Is It Normal to Get Ear Pain and Tinnitus Spikes from "Normal" City Traffic Sounds?

[acute]

Hi everyone, I moved to a house in the center of a city for the vacation period, and since then I have been struggling so much with hyperacusis, tinnitus and the outside noises.

Since I have been here, my tinnitus has worsened and become louder. It went from a 5 to a 9 again, I don't know if I ruined my recovery. I feel my ears ache everytime I stay outside in "noisy" environments. Before living here I felt my tinnitus was calmer and improving, now the tones I had at the beginning of acquiring tinnitus have returned. Noises like crickets and weird electrical impulses in my head.

It is a tinnitus spike? Did I ruin my possible recovery? Is it possible to get a spike just from city traffic sounds? I expose myself to traffic noises everytime I leave the house, noises that would be normal for a normal person, but maybe not for me. Noises such as car noises, motorcycles and ambulances, lawn mowers, workers on the street...

I am just wanting to hear others' experiences, because it seems that my ears want me to stay locked in the house without even going out into the street.

 

[GSC]

Do you wear ear plugs when around THOSE noises? If not, you need to start doing so. Your ears are no longer normal and were freshly damaged - probably suffering new traumas by exposing yourself to some of these too loud noise exposure. Breaks on a bus can be loud and aggravate hyperacusis - and ambulance sirens and motorcycles are way TOO loud for your compromised ears right now.

Wear ear plugs. Do not just sit and endure sounds that cause pain to your ears.

 

[Mister Muso]

Maybe the stress of moving has contributed to your spike. But definitely protect your ears in traffic. We are not "normal" hearing people and never will be, even after some recovery.

 

[coffee_girl]

It depends on the kind of city, I went to Philly a few months ago and it was so loud... I could hear someone's car radio from 30 stories up in a hotel with my windows closed... They might have had custom speakers installed. Philly and Chicago are two of the loudest cities in the US that I've been to. Sirens blare day and night mercilessly, people should always be wearing plugs or some kind of protection when they are in the city; there are always unexpected sounds.

In time you will start to "understand" your tinnitus better, as everyone has a different experience with their tinnitus you too will adapt to your certain habits that will prevent your ears from spiking. Hope you feel better.

 

[acute]

Do you wear ear plugs when around THOSE noises? If not, you need to start doing so. Your ears are no longer normal and were freshly damaged - probably suffering new traumas by exposing yourself to some of these too loud noise exposure. Breaks on a bus can be loud and aggravate hyperacusis - and ambulance sirens and motorcycles are way TOO loud for your compromised ears right now.

Wear ear plugs. Do not just sit and endure sounds that cause pain to your ears.

I use them but I still feel the loud noises. They are silicon custom ear plugs but when I wore them on for a long time my ear canal itches and stay in pain. So I do not use them all the time I'm out...

I don't know if this is normal. I feel that they create an uncomfortable pressure on my eardrum, and they isolate me from talking to other people as long as I hear my own voice very loud. And of course with my ear plugs on I be able to hear my tinnitus very loud and this give me a lot of anxiety.

Does someone feel this way when using plugs?

When I am walking on hard pavement I feel my head vibrating and when I am talking I feel my own voice resonating inside my head. I can't feel normal. This is terrible in any way.

I want to do the best for my recovery, but this is becoming a very awful fight.

 

[Mathieulh]

Hyperacusis and tinnitus usually come in pair, that said in most cases hyperacusis only lasts up to months before fading (unlike chronic tinnitus), of course some people are less lucky and are stuck with it for life. My own hyperacusis lasted for about 3 weeks after tinnitus onset, meanwhile I kept protecting my ears around any type of loud noises (anything above 70 dB), I still do and I intent to do for the next few months at least while my ears heal.

You can order custom molded earplugs to keep your ears safe during social events, those will filter harmful frequencies and too loud decibels while still letting you ear the environment (depending on the filters settings), because those take weeks to manufacture, you may want to use earmuffs in the meantime.

The more and sooner you protect your ears, the sooner and faster they will heal, while this may not cure your tinnitus, it will likely decrease in intensity as your ears heal.

 

[Contrast]

No one knows how common the statistics of tinnitus and noise induced as a combo.

However pain from sound and noises sounding abnormally loud are not the same thing.
source: https://web.archive.org/web/2015090...rd-in-Understanding-Hyperacusis-with-Pain.htm

The word hyperacusis groups so many different audiotory problems it's definition is overwhelming. Some people describe amplified hearing, sensation of clogged ears, burning pain from sound, facial paralysis from sound, chronic ear pain. As well as different types of pain, discomfort and itching. The pathologes of these problems are poorly to not understood at all. Different conditions all get thrown in the same TRT/CBT bus. Science is probably far away from finding a treatment.

The average person with "hyperacusis" is usually hopeless and the ENT will dismiss them to TRT/CBT.

 

[PeteJ]

I use them but I still feel the loud noises. They are silicon custom ear plugs but when I wore them on for a long time my ear canal itches and stay in pain. So I do not use them all the time I'm out...

I don't know if this is normal. I feel that they create an uncomfortable pressure on my eardrum, and they isolate me from talking to other people as long as I hear my own voice very loud. And of course with my ear plugs on I be able to hear my tinnitus very loud and this give me a lot of anxiety.

Does someone feel this way when using plugs?

When I am walking on hard pavement I feel my head vibrating and when I am talking I feel my own voice resonating inside my head. I can't feel normal. This is terrible in any way.

I want to do the best for my recovery, but this is becoming a very awful fight.

I had to stop wearing ear plugs, foam plugs though, because I would soon feel unbearable pain in my ear including the canal area.

It got so bad that I had pain even when not wearing plugs. That lasted well over a month. I still feel some ear pain but not as severe.

I don't know if the original or initial pain was due to wearing the plugs or from sound or both. I am guessing my ears became more fragile and wearing plugs put pressure on/in the canals even though this shouldn't happen. But, my ears aren't normal anymore.

Again, it's speculation but I definitely had pain along with wearing plugs so I had no choice but to stop.

I use muffs and I still use them. I had discomfort after wearing them even a short while but it's not as bad as back then. I would like to try custom plugs but my tinnitus is so bad, I don't like to go anywhere so I don't know how I am going to manage that.

My advice is to try to get custom plugs if you are able to and/or try various plugs and muffs. Figure out your comfort level but have some hearing protection on hand so you have something.

 

[Digital Doc]

http://www.idot.illinois.gov/Assets...raffic Noise -- Noise Fundamentals 111215.pdf

Diesel trucks can easily hit 90 db's as they pass, so traffic noise has the potential to harm your hearing. When I am out walking in traffic, I wear my earplugs.

 

[MattS]

@acute

I think we need to treat our ears the same way we would treat any other injury in our body: we need to avoid use for a period of time, and then gradually raise capacity back up. Imagine a broken ankle, for instance: we can't use it for six weeks while it's cast, and then it's atrophied, so needs some time to strengthen back up before you can go run and jump on it like normal. Leave it in the cast too long, or decide that you're never again going to jump on it, and it'll wither away. Run and jump on it too soon, or too abruptly, and it will break again. So you need to be gradual about it. Give it a bit more noise every week, two extra decibels, or five extra minutes without plugs. Then another two decibels, and another ten minutes. And so on.

So, long story short: yes, it's normal. If your ears are no longer used to those sounds then they will hurt if suddenly exposed to them. But they also *shouldn't* be like that: it's a sign that you're introducing noise too much, too soon. Get yourself on a rehabilitation schedule. Carefully monitor exactly how much sound you're giving them. And you should see improvements every day.

 

[HeavyMantra]

I always wear earplugs on the street and in traffic. Many times have I thanked myself for that when random loud shit happens

 

[MattS]

I always wear earplugs on the street and in traffic. Many times have I thanked myself for that when random loud shit happens

I agree, I think this is prudent. And yet I also wonder if exposing them, little by little, to extra noise, wouldn't harden your ears back off so that they weren't *quite* so sensitive to that random shit.

Honestly, I don't know. And I'm not suggesting you're doing anything wrong. Nothing like that at all. Just musing and thinking, is all. I think the broken ankle analogy is a really useful one, and I want to see how far it can carry my rehabilitation. That type of injury is easy to conceptualize rehabilitation for: there are muscles and tendons and ligaments that all need stretching out and lumbering up, and strengthening. With the ear it's less obvious...but there seems to be no reason whatsoever to think that the injury/rehabilitation process should be any different for the ear. Gradual exercise, strengthening and reintroduction into a normal process. Slow and steady, but always forward, using pain as your guide. This is what I plan to do.

 

[Juan]

I use them but I still feel the loud noises. They are silicon custom ear plugs but when I wore them on for a long time my ear canal itches and stay in pain. So I do not use them all the time I'm out...

I don't know if this is normal. I feel that they create an uncomfortable pressure on my eardrum, and they isolate me from talking to other people as long as I hear my own voice very loud. And of course with my ear plugs on I be able to hear my tinnitus very loud and this give me a lot of anxiety.

Does someone feel this way when using plugs?

When I am walking on hard pavement I feel my head vibrating and when I am talking I feel my own voice resonating inside my head. I can't feel normal. This is terrible in any way.

I want to do the best for my recovery, but this is becoming a very awful fight.

Use earmuffs instead. They are better in terms of pressure.

Hearing your own voice loud with earplugs on is due to the occlusion effect.

If you have developed T or H recently it would be best to just rest for a few months, outside a city and far from traffic. The sound of the sea is gentle on ears, it is relaxing, and usually there are not many noises on the beach if you choose a good place and a suitable time to go.

Noises from traffic are ear killers.

 

[Earing]

I read city traffic can be 125dB, which is very very loud.