Reactive Tinnitus or Diplacusis?

[Jon R.]

For the last month that I have been suffering from what I assumed was reactive tinnitus but I have just learnt of diplacusis which could be even more apt to my condition. For instance, I have hissing tinnitus in both my ears (new since 13th May post COVID-19 vaccine) and this progressed to left ear reaction hissing/distortion to certain sounds and frequencies. This has gotten worse each week. If I listen to music while covering my left ear, the music sounds fine, but if I cover my right ear (or listen with both ears at once) then certain sounds just appear to sound like a hissy high pitched tiss/hiss.

Let's take 1 song as an example. On Europe - The Final Countdown if I cover my right ear, the crowd noise on the video just sounds like a mess, but if I cover my left ear, it sounds fine. Singing sounds fine with both ears, it seems to be crowd noise or higher pitch instruments that cause issues. Same with loads of other songs too. The singing often sounds fine, but instruments can sound a hissy mess.

Same happens when I put a kettle on to boil, my left ear sounds like a tinny flat hissing mess, but my right ear hears the kettle boiling fine and normal. Same with freezers, cookers, microwaves, etc. My quality of life feels destroyed as music was my life.

Any ideas what this sounds like most and does anyone suffer from this? I won't be able to cope with this beyond 6 months, as it is a lot worse than I make it sound, as I have lots of tinnitus tones and the difference between ears is so annoying.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Tau]

Hi,

I suffer from a similar thing, but in both ears (worse in my left ear). I also assumed it was reactive tinnitus, but in fact I have hearing loss (confirmed cochlear synaptopathy due to acoustic trauma), so I've lost some synapses at higher frequencies. That is why more complex higher-pitched sounds (like drums) just hiss or buzz. Poorly heard crowd noise is a classic thing in synaptopathy, at least that's what my audiologist has told me. Basically the neurons responsible for distinguishing close frequencies and sounds that are temporally close lose connections first, so you can hear pure tones fine, but can't distinguish complex sounds. This is also often called 'hidden hearing loss'.

I advise you to undergo comprehensive hearing testing, including speech-in-noise, a high frequency audiogram, otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem response (ABR). Only the ABR testing showed abnormalities in my case, and even those were very mild. However, I cannot listen to music at all.

Best of luck!

P.S.

I hear sounds over stuff like fans at high volume, I think this is 'recruitment' rather than reactive tinnitus because those sounds crackle and hiss, like a broken speaker. I do have reactive tinnitus at a low frequency, too, and I had it without hearing loss (suffered my acoustic trauma later). Reactive tinnitus for me is taps beeping in pure tone, etc., but no crackling.

 

[Jon R.]

Thanks @Tau but sorry to hear you are in a similar situation. This now makes me wonder if my next door neighbours shredder caused this hidden hearing loss. Because what confuses me is my tinnitus (new tones) began 13th May, a day after the vaccine, but the reactive/diplacusis side of it didn't happen until a month after that. I remember around that time my neighbour used his shredder or cutter for 20 minutes, and even though I was in a wooden summer house at the time it seemed very loud and shrill. I managed to grab a pair of Beats style headphones to help cover my ears, but lets be honest, they are not tight nor cancelling headphones, so I doubt they helped too much, but better than nothing. However, I never marked down dates, so this diplacusis MAY have happened before this incident, I honestly can't remember, all I know is it was close to this date. But then so was when I bought a video otoscope, so I may even have made it worse myself, as I used that a lot around this time to check in my ears. Or it could just be an extra part of the vaccine issues that caused my latest bout of tinnitus.

Thanks for the ideas of tests to have. What happens when you listen to music? I guess I should be thankful at this stage it is just my left ear. I have awful hissing tinnitus in my right ear but it seems to pick up frequencies okay. although it has never been as good as my left ear for high frequencies, my right ear has always sounded more dull than my left, which maybe is a blessing in disguise as I may have the problem in both ears if it could.

How soon after your audio trauma did your diplacusis happen? What noise trauma did you have? Thanks.

Oh and below is my ultra high frequency audiogram from a month ago, around when this began.

 

[Brian Newman]

Thanks @Tau but sorry to hear you are in a similar situation. This now makes me wonder if my next door neighbours shredder caused this hidden hearing loss. Because what confuses me is my tinnitus (new tones) began 13th May, a day after the vaccine, but the reactive/diplacusis side of it didn't happen until a month after that. I remember around that time my neighbour used his shredder or cutter for 20 minutes, and even though I was in a wooden summer house at the time it seemed very loud and shrill. I managed to grab a pair of Beats style headphones to help cover my ears, but lets be honest, they are not tight nor cancelling headphones, so I doubt they helped too much, but better than nothing. However, I never marked down dates, so this diplacusis MAY have happened before this incident, I honestly can't remember, all I know is it was close to this date. But then so was when I bought a video otoscope, so I may even have made it worse myself, as I used that a lot around this time to check in my ears. Or it could just be an extra part of the vaccine issues that caused my latest bout of tinnitus.

Thanks for the ideas of tests to have. What happens when you listen to music? I guess I should be thankful at this stage it is just my left ear. I have awful hissing tinnitus in my right ear but it seems to pick up frequencies okay. although it has never been as good as my left ear for high frequencies, my right ear has always sounded more dull than my left, which maybe is a blessing in disguise as I may have the problem in both ears if it could.

How soon after your audio trauma did your diplacusis happen? What noise trauma did you have? Thanks.

Oh and below is my ultra high frequency audiogram from a month ago, around when this began.

View attachment 45703

I need to find an audiologist that gives a test that high! I have only found up to 14 kHz.

 

[Tau]

Thanks @Tau but sorry to hear you are in a similar situation. This now makes me wonder if my next door neighbours shredder caused this hidden hearing loss. Because what confuses me is my tinnitus (new tones) began 13th May, a day after the vaccine, but the reactive/diplacusis side of it didn't happen until a month after that. I remember around that time my neighbour used his shredder or cutter for 20 minutes, and even though I was in a wooden summer house at the time it seemed very loud and shrill. I managed to grab a pair of Beats style headphones to help cover my ears, but lets be honest, they are not tight nor cancelling headphones, so I doubt they helped too much, but better than nothing. However, I never marked down dates, so this diplacusis MAY have happened before this incident, I honestly can't remember, all I know is it was close to this date. But then so was when I bought a video otoscope, so I may even have made it worse myself, as I used that a lot around this time to check in my ears. Or it could just be an extra part of the vaccine issues that caused my latest bout of tinnitus.

Thanks for the ideas of tests to have. What happens when you listen to music? I guess I should be thankful at this stage it is just my left ear. I have awful hissing tinnitus in my right ear but it seems to pick up frequencies okay. although it has never been as good as my left ear for high frequencies, my right ear has always sounded more dull than my left, which maybe is a blessing in disguise as I may have the problem in both ears if it could.

How soon after your audio trauma did your diplacusis happen? What noise trauma did you have? Thanks.

Oh and below is my ultra high frequency audiogram from a month ago, around when this began.

View attachment 45703

My trauma was caused by headphones, I was using a tone generator to test my hearing, and increased the volume at 16 kHz, I did not hear the tone, but it damaged my synapses. The distortions started immediately after, like in one day. The thing was that I did not realise I had had this trauma (did not hear the tone), so I did not complete a steroid course straight after the trauma.

Drum plates in music sound like a hiss, some lower frequency sounds in complex electronic music (like jazztronica) sound wrong, too, there is humming where it should not be, and so on. Sometimes in very complex rock songs even the higher pitch vocals crackle. High frequency sounds are all amplified (loudness hyperacusis and/or recruitment).

If your ears were sensitive before the exposure to the shredder, it might have caused this damage. I think it's the same in my case as my exposure time was under 15 seconds at 110 dB. Your audiogram does show high frequency hearing loss. Mine doesn't (I've posted mine at some point if you're curious), but I have synapse damage. Research shows that synapse damage occurs before IHC damage (and permanent threshold shift like what you see in your audiogram), so there is reason to believe that you may have synaptopathy in lower frequencies, too. I am not a (medical) doctor, so you should discuss this with a specialist. Good luck!

 

[Jon R.]

My trauma was caused by headphones, I was using a tone generator to test my hearing, and increased the volume at 16 kHz, I did not hear the tone, but it damaged my synapses. The distortions started immediately after, like in one day. The thing was that I did not realise I had had this trauma (did not hear the tone), so I did not complete a steroid course straight after the trauma.

Drum plates in music sound like a hiss, some lower frequency sounds in complex electronic music (like jazztronica) sound wrong, too, there is humming where it should not be, and so on. Sometimes in very complex rock songs even the higher pitch vocals crackle. High frequency sounds are all amplified (loudness hyperacusis and/or recruitment).

If your ears were sensitive before the exposure to the shredder, it might have caused this damage. I think it's the same in my case as my exposure time was under 15 seconds at 110 dB. Your audiogram does show high frequency hearing loss. Mine doesn't (I've posted mine at some point if you're curious), but I have synapse damage. Research shows that synapse damage occurs before IHC damage (and permanent threshold shift like what you see in your audiogram), so there is reason to believe that you may have synaptopathy in lower frequencies, too. I am not a (medical) doctor, so you should discuss this with a specialist. Good luck!

I had no idea higher frequency tests could damage hearing. Maybe that happened to me? I have used lots of hearing test apps that go up to 20 kHz to test my hearing. I had no idea it could damage hearing.

Mine started also around when I had my audiogram, maybe the pro equipment caused this. Do they go up to 115 dB? I had no idea.

 

[Tau]

I had no idea higher frequency tests could damage hearing. Maybe that happened to me? I have used lots of hearing test apps that go up to 20 kHz to test my hearing. I had no idea it could damage hearing.

Mine started also around when I had my audiogram, maybe the pro equipment caused this. Do they go up to 115 dB? I had no idea.

Tests at a clinic should not damage your hearing, they don't go above 80 dB or so. I did this at home. Any sound can damage hearing if it is loud enough, apparently.

 

[SD7]

Thanks @Tau but sorry to hear you are in a similar situation. This now makes me wonder if my next door neighbours shredder caused this hidden hearing loss. Because what confuses me is my tinnitus (new tones) began 13th May, a day after the vaccine, but the reactive/diplacusis side of it didn't happen until a month after that. I remember around that time my neighbour used his shredder or cutter for 20 minutes, and even though I was in a wooden summer house at the time it seemed very loud and shrill. I managed to grab a pair of Beats style headphones to help cover my ears, but lets be honest, they are not tight nor cancelling headphones, so I doubt they helped too much, but better than nothing. However, I never marked down dates, so this diplacusis MAY have happened before this incident, I honestly can't remember, all I know is it was close to this date. But then so was when I bought a video otoscope, so I may even have made it worse myself, as I used that a lot around this time to check in my ears. Or it could just be an extra part of the vaccine issues that caused my latest bout of tinnitus.

Thanks for the ideas of tests to have. What happens when you listen to music? I guess I should be thankful at this stage it is just my left ear. I have awful hissing tinnitus in my right ear but it seems to pick up frequencies okay. although it has never been as good as my left ear for high frequencies, my right ear has always sounded more dull than my left, which maybe is a blessing in disguise as I may have the problem in both ears if it could.

How soon after your audio trauma did your diplacusis happen? What noise trauma did you have? Thanks.

Oh and below is my ultra high frequency audiogram from a month ago, around when this began.

View attachment 45703

Our stories are so similar. I wish after I got the vaccine I just disappeared into a quiet cave for a couple months. Hope things get better for you.

For the record I'm pro vaccine but there's a dozen people whose narrative is so close. Vaccine ——> Increase or Creation of Tinnitus ——> Sound that shouldn't have done substantial damage does substantial damage.

 

[Tau]

Our stories are so similar. I wish after I got the vaccine I just disappeared into a quiet cave for a couple months. Hope things get better for you.

For the record I'm pro vaccine but there's a dozen people whose narrative is so close. Vaccine ——> Increase or Creation of Tinnitus ——> Sound that shouldn't have done substantial damage does substantial damage.

Well, I was sensitive to sound, yes, but I really thought it was due to my headphone use prior to the trauma. Could you please show me more posts by people who claim to have noise sensitivity post-vaccine? I am really curious now.

I too am pro-vaccine (I'm a scientist, my family are doctors, we have informed opinions).

 

[David S]

When I just got tinnitus, I was very eager to understand if I had high frequency hearing loss at 8,000 - 16,000 Hz. Now I am not to sure. Even if they find hearing loss (which they most likely do in most people if you are not very young), there is not much you can do.

 

[Tau]

When I just got tinnitus, I was very eager to understand if I had high frequency hearing loss at 8,000 - 16,000 Hz. Now I am not to sure. Even if they find hearing loss (which they most likely do in most people if you are not very young), there is not much you can do.

It's still good to know. I had very minor hearing loss at 16 kHz (20 dB). That was it. I'm 32 years old. I will go do another audiogram soon because I feel the MRI has screwed me up big time.

 

[Damocles]

Reactive Tinnitus or Diplodocus?

Reactive Tinnitus:

Diplodocus:

easy.

 

[David S]

I will go do another audiogram soon because I feel the MRI has screwed me up big time.

Yes it can be good to have a starting point to compare with in a year or two.

I am doing a hearing test for Lenire later this week. I also have results from a hearing test I did when my tinnitus was fresh. I will post them both later this week. I have feeling that my high frequencies have worsened quite a lot.