Low Frequency Hearing Loss and Tinnitus... Causes?

[Lauren Morse]

I have recently started to lose my low frequency hearing and have been experiencing a low, idling motor type of tinnitus on occassion which comes and goes and feels like my head is vibrating.
It all started temporarily after I got up too fast and all of the blood rushed to my head and ears far too fast, causing a pulsating noise, a low frequency hearing loss, and a feeling like my ears were going to explode!

My ears recovered the next day, but my low frequency hearing was damage a few days later while watching planes from a safe distance (noise level about 70 decibels) and after an MRI scan (90-95 db exposure for 4 minutes with earplugs). Strangely, neither of these noise evens resulted in high frequency hearing loss, so I don't know if it was really the noise that did it.

My low frequency hearing is still going down in my left ear for reasons I do not understand.

I have a history of inner ear migraines which can cause low frequency losses, but for me they have only usually affected the high frequencies in my dealings with them.

Otherwise, what are the primary causes of this type of loss? Can the noise I was exposed to have potentially damage my low frequencies exclusively? Was vascular damage a possibility from the time I stood up?

Thanks a lot for the help and insight.

 

[Aaron123]

It's worth noting that your history seems a bit more complicated than these last events: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...m-safe-noises—over-and-over-again-help.11998/

Is the low frequency loss in both ears? Do you have audiograms from different points in time?

What does your ENT say about your deteriorating hearing?

 

[Lauren Morse]

@Aaron123

Yes, the low frequency loss is in both ears but seems worse in the left. The audiograms are pointless because they do not document losses below 250 hz, which is where I was losing some. I may have some loss 250-500 hz, but not as much.

I have been told that migraines are causing the majority of my hearing loss events. The migraines (at least I believe) are being caused by abnormal muscle tension in my face and neck. So the real cause could be fibromyalgia, TMJ, who knows.

But as I mentioned, I never had low frequency hearing loss prior to the second week of this month.

 

[GregCA]

Otherwise, what are the primary causes of this type of loss?

A couple of leads to consider: otosclerosis or cochlear hydrops.

 

[Jkph75]

How do you know that you have lost low frequency hearing if you don't have an audiogram that shows it? Just because you hear a low noise doesn't mean that you have a low frequency loss. Those noises probably just aggregated your tinnitus. If your tinnitus is louder it doesn't necessarily mean that your hearing is worse.

 

[Lauren Morse]

@Jkph75

Audiograms are no good for documenting hearing losses if they occur in frequencies not tested. Audiograms also don't show certain types of hearing losses especially if it is synapse damage and not hair cell damage.

I know I have lost low frequency hearing because I can hardly hear the bass in my music anymore without having to turn it up, and also because certain appliances in my house are suddenly only high or mid frequencies. And that motorcycles are suddenly much quieter. Yea, I think I know that I have lost them

 

[Lauren Morse]

@GregCA
I certainly don't have otoschlerosis.
Do migraines cause cochlear hydrops? I have definitely had some symptoms of that in the past. However, diet modifications has never helped me and I eat almost no salt.

 

[GregCA]

I certainly don't have otoschlerosis

How did you rule it out?

 

[Jkph75]

@Jkph75

Audiograms are no good for documenting hearing losses if they occur in frequencies not tested. Audiograms also don't show certain types of hearing losses especially if it is synapse damage and not hair cell damage.

I know I have lost low frequency hearing because I can hardly hear the bass in my music anymore without having to turn it up, and also because certain appliances in my house are suddenly only high or mid frequencies. And that motorcycles are suddenly much quieter. Yea, I think I know that I have lost them

What does your audiogram look like?

 

[Lauren Morse]

@Jkph75

The last one I had was in early July. Only 5 db in the low or mid frequencies, with mild high frequency loss in the right (25 db at 6k and 20 at 8k), with a little bit of loss in the highs in the left ear. That of course was before I started losing the lows. But right now my health insurance is overburdened and I cannot afford to get another audiogram; I've already had around 5 in the past year!

 

[Lauren Morse]

@GregCA

Well, it's true that I have not had bone conduction hearing tested for a very long time, so I wouldn't really know. But all the ent's I've been to said my ears are healthy, and I have seen around 5 ear doctors in the past year.

But given the fact that the losses usually follow (supposedly non-dangerously loud) noise exposure (including today, from walking in an unrelenting wind gust), I think something else must be going on. I've just never heard of getting exclusively low frequency hearing loss from kinda loud noises, nor have I ever experienced it. The only time I have gotten any low frequency loss previously was when I used to go clubbing and got exposed to heavy bass, which of course is understandable. But short exposures to 75-90 db low noises should not kill 5-10 db of low frequency hearing.

 

[Jkph75]

@Jkph75

The last one I had was in early July. Only 5 db in the low or mid frequencies, with mild high frequency loss in the right (25 db at 6k and 20 at 8k), with a little bit of loss in the highs in the left ear. That of course was before I started losing the lows. But right now my health insurance is overburdened and I cannot afford to get another audiogram; I've already had around 5 in the past year!

It sounds like your audiologist or Dr did a bad job of explaining this to you, causing you to worry unnecessarily. Your hearing is completely normal. As an adult, 30 db is considered a hearing loss and most drs and audiologists would hardly be concerned to see a couple 30 db dips. You have a typical ski sloped shaped pattern of "hearing loss". This is common with age. For children normal hearing is up to 15 db. Everyone does not even start out with hearing at 0 db, so there is no way for you to know if your 5db are even losses at all. Tinnitus sucks but at least you don't have to worry about losing your low frequency hearing

 

[Lauren Morse]

@Jkph7s

Huh? Didn't I just explain that that this audiogram was done before I had the low frequency losses?

By the way I am 22 so no that audiogram is not ok.

 

[GregCA]

Well, it's true that I have not had bone conduction hearing tested for a very long time, so I wouldn't really know.

Sounds like it may be time to get tested.

 

[Lauren Morse]

@GregCA
I may well consider it, and thank you. Did you experience reductions in low frequency hearing when you were exposed to loud low frequency noises as a result of this? Also, doesn't otoschlerosis usually only present in one ear, but possibly occur in the other much later. I have bilateral low frequency hearing loss.

 

[Jkph75]

@Jkph7s

Huh? Didn't I just explain that that this audiogram was done before I had the low frequency losses?

By the way I am 22 so no that audiogram is not ok.

You don't know that you have low frequency losses. You just think that you do. Hopefully, you can get another test at some point soon to ease your mind. In the meantime, there are some hearing test apps that you could try. If you have had 5 tests then you should see a trend. If the tests are all roughly the same then your hearing is probably not declining. I am just trying to help you. What have your dr's concluded from your information and hearing tests? I would listen to them over anyone online.

 

[GregCA]

@GregCA
I may well consider it, and thank you. Did you experience reductions in low frequency hearing when you were exposed to loud low frequency noises as a result of this? Also, doesn't otoschlerosis usually only present in one ear, but possibly occur in the other much later. I have bilateral low frequency hearing loss.

No I did not experience hearing loss in reaction to low frequency sounds.
I guess it doesn't have to attack both ears simultaneously, but it's not impossible that it would.

Anyway, why play the guess game? Just get it tested and you'll know. Both Rinne/fork and hearing tests with bone conduction are trivial tests to do.

 

[Pav]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum; I am a retired architect, with an understanding of acoustics. I also collect & play folk music instruments, my main hobby, now suddenly affected by tinnitus or similar. I have had minor ear problems over the years, with periods of vertigo for a couple of weeks after colds. However, I have had continuing problems since August 2016; a very short cold, deafness (particularly to bass frequencies), dizziness, "blocked" feel in ears, headaches on sneezing or moving etc.

However, things have got much worse since lat December- I now have a low humming (tinnitus?) in one or both ears (or the back of the neck at times - odd); this is absolutely uniform in pitch & consistent level; except that it gets much louder when there is outside sound. For example, car or bus exhausts (which last month sounded "burbling" like motor-boat exhausts) now cause the noise "in my head" to increase to a bit more than the external level. If there is any traffic noise at all I cannot hear what people say to me.

Some posts talk about tinnitus being "masked" by external sounds ; I seem to have the opposite experience, of external sounds making the "tinnitus" (?) louder. Anyone else get this?

As music is my main hobby in retirement this is really having a big negative effect. I went to a "klezmer" session yesterday night and had to quit after two tunes; it sounded as though everyone was playing "major 7th" discordant chords, or like "flutter" on a really bad cassette deck (remember those?). As for playing the bass I paid quite a lot for... I cannot even hear the pitch of the note that I am playing.

Pav, Edinburgh

 

[Jkph75]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum; I am a retired architect, with an understanding of acoustics. I also collect & play folk music instruments, my main hobby, now suddenly affected by tinnitus or similar. I have had minor ear problems over the years, with periods of vertigo for a couple of weeks after colds. However, I have had continuing problems since August 2016; a very short cold, deafness (particularly to bass frequencies), dizziness, "blocked" feel in ears, headaches on sneezing or moving etc.

However, things have got much worse since lat December- I now have a low humming (tinnitus?) in one or both ears (or the back of the neck at times - odd); this is absolutely uniform in pitch & consistent level; except that it gets much louder when there is outside sound. For example, car or bus exhausts (which last month sounded "burbling" like motor-boat exhausts) now cause the noise "in my head" to increase to a bit more than the external level. If there is any traffic noise at all I cannot hear what people say to me.

Some posts talk about tinnitus being "masked" by external sounds ; I seem to have the opposite experience, of external sounds making the "tinnitus" (?) louder. Anyone else get this?

As music is my main hobby in retirement this is really having a big negative effect. I went to a "klezmer" session yesterday night and had to quit after two tunes; it sounded as though everyone was playing "major 7th" discordant chords, or like "flutter" on a really bad cassette deck (remember those?). As for playing the bass I paid quite a lot for... I cannot even hear the pitch of the note that I am playing.

Pav, Edinburgh

Sounds like Meniere's. Have you seen a dr?