Percentage of Tinnitus Cases Leading to Deafness?

[VictorDedalus]

I've reached the 20-month mark of constant, severe unilateral tinnitus. I already had bilateral tinnitus for about 10 years prior to the onset of this much louder tone in my left year. It presented spontaneously seven months after brain surgery to resection a meningioma. No one knows whether there is a connection between surgery and the tinnitus. Audiograms taken a year prior to and a few months subsequent to onset reveal no appreciable worsening of hearing. I realize that there may be higher frequency hearing loss not registered by audiograms, and indeed my loudest tone is up near 12-15 kHz. Nevertheless, I'm not aware of having lost any hearing sensitivity.

A month ago a new tone activated, same ear. This one is lower, but seems to fluctuate in frequency. It's much softer, but its variability and inconsistency cause me as much or more distress than the much louder but constant dog whistle screech. The fact that my condition continues to worsen after more than a year and half since presenting is troubling.

To console myself, I frequently revisit Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testiment, in which the composer poignantly laments losing most of his hearing. I also take comfort in knowing that Bedrich Smetana suffered from severe tinnitus and was, unlike Beethoven, totally deaf when he composed his magisterial Die Moldau.

But these well known cases of deafness have me wondering what percentage of tinnitus cases are preludes to eventual deafness. Do we know? Might my worsening tinnitus - the onset of new tones - be an indication of progressive but unmeasurable hearing loss?

 

[Contrast]

I realize that there may be higher frequency hearing loss not registered by audiograms, and indeed my loudest tone is up near 12-15k. Nevertheless, I'm not aware of having lost any hearing sensitivity.

It's not just hearing loss above 8khz, it's hearing loss in background noise such as a noisy bar or music within the 250-8khz range. Pure tones aren't an accurate way of measuring the ears health.

The inner ear's health is not centric to a pure tonal audiogram, infact those audiogram's are bloody inaccurate, you always have mroe hearing loss then they display.

Cochlear hair cells have nervous tissue called ribbon synapses which attach the audiotory nerve fibers. The audiotory nerve fibers are information channels that allow you to hear in background noise and deceipher music, without synapses connected to AN fibers or AN fibers dying music would just sound like a wall of noise.

The root pathology of SNHL is death of the ribbon synapses which attach to cochlear hair cells, afterward eventually the audiotory nerve and hair cells start to die, but the point is current research is in controversy with the outdated model of hair cell death being the root pathology of hearing loss.

http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378595516302507

 

[GregCA]

But these well known cases of deafness have me wondering what percentage of tinnitus cases are preludes to eventual deafness. Do we know? Might my worsening tinnitus - the onset of new tones - be an indication of progressive but unmeasurable hearing loss?

You have the causality direction reversed: it's not T causing deafness, it's deafness causing T. Of course, because of the strong correlation it is often hard to determine which one came first, but all of the scientific data I have perused seems to indicate that T doesn't lead to deafness.

 

[VictorDedalus]

You have the causality direction reversed: it's not T causing deafness, it's deafness causing T.

Right, I didn't mean to suggest that tinnitus precedes deafness as a causative phenomenon, but merely as an early presenting symptom of an otherwise undiagnosed, underlying ailment. Tinnitus doesn't cause deafness, but deafness frequently reveals itself through tinnitus.

In any event, I suppose time will tell.

 

[GregCA]

Right, I didn't mean to suggest that tinnitus precedes deafness as a causative phenomenon, but merely as an early presenting symptom of an otherwise undiagnosed, underlying ailment. Tinnitus doesn't cause deafness, but deafness frequently reveals itself through tinnitus.

Oh I see what you mean now. I agree with you. T might be the first symptom that takes you down the "hearing loss path".

 

[Juan]

Tinnitus doesn't cause deafness, but deafness frequently reveals itself through tinnitus.

That's accurate I think. Tinnitus is like searching for a signal, for a certain frequency one can no longer hear. So tinnitus is linked with hearing loss.