My Dad's Tinnitus Success Story — From a Loud Flute Down to a Hiss Heard in Dead Silence

For what it's worth, my audiologist told me the only patients he's ever had whose tinnitus didn't fade after a few years were those who did further damage by not protecting their ears, or didn't use proper earplugs. Foam earplugs and online shit like Eargasm do not provide proper protection. You need custom molded earplugs.

 

It sounds like the audiologist is just trying to deflect the blame on the majority of people who are unfortunate that their tinnitus doesn't improve and just gets worse. Properly inserted foam earplugs provide excellent protection. Custom molded earplugs have some other advantages, though.

 

That's nonsense. Properly inserted foam earplugs provide great protection. Of course molded earplugs are better and that's what I use.

 

Audiologists talk shit fullstop about tinnitus. They aren't even doctors, they don’t have medical degrees. They are no better than a technician.

The trouble is, they THINK they understand tinnitus.

 

Audiologists are required to have both completed a doctoral degree in audiology from an accredited school and have earned a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology in order to practice. This is eight to ten years of education.

It is true they're not a medical physician, but how many ENTs spend more than 10 minutes with you during an appointment these days? They'll order an MRI, which fucked me up even more. My audiologist was helpful when I first suffered tinnitus 20 plus years ago and recommended ear protection to avoid further trauma.

 

I am going to hold on to the hope in that story, but you do wonder how many people with severe tinnitus go back to seeing their audiologist regularly for them to know whether it's getting worse or better.

Once you have it bad, there's generally little need to revisit unless it's for ear cleaning I guess - but it would be incredibly foolish to have very bad tinnitus and go for regular microsuction.

Perhaps they are just used to seeing the everyday mild tinnitus patients, and overtime they got used to it or perhaps it reduced because the 'damage' wasn't so severe.

 

I got my onset of tinnitus while wearing foam earplugs. At the beginning of my tinnitus, I also tried a few sets of the popular brand earplugs purchased online. I did not feel much protection and would not trust them. My molded earplugs I trust 100%. They're the best $200 you can spend.

My ENT and Audiologist both informed me that foam earplugs aren't as effective in general, especially when worn for long periods of time, such as a concert. They move around and can come loose. They also caused my eardrums to become impacted with earwax, because they don't breathe well. They also told me he's had other patients come to him with the same issues after wearing cheap foam earplugs.

I had used foam earplugs in bands for many years, so I had plenty of experience inserting them properly. it wasn't even that loud and I was a fair distance from the stage.

There's a lot of information I don't trust from my doctors, but I'm just giving you my experience. I would not recommend anyone put their trust in cheap ear protection. This I can attest to.

Read my reply above to @RunningMan. People can put their faith in whatever they want, I'm just giving my story on foam earplugs.

 

I haven't had an issue with the foam earplugs coming loose when biking. The earplugs aren't going to breathe because they are sealing out the external sounds. The audiologist has a revenue stream from molded earplugs, so they have other reasons to recommend them. From what I've read, the biggest problem with foam earplugs is people not inserting them well, which could also cause an issue with earwax if they are just shoving them in improperly.

 

That's in the US.

The rest of the world tend to train audiologists with a Master's degree over 3 or 4 years, like in UK.

I take it you live in the US? This appears to be the only place in the world that require this extensive training and call it a "Doctor of Audiology (Au.D)."

This actually makes me even more disgusted by audiologists. If they can spend 10 years preparing for their careers, then surely they can be taught about severe tinnitus and the ailments that can accompany that. Their lack of knowledge in these specific fields, in my opinion, makes them more of a hindrance than a help for severe sufferers.

You just need to read some of postings on Tinnitus Talk. Audiologists are VERY good at making things worse and blaming you for it.

 

My audiologist ordered my molded earplugs from an outside vendor, which lists the same price I paid right on their website. He made nothing on them.

These are far superior to foam or other earplugs I've tried and well worth the $200. If the audiologist gets a small kickback from the vendor, God bless him.

That wasn't my experience with my Audiologist or my ENT. Neither claimed to fully understand it, but both had a huge impact on reducing and helping me manage my tinnitus.

 

It was an audiologist who put me here in the first place, either by negligence or a lack or knowledge - probably both.

I already had (moderate) tinnitus, and my ears had been almost fully blocked for 10 years.

When you think about it, here's a guy with pre-existing tinnitus, that hasn't heard properly in 10 years due to earwax, so let's rip out the earwax and let the first real noise he's heard in 10 years be a 120 decibel microsuction machine in his ear canal.

I had no idea about tinnitus really before, as it was moderate and didn't bother me, but knowing what I know now it's a very clear recipe for disaster.

An audiologist who knew her stuff should have known this or been trained to know this is a higher risk and given a warning of some kind.

 

I wish I encountered Tinnitus Talk earlier, before my noise trauma. Even still, this forum for sure saved my life from utter and complete destruction. When I went to see my first ENT, a visit combined with an audiologist, they would have subjected me to acoustic reflex test, tympanometry, and suction earwax removal. Can you imagine?

I refused all three, and had the earwax manually removed. The ENT still prescribed MRI, which I did not do.

Tinnitus Talk saves lives. Well, in my case at least extended it considerably at the very least. If more people learned about it, more lives would be saved.

 

That's interesting. My ENT did my earwax extraction with some device that pulled out chunks of earwax that looked like bites of a tootsie roll. It was uncomfortable as hell, but afterward, I felt an immediate, permanent reduction in tinnitus volume. But there was no suction involved, just some long, thin tool that felt like it was going into my brain.

Before that, my ringing was at an 8 24/7... It only occasionally goes up above 5 now.

 

I don't think there is an audiologist on the planet that would accept for a second that anything they do would cause or worsen tinnitus; hearing test, microsuction, etc - it is all COMPLETELY SAFE!

That is the NUMBER 1 problem with audiologists! They are so ignorant of this, it defies belief.

It's tantamount to a doctor examining a broken leg, then taking a hammer and breaking your leg further.

I believe that tool is called a curette?

Glad it worked for you and you're lucky the ENT didn’t reach for the microsuction tool. It may have been a very different story for you.

 

This, 100%.

Anyone with existing tinnitus should have their earwax removed with a curette. The benefit of a reduction of risk of an ear infection using microsuction is simply not worth it.

 

I bought a pair of 3M Peltor earplugs with a silicone cord connecting them. I thought they would be handy to have along on a walk if there was suddenly a mower, loud machinery, or a barking dog ahead. They generate wind noise just walking through my house slowly, so I definitely wouldn't want to keep these on for long outside where there's usually a breeze as well, even worse on a bike.