Hearing Loss WITHOUT Tinnitus — Is It Possible?

[Kar4]

Hi,
as i can see, tinnitus without hearing loss is pretty common. But vice versa? Do you know about someone who has hearing loss and not tinnitus? I mean, of course, sudden hearing loss - from acoustic trauma and so. Not age related.
Is it even possible?

 

[MrBonk]

Sure it's possible. Tons of people have hearing loss without T. They are the lucky ones.
My mother i'm almost 100% has some NIHL in the 4k region, and I know for a fact can only hear up to about 10.5khz at 55. Yet she's fine. She gets some small tiny bits of T sometimes after work. But it always goes away. She recently had a back injury and Celebrex gave her T for the duration she took the drug.

My Mother's Mother, was born deaf in one ear. And AFIK has never once mentioned anything about T.

AFIK, my hearing is just fine until about 16khz then things change depending on the ear. They both start to roll off at 16khz, my left ear stronger and just completely dies shortly after 16khz while my right ear doesn't die off until after 18khz.

I swear I could hear bilaterally to 19k less than 2 years ago. I want to blame Azithromycin and Acetaminophen(500-1000mg a day for 2 weeks or so up to the day my T started after an ATV crash where I injured my leg and might have hit my head) but that's just wishful thinking.

 

[linearb]

I question that "tinnitus without hearing loss" is ever a thing that happens.

The places I've seen that quote are usually talking about up-to-8khz hearing only. High frequency testing is uncommon (and somewhat unreliable); based on my understanding of tinnitus I would be surprised if there's a sizeable number of people with severe tinnitus and no hearing or brain damage.

 

[Marie79]

Yes my neighbor is completely deaf and does not have T. I wouldn't be surprised if she just didn't know since she is COMPLETELY deaf.

I didn't want to push it though and wake her up to this awfulness.

I know people here don't like to believe this but I myself have realized other ringing that I NEVER knew I had before because that was just what silence was. It is very hard to explain but part of it is that before T why would someone go into silence to see what they can hear?

 

[Sebastians]

http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/83194
this Dj dude Lil Louis lost all hearing in his left ear after an acoustic trauma at a club, but no mention of T..
His reaction at the end of the article is baffling though, what a dick.

 

[Jkph75]

Totally possible. I was born deaf in one ear. Never had T ever. Now my good ear that still has normal hearing has the t. Go figure.

 

[dudeguywithstuff]

30 - 40% of people with hearing loss have T. But 90% of people with T have hearing loss.

I know it sucks to know you were unlucky enough to get T with your hearing loss. But that isn't the reality for the majority of people with hearing loss.

(Mostly want to say this because of how overwhelmingly negative this board is. Is this the American tinnitus support forum? If so, wow America, you really fucking suck, especially compared to the rest of the world.)

 

[Dubbyaman]

My aunt and uncle are in their late 60's. Mt uncle has battered his ears his whole life, working in loud factories and such. He has noise induced hearing loss with absolutely no T. My aunt has worked in very quiet offices for most her life and has T in both ears.
@dudeguywithstuff I live in America and do agree. This country is shit. A bunch of greedy arrogant egotistical snobs.

 

[MrBonk]

Yes my neighbor is completely deaf and does not have T. I wouldn't be surprised if she just didn't know since she is COMPLETELY deaf.

I didn't want to push it though and wake her up to this awfulness.

I know people here don't like to believe this but I myself have realized other ringing that I NEVER knew I had before because that was just what silence was. It is very hard to explain but part of it is that before T why would someone go into silence to see what they can hear?

I wish it was like that for me.
When my older brother got T, (Just a single noise Hissing. That after a year or so. Goes away for long periods of time but comes back when he gets upset/stressed.) I would plug my ears occasionally looking for ringing/noises.
Would hear nothing, I knew that everyone heard some sounds to some degree if you were in a truly silent environment. Like an Anechoic Chamber. I can vaguely remember plugging my ears a few times throughout my life and if I listened hard enough could hear a semblance of some sounds (probably blood flow and other junk).

But never anything like the T I have now. I remember a few weeks to a month

A few weeks to a month before my T started, I was working on a piece of music and the sharp and distinctive harmonic sounds of a Draw Bar Organ had started to irritate my ears. (At low volumes) Ear fatigue is normal when working on music and focusing intently on different sounds and frequencies and mix balance for longish periods of time. (I think it had only been 2-3 hours that day). At the end of it after being tired from work, little stressed about getting the sound just right ,I started to hear what I thought was some ringing noise. My anxiety started to spike, but then I told myself it was fine. It was nothing, calm down the anxiety and it will go away. I calmed down. And it disappeared completely.

30 - 40% of people with hearing loss have T. But 90% of people with T have hearing loss.

I know it sucks to know you were unlucky enough to get T with your hearing loss. But that isn't the reality for the majority of people with hearing loss.

(Mostly want to say this because of how overwhelmingly negative this board is. Is this the American tinnitus support forum? If so, wow America, you really fucking suck, especially compared to the rest of the world.)

It must be nice to live in your world.
In mine, I had been training my ears for over a decade for a career in Audio (At very safe sound levels. Loudest I ever worked on anything was probably in the 70dB range. And never constant sound. Always stopping and going working on one part for intermittent periods of time. Ex, mixing when working on one isolated track). I was very proud of how far I had developed my ear to discern sound. I never went to concerts, I can count the number of concerts i've been to on one hand. Last one was 4-7 years ago. I could never get into concerts and they were always way too loud.

So this directly has affected what i've spent almost half my life training for. What i've dreamed of doing basically my whole life. Something that could kill my potential lively hood. Now I have to start looking for potential alternatives if a certain aspect of my T doesnt' get better.

Meanwhile, I have known tons of people who have abused the shit out of their ears without a care in the world and they get fucking nothing. Musicians or otherwise.

I wont' say i've been very negative. Most of the time, I have a positive outlook and try to keep that up.
But for many people, it's incredibly difficult to have a positive outlook when you have 24/7 torture and modern science is an absolute joke when it comes to the Ears.
They can find a million and one ways to kill and damage our ears. But not a single god damn thing to protect or heal them.
And their only guiding solution is "learn to live with it".
When people have killed themselves over a medical problem. It's probably safe to say, it can be very hard to deal with. And difficult not be negative.

And it's not just in the USA. People are negative about it all over the world. And tons of members here are not from the US. It's a global board that just happens to speak English.

 

[Kar4]

Totally possible. I was born deaf in one ear. Never had T ever. Now my good ear that still has normal hearing has the t. Go figure.

But this is different. I think if someone was born deaf (or with worse hearing), there is no reason to have tinnitus, because brain never had (and lost) audio signals from inner ear.
But, of course, it can happen lately. I feel sorry.

 

[Vaba]

I wish it was like that for me.
...I have known tons of people who have abused the shit out of their ears without a care in the world and they get fucking nothing. Musicians or otherwise.

This is the one fact about T that completely prevents me from habituation. My own genetic father abuses the shit out of his ears regularly. He has gone to 40+ metal concerts (he loves Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Megadeth) front row with no earplugs (he's a fairly wealthy computer programmer and manager, making $140,000+ a year, so he can afford these nice tickets. He is ALSO HIGHLY prone to anxiety (he burned his face as a teenager to get rid of superficial scars, I won't go into further detail, as he'd probably kill me if he found this post) so discard your arguments about anxiety making (my) tinnitus worse RIGHT NOW). Somehow, despite exposing himself to over 160 collective hours of continuous 120dB+ metal music in 4 hour bursts, he is perfectly healthy, and his hearing is good enough to wake him up when I play a 35dB sound over 40 feet from him. God DAMN, that is some good hearing.

I, on the other hand, am a lover of silence, enjoying classical music and classical literature since age 12; I am someone who has been deeply mindful and near-zen since birth. I have always been in the moment and focused on my senses - peace in the environment always grounded me and protected me from anxiety. I was the most insightful and intelligent person you'd ever be able to find. Now, I sometimes struggle to string together a sentence... when speaking, of course. My writing skills are largely unaffected.

In addition, when I was able to tolerate college life, I knew this guy who freestyle rapped for fun (and hacked websites, lol). The dorms at my college had walls made of solid concrete, so the reverb was incredible, and any sound played through a speaker stack at over 50% volume was ALWAYS over 95dB due to reverb. That guy's hearing was totally fine. He would play music for HOURS, smoke cigarettes & cannabis, and drink caffeine and alcohol like a fiend straight out of hell. The same went for my neighbors. They played music at DEAFENING volumes at all hours of the night. Literally all of them were fine. Here's a sobering fact, gleaned from experience: It seems to be the people who cherish silence the most that manage to get tinnitus. Damn. I recall hearing head noise for something like 6 years. It started without explanation, worsened without explanation, and still exists without explanation. Damn, son.

The end result is that the person who loves peace and quiet the most in his entire lineage and within his entire circle of friends is stricken with two diseases that take peace away. This is why any type of therapy and 100% of psychiatric medications don't work for me.

Just... why? Is it any wonder why I resist any attempts to encourage me towards habituation?

 

[linearb]

Just... why? Is it any wonder why I resist any attempts to encourage me towards habituation?

and how is all that resistance working out for you?

 

[Jkph75]

But this is different. I think if someone was born deaf (or with worse hearing), there is no reason to have tinnitus, because brain never had (and lost) audio signals from inner ear.
But, of course, it can happen lately. I feel sorry.

I didn't think it was possible either, but I have since learned that it is. There are some people who are completely deaf and hear nothing but tinnitus.

 

[Adaś]

Here's a sobering fact, gleaned from experience: It seems to be the people who cherish silence the most that manage to get tinnitus. Damn. I recall hearing head noise for something like 6 years. It started without explanation, worsened without explanation, and still exists without explanation. Damn, son.

This sucks so much. Thanks for sharing your story. I was also always the person who cherished silence (and good music), but now I don't even remember how silence sounds. Everything you wrote is so true, and explains why this forum has only 30 thousand members while the majority of the population in this loud world don't experience tinnitus or experience it just for a short period e.g. after the concert.

Then it goes away for them.

Tinnitus prevalence is often measured asking "did you even experienced ringing in the ears for more than 5 minutes?", that's why we often hear about 5%-40% tinnitus prevalence, because it includes all the folks so who had temporary acute tinnitus after some loud concerts or sport events.

But I start to believe that if the question was "more than 5 days" the number would be very low.

Very low number of chronic tinnitus sufferers is also the reason why there's no cure and not much of the effort done to find one.

That's why I think we are unfortunately some sort of the tail end of the hearing disorders distribution.