Losing Hearing in My Tinnitus Ear — Can Tinnitus Cause Hearing Loss?

[JimmyR]

Has anyone experienced or heard of this?

My tinnitus started ten years ago in my left ear after a sinus infection that was mostly in my left sinuses. I went to an audiologist who found nothing wrong with my hearing. I saw the graphs. They were flat: good hearing at the various frequencies.

Nine years later (a year ago) I noticed I had a lot of hearing loss at at high frequencies in my left ear. I discovered this in a humorous way. (See below for that.) A few months ago, I went to the audiologist who found exactly that: Not much change in the right ear (slight decrease at high frequencies) but a large decrease in the left ear at high frequencies.

I discussed the latest audiologist results with an ENT. He said, no, it's not possible for tinnitus to cause hearing loss. He would not entertain the possibility. I pointed to my two charts from his own audiologist over ten years. He still denied tinnitus-to-hearing loss causation. But I'm afraid he was the type of doctor who is the incurious, by-the-book type. I suppose it is possible that he's right if it is merely by coincidence that I've lost hearing in my tinnitus ear. But I doubt this.

Anyone have any insight on this?

[The funny story: There were crickets outside my window one night. I noticed that when I was still they carried on, but that when I turned my head, one of them with a high pitch would stop! I tried this over and over again. Sure enough, the cricket was apparently watching me and getting spooked by my movements and going quiet! Could crickets do that?! Would it help them avoid predators? I supposed it was possible. Then I realized I couldn't hear that particular cricket in my left ear because I'd lost my upper-register hearing in that ear and that turning my head had revealed this.]

 

[InfiniteLoop]

@JimmyR, tinnitus is a symptom of your auditory system having been damaged (most commonly hearing loss). Tinnitus is the effect and not the cause. An analogy to your logic will be thinking that leg pain is the cause of a broken leg. It makes more sense the other way around.

I have hearing loss in my left ear (also upper range, like many other people), and that is the root cause of my tinnitus. There are people thinking that because they do not need hearing aids, they do not have actual hearing loss (wrong). In my case, my left ear has much worse response above 7 kHz than my right ear. My tinnitus has a frequency in the 10 kHz range, and in agreement with my hearing loss.

Most doctors are right, they might be clueless, but it does not matter with tinnitus.

 

[JimmyR]

Thanks, but when I got the tinnitus simultaneously to a sinus infection, the audiologist found no hearing loss in the tinnitus ear. She reported "no hearing loss, idiopathic tinnitus." I asked her what she meant. She said that "idiopathic" meant that I have tinnitus and there was no detectable hearing loss to account for it, "idiopathic" meaning "for some reason or another." So, if that's right, then the infection in my left sinus did some temporary damage to my inner ear that triggered an endless loop of tinnitus in my auditory cortex without causing hearing loss. Subsequently, ten years of tinnitus has harmed my ability to hear in the high registers. So the unorthodox theory would go, anyway.

On the other hand, if you're right, then my audiologist simply failed to detect hearing loss even though it was there. But I'm a musician and I can tell you I knew I had no hearing loss at that time (ten years ago.)

 

[InfiniteLoop]

Your audiologist likely tested only to 8 kHz that is the standard audiology test. You should request the high frequency test to 16 kHz. What is the sound frequency of your tinnitus? This is a very important clue.

I play synth music and own several keyboards also. I did not notice any change in my hearing at tinnitus onset, but I had a big gap at 10 kHz in my left ear high frequency audiogram. Audiologists only test to 8 kHz because that is the useful range for communication.

My onset was 8 years ago, and since then my left ear hearing keeps getting worse and now the 25 dB loss line for hearing loss starts at 6 kHz. However, the tinnitus is about the same, perhaps more persistent, but in the big picture of things is very comparable to onset levels.

 

[JimmyR]

Ah. Thanks. That's an excellent clue. I don't happen to know my tinnitus frequency or how high she tested. Plus, I'm a bassist so what the heck do I know about crazy high frequencies.

Okay, just checked. Never checked in all these ten years. It's right at 7,226 Hz, just by my unskilled check with an online tone generator here. When I see my ENT next month I'll ask to see the chart his audiologist made.

Thanks so much for the help, Infinite Loop!