loud music since I do music production + played in bands (27 years old male).

 

[GCS]

I never had ringing. It began as a hiss and it is still hissing 2 and a half months later.

 

[PortugalTheMan]

In the first 3 months mine has changed a lot, and has remained static so far. From time to time it appears as pure tone and returns to static.

 

[cruise]

I bet out of all the recovery stories posted here, none of them had hissing and were all pure tone sufferers. I'm starting to think that once it becomes cicadas, insects, or hissing, that any hope of recovery is gone because it's now a problem with the brain and not just the ear. I think this is an important question I don't see many people asking.

I know this sounds crazy but just a thought, I wonder if worrying so much about the ringing in the initial stages then causes the brain to treat it as a threat, and then the hissing and other sounds begin to take shape. Maybe that's the brief window a person has to stop it from becoming chronic. I think studies that are testing medications in the acute phase should be looking to see if those who recover in the first few weeks from it progressed to the hissing/other sounds at any point or not.

Maybe it's because in the early stages the brain looks for any other noises that might be there and then finds the other noises? My tinnitus sounds have also changed in the the first 3 months, but not much since then.

 

[RonnieThailand]

I've since changed my theory as I've found many people who said theirs started out as hissing first. I also found a study, which I can't find at the moment, that either found/theorized that this all comes down to two different sides of the auditory cortex being affected and that if the left side is affected it may be a tonal sound heard or vice versa.