Many questions regarding tinnitus! Please answer!

[Saskia]

Hi!
I will do the token apology if this has already been discussed.
I have tinnitus in my right ear, almost definitely from exposure to loud music.
However, it has been months of me wearing ear plugs whenever I'm around loud noises and protecting my hearing as best I could. Alas, it still rings and it's hard to say if it's gotten better or worse.
I went to an audiologist who told me I have perfect hearing, but I always feel like my right ear has less ability.
I have so many questions!
A) are ear plugs enough?
B) can the tinnitus make you feel like you've lost hearing when you haven't?
C) Can having wisdom teeth removed and having jaw pain affect tinnitus?
D) Can using q-tips affect tinnitus?
And I'm really interested in:
D) Will ceasing taking birth control improve the situation?
Thank you this has been a really scaring and depressing process especially because I'm so young.

 

[Per]

Ear plugs enough to what Saskia? Enough protection to loud noise? There's several different types, do a search on this forum to find the threads. You can always find protection enough, like all the way up to contruction work headsets that exlude almost all external noise, but that's not what you should be wearing. Get some normal plugs. The ones I have are made of foam and they block too much for normal music listening but I have H as well, so they do the job of protecting me from painful noise. But do a search and you will find more answers on plugs.

When it comes to Q-tips I stopped using them on an advice from a doctor that said "never stick anything in your ears, the wax will dry up and come out by itself." So having all this T&H going on I just stopped. I doubt it will affect your T in any ways but I believe it protects the ears and potentially the eardrum. Better safe than sorry etc. On your Question B) I would think that it affects our way of thinking of hearing loss at least. But you can't loose hearing because of T itself, but it can feel like some loss have occurred although it doesnt have to be like that at all. I think there may a psychological element to this. For C) you should contact a dentist or jaw surgeon at a hospital, or at least start there. D): Never heard of it.

 

[MT09]

My answers to them are as follows(and they're merely an opinion, I'm NOT saying they're perfect):

A) This depends on a lot of variables. When you're at home, or any silent environment, don't use too much ear protection. When you step outside though, ALWAYS wear your earplugs. You don't need an extreme noise cancellation earplugs, a normal one will suffice. I usually just stick up a cotton ball in my ears when I go out.

B) I know about this, I've felt that too. It depends. For some, they really have a certain amount of hearing loss. Others, however(including me), have the sensation of a hearing loss. It feels like you've lost a bit of your hearing, but you haven't. I think it's because you keep hearing the T, it distracts your hearing concentration. I'll give an example. Let's say you have T in your left ear. You're experimenting, you flip your phone, play some music very silently and keep it near your right ear. You hear it just fine. Done. Now, you keep it near your left. Here, you're able to hear your T too. You will be concentrating even if you don't want to. So, what you hear on your left ear, it will be a combination of the outside sound+your T. There's no hearing loss, but a certain amount of outside sound is replaced by your T. This's just my theory, I could be wrong.

C) Certainly. Read more about TMJ and how it affects tinnitus. It doesn't always lead to tinnitus, but there have been significant amount of people who suffer from T because of TMJ problems.

D) Not an extreme danger, but it's usually advised not to stick anything inside your ears. If your ear really itches because of the wax or any other reason, use q tips or wrap a ball of cotton to a thin stick, and very gently rub around your ears on the external parts only! Do NOT stick it inside your ears too much. Do not apply pressure too, be gentle.

Your last question, I've no clue. Although, I've never really heard anyone's T increasing due to intake of pills. It's best if you create a new thread to ask about it, you'll get more responses from other females who're on this forum.