Massive Tinnitus Pitch Change, from High to Low, Over Time?

[GBB]

I just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced something similar. Generally my tinnitus has gone from an eeeee/shrill hyper high pitch the first three months, to atonal, then to low wawwawawaa now to waaaaaaaa, the latter two in months 6-9. It basically sounds like a laundry dryer or xerox scanner or some other low hum is in my head. I can still get occasional high pitched ringing, but it's much rarer now. Even though this laundry hum is still very loud (can hear it clear over a podcast for example), and it's still quite disabling, it seems (maybe?) better than a standard high pitched ring, but I'm nowhere near fully functional.

Has anyone else had this high to low pitch change in their first year?

 

[nocticolor]

My original noise was already kind of low so I'm not sure how drastic I'd say this change is, but for a few days now it's this really low hum. When I put earplugs in it sounded like I was in a submarine or a spaceship or something. Last night it sounded similar to what you described. If I'm in a quiet room it sounds like someone's vacuuming in the next room.

On one hand it's less annoying than high pitched chirping I've been graced with recently as well, on the other hand I find it a lot more unsettling and harder to mask.

 

[kuromi]

Has anyone else had this high to low pitch change in their first year?

I'll preface this with the fact that I haven't had tinnitus for long, but I think I've experienced this change as well. At onset my tinnitus was the typical ringing noise and now nearly 6 months in it's lowered down in volume and became a softer noise more similar to white noise or a hiss. I find this much easier to deal with than how it was at onset, since I can go weeks without thinking about it at all.

 

[Keith Handy]

Do you mean the higher tone(s) faded out while the lower tone(s) faded in, or was it a sudden and drastic shift?

 

[GBB]

Do you mean the higher tone(s) faded out while the lower tone(s) faded in, or was it a sudden and drastic shift?

It's definitely been a slow shift over time.

 

[Lilah]

My tinnitus has gone higher pitch over time. I'm finding now that only violet noise can mask mine, whereas before it was pink noise or even white noise.

 

[Diesel]

Yes.

Mine started out as a super high pitched "dentist drill" sound. That slowly faded into... After about 6-months, entered into the classic "shhh" sound that was a 14 kHz+ white noise sound.

Years later, I still have the 14 kHz+ white noise sound, along with what sounds like a high-pitched computer fan sound, maybe in the 6-12 kHz range.

Recently, in quiet rooms, I am hearing a very faint 4 kHz-6 kHz "eeee" puretone-ish sound. I assume that's the next sound to start to become more detectable over time as a "chronic" sound.

So, yes, mine has worn from very high frequency to a lower frequency. It's been very gradual.

But hey, my ENT says my hearing is still "GREAT!"

 

[Wrfortiscue]

Yes.

Mine started out as a super high pitched "dentist drill" sound. That slowly faded into... After about 6-months, entered into the classic "shhh" sound that was a 14 kHz+ white noise sound.

Years later, I still have the 14 kHz+ white noise sound, along with what sounds like a high-pitched computer fan sound, maybe in the 6-12 kHz range.

Recently, in quiet rooms, I am hearing a very faint 4 kHz-6 kHz "eeee" puretone-ish sound. I assume that's the next sound to start to become more detectable over time as a "chronic" sound.

So, yes, mine has worn from very high frequency to a lower frequency. It's been very gradual.

But hey, my ENT says my hearing is still "GREAT!"

Did you end up getting that 4-6 kHz sound after all? FWIW, I started with a dentist drill in left ear that's was very intermittent. It went away and now came back more frequently a month later. Does this mean it will be permanent or it won't go down in frequency?