I woke up 9/16/19 to a tiny whistle in the left ear. I didn't think ANYTHING of it. It's happened before when I was about to get a cold or sinus infection. The whistle kept up - all day. All night for days. Never got a cold. Never got a sinus infection.
At the one week mark of non stop tinnitus I started googling....started panicking. Which lead me to ENT, chiropractor, dentists, nothing detected but "high frequency loss" in the left ear via audio gram. I've never been exposed to noise, no headphones, no ototoxic meds, passed numerous online audio grams for frequency since when the tinnitus is quiet. I'm 49 - too young for hearing loss. I had no hearing loss. I do have disc degenerative disease btwn cervical spine 5 & 6 and forward head posture. I'm working towards correcting.
The only over exposure to noise my left ear has heard more than the right, is I have spoken on the telephone with my left ear only for 40 years. Early in my career I used the phone a lot and took calls on left side, crooked neck, left side car window open, 3 babies crying as I held them over my left shoulder - screaming into my left ear.
I no longer speak on the phone - unless on speaker. I'm 4 1/2 months into tinnitus and if I talk even on speaker too long I will spike for hours afterwards.... makes no sense ... so I'm now using an ear plug (tight one) if I'm on speaker.
Definitely Maddening ...