Hi.
Whenever I have noises around me, my tinnitus gets worse. Just temporarily though, and even for very mild noises, like from perhaps 30 decibels upwards. Usually the noise causing the increase in tinnitus masks the tinnitus, so I don't notice it, but today I was traveling in the train, and as usual put headphones on (with nothing playing) to make it easier on my ears, and I noticed how my tinnitus was much worse compared to before leaving the house.
Now that I'm back home again and have no sounds around me, my tinnitus has quieted down again, it takes maybe half an hour or so to get back to whatever my baseline happens to be at that time, which varies from day to day and from ear to ear. Today it so happens that my right ear is at like a 4/10 while I can't even hear anything from my left ear (in terms of tinnitus), and on the train it was more like a 8/10 in both ears.
Sorry for rambling a bit, I was just wondering, what mechanism could cause it to spike like that? I don't think my tinnitus is caused by hearing damage, because it shifts from left to right quite commonly, and my ENT agrees that my Eustachian tubes are not working correctly, for which I got some nose spray. So I think the ETD might be the cause of my tinnitus and related issues.
Also I tried steam breathing last week, and have been doing it everyday since, and it has helped me a bit sometimes. The first time I tried steam breathing, my tinnitus was essentially gone, I couldn't get my room quiet enough to notice it, and my sensitivity to sound too. It hasn't really worked perfectly like that since, but it does help, and I do feel my ETs opening up after doing it.
Could this be something related to the tensor tympani muscle? I was hypothesizing that perhaps having my ETs blocked has caused the those muscles to not work properly, but I'm really just guessing without any real knowledge.
So does anyone know what this could be? Thanks in advance.
Whenever I have noises around me, my tinnitus gets worse. Just temporarily though, and even for very mild noises, like from perhaps 30 decibels upwards. Usually the noise causing the increase in tinnitus masks the tinnitus, so I don't notice it, but today I was traveling in the train, and as usual put headphones on (with nothing playing) to make it easier on my ears, and I noticed how my tinnitus was much worse compared to before leaving the house.
Now that I'm back home again and have no sounds around me, my tinnitus has quieted down again, it takes maybe half an hour or so to get back to whatever my baseline happens to be at that time, which varies from day to day and from ear to ear. Today it so happens that my right ear is at like a 4/10 while I can't even hear anything from my left ear (in terms of tinnitus), and on the train it was more like a 8/10 in both ears.
Sorry for rambling a bit, I was just wondering, what mechanism could cause it to spike like that? I don't think my tinnitus is caused by hearing damage, because it shifts from left to right quite commonly, and my ENT agrees that my Eustachian tubes are not working correctly, for which I got some nose spray. So I think the ETD might be the cause of my tinnitus and related issues.
Also I tried steam breathing last week, and have been doing it everyday since, and it has helped me a bit sometimes. The first time I tried steam breathing, my tinnitus was essentially gone, I couldn't get my room quiet enough to notice it, and my sensitivity to sound too. It hasn't really worked perfectly like that since, but it does help, and I do feel my ETs opening up after doing it.
Could this be something related to the tensor tympani muscle? I was hypothesizing that perhaps having my ETs blocked has caused the those muscles to not work properly, but I'm really just guessing without any real knowledge.
So does anyone know what this could be? Thanks in advance.