Ringing Strong for Almost 3 Weeks After Using Bluetooth In-Ear Headphones

Hello,

I'm HZO, just turned 30 and I'm from Portugal.

I always had great ears. Still, to this day, I never had otitis, no ear pain, nothing, zero, nada, niente...

A few months ago I bought some Bluetooth running in-ear headphones to use while jogging. Never got to use them much, and when I did use them it was mostly to listen to podcasts while hiking. I always use a fairly low volume FWIW.

Three weeks ago I was on vacation with my fiance and we went to enjoy sun near a swimming pool. There's always music on the swimming pool, a little loud. Since I dislike the kind of music they play there I brought my in-ear headphones and listened to my music. Since I could still hear the swimming pool speakers' music I went up on my headphones' volume quite a bit until I could only ear my music. I listened, I don't know, maybe at level 3 in that high volume. It wasn't uncomfortable.

Later that night I went with some friends to have a beer, when I came home my ears were ringing. I though nothing of it and went to sleep, when I was a teenager I used to have this sometimes when I attended night clubs and the ringing went one or two days later.

Days went by and the ringing persisted. Last week (17/09 - 14 days after the exposure) I went to the ear doctor. She analyzed my ears, removed a residual amount of cerumen (which she said was not the cause), performed some audio and vocal tests that came back perfect (100% hearing in both ears).
The doctor said not to worry and that the ringing should go away in a few weeks. She said to come back in a month if the symptoms persist.

Well, the ringing is annoying, but I can sleep perfectly. I've been using earplugs (both musician's earplugs and laser lites) when exposed to loud environments as I always did when riding my motorcycle. I'm not using any sort of earphones/headphones even at really low volume until this goes away.

There are days when the ringing is low, other days the ringing is louder and sometimes it pulsates. When I lay myself in bed at night I can hear some humming that makes my right ear feel full, like there's and industrial machine running outside the house. I was listening to this humming during the last 2/3 months. I've only associated it with tinnitus now after reading some people's experience here. I never referred it to the doctor.

Should I go back to the doctor?

Also, what about supplementation? Is it worth it? What should I beging with? Magnesium?

I just hope the ringing goes away

 

In the meanwhile, last Thursday I've started taking magnesium tabs and a few hours later the ringing changed. It may be coincidence or not, but it did. It looks like it lost strength. It started to sound like a toy firetruck siren when running low on batteries. Other times it sounds like a cricket.
Hope this is a sign of positive evolution. Fingers crossed!

Today I went into a 200 mile ride around the mountains with my motorcycling buddies to keep the focus out of my tinnitus... As I always did before tinnitus, I've used properly inserted laser lite foam earplugs. When we arrived home we grabbed some snack to eat. After that stupid me forgot to re-insert the laser earplugs. Ran my motorcycle for 300 yards until I've realized I forgot to insert the earplugs. Stopped right away and inserted them. My motorcycle has a stock exhaust, so nothing loud noises. However the droning sound effect made my tinnitus spike a little for the rest of the day. Hopefully it gets better again quick.

After reading some stories around here I feel blessed for being able to hear and sleep perfectly.

P.S.: I know this will sound dumb, but I have to ask this question... Can expanded foam earplug's pressure cause/increase tinnitus?

 

Not removing foam earplugs safely can cause tinnitus due to the suction. It can damage your eardrum or possibly the bones in your middle ear that are attached to the eardrum. Just make sure you know how to take them out properly and go slow. If I’m feeling discomfort taking mine out I stop and swallow a couple times to equalize some of that pressure.

 

Interesting. I always take them really slow. Didn't knew about the swallowing, thank you! I will definitely look it up!

 

Today was a quiet day, the ringing was low all day.

Stupid me went for a walk and decided it was a good idea to use headphones at low volume to listen to some podcasts along the way. Now ringing is back at record levels. Lesson learned!

 

Hi HZO,

Please be careful!
The first time I got tinnitus because of too much loud noise. Like you, my tinnitus became more and more quiet. After about 2,5 months I felt I was cured. I was very happy.
If I read your story I think you have a good chance on recovery.
But if you recover (which I hope you do). Chances are that you will forget about this and carry on with your life.
you will probably start to listen to music again and ride your motorcycle without earplugs and so on.
But there is one big difference! This time your ears will be much more vulnerable.
If you get careless the chance is very big that your tinnitus will come back again!
So please be careful and watch noise levels for the rest of your life. Even if you feel cured and invulnerable.
Good luck and I hope you get well!

 

Thank you @Walker123! Will definitely take care of my hearing.
I've always used earplugs while riding motorcycles, because I hate wind noise. I will have to develop a routine to never forget to place my earplugs that are stored in the motorcycle keychain. Even when just riding home from the café (2/3 km).

The headphones were just a reality check. I was at low volume and even then it was enough to aggravate my symptoms :/

 

Today the record-high ringing, after Monday's evening spike, lowered a bit. Still far away from pre-spike levels, but way more manageable.

Today I woke up to silence, then the ringing slowly built up again. It took 5 minutes or so... Hope this is a sign of progress. :fingers_crossed:

 

Wow I would love to wake up to silence! That’s a good sign right?

 

Don't get too comfortable about ear plugs and the package rating, NRR. Humans are not 'perfect'.

What is a noise reduction rating NRR? True NRR protection from noise (dB).

Subtract 7 from the NRR number
Divide by 2
Subtract the result from the marketed NRR 30
Example: NRR 30 – 7 = 23 / 2 = 11.5
Exposed to 100dB 100 – 11.5 = 88.5dB

 

I hope it is! Way better than waking up with ringing at full blast if you ask me

Where did you get that formula? Not doubting your advice, just curious...
BTW, seems like you have tinnitus since around the time I was born. I hope you have found some relief!

 

Your ringing will probably not go away if it's been nearly a month, so it's likely chronic till FX-322. However, it's likely to get quieter over a few years if you protect your ears against loud situations.

For supplements, try curcumin, magnesium, ginkgo biloba, and NAC. May be too late by now, but going on a course of prednisone or dexamethasone right after acoustic trauma is a wise decision.

Try pink noise therapy (get a high-quality .wav file here: https://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_pinknoise.php), play it for an hour everyday out of a good speaker.

Stop using headphones and earbuds for a year.

Good luck bro.

 

@weab00 Thanks for the advice. I'm still optimistic it will subside during the next weeks. Fingers crossed

 

It is a good question. I found many formulas but this one is from 3M using new EPA guidelines.

How to Use the Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) - 3M

 

Thanks for your thoughts. The spikes are the worse. It is like starting from day one. Sleeplessness, depression and how long (12-18 months) it takes to habituate. Hoping for better treatment or a cure for 30 years.

 

Really sounds like hell. At what age has it started? Do you have any clue?

 

Today is 4 weeks after the onset. Went to another ENT. She said that most likely my condition is chronic now. She prescribed 2x30mg of Deflazacort for the next 5 days, but advised me not expect to much out of it. Also prescribed Ginkgo biloba pills.
I'm a little sad, but a part of me still believes this will eventually go away. If it doesn't, then well... There are way worse medical conditions to live with.

 

I noticed a slight 'ring' at 41. No big deal. Visited an ENT in a major hospital and was told I had hearing loss. Nothing was mentioned about the cause. I assumed aging. After a year, at 42 years old, my ringing became loud and I went to the library to research the beast only to find out the ringing had a name 'tinnitus' and the major cause is noise exposure. The rest is history.

 

@HZO anymore improvements? There’s always success stories that people recover after months or years. I’m hoping that’s us! Still sucks though dealing with it day by day.

 

Hey @n_li808 thanks for cheering me up! Hope you're doing better too. I still believe it is us. Seems like my tinnitus is reacting to loud noises too. Let's see if steroids will do something for me.

 

@HZO I’m dealing... I’ve have good and bad days all week... it seems like sound triggers mine but like a very late reaction... it’s like almost the next day for the bad spike to come... immediately after noises it just changes tones and goes back to whatever it was.

I took prednisone 4-5th day after onset of tinnitus, not sure it did anything. Let me know how the ginkgo goes!

 

Hi HZO. Welcome to the club no one wants to enter. I am also from Portugal, near Lisbon. Hope you recover soon from tinnitus. I am a veteran with almost 23 years dealing with this. All the best to you.

 

I'm also suspicious that there is a relation between the noise I've listen the previous day to the level of ringing the next day. Also, mine also changes tone when exposed to loud-ish noises

If steroids are to work, do they work right away or will it take a few days?

 

It can take up to a week in my experience for steroids to work.

 

I hope to hell I'm not still going to be on this forum after 30 years of waiting for a cure.

But it shows how the human will can deal with adverse conditions.

Out of interest how much hearing loss did you have at 41 and how much do you have now?

 

@HZO why does such a condition exist

I'm not too sure about that... I read online it says 4-5 days into taking it?

 

I'm on my second day with Deflazacort and Ginkgo. Tinnitus seems worse, but don't know if it is related.

For what it is worth I've attached the audiogram I have done 13 days after onset, when I visited the first ENT. As you can see, there is no evident hearing loss. Red ink is right ear, blue ink is left ear.

Yesterday's ENT after seeing that audiogram was intrigued that I had these symptoms and no hearing loss. She suggested that I perform a new audiogram in 2/3 months because in her opinion my hearing loss may not have happened yet. Does this make any sense?

 

@HZO oh no, I hope it goes back down... I went to work without ear buds yesterday... I’m having a bad day today, I hope it doesn’t stay like this... ughhh.

I went to the ENT and had no hearing loss either. I’m trying to get another appointment in.

I think I read somewhere that tinnitus may cause hearing loss? But I’m not sure how accurate this source is, also the lady I spoke to at the ENT office also said “let’s check your hearing and make sure tinnitus didn’t cause hearing loss” so I’m not too sure what it means... my hearing has always been good so I hope it doesn’t affect it :/

 

@n_li808 I'm no expert, but I think it is actually the other way around. Hearing loss causes tinnitus.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, I'm currently at a restaurant where people are talking very loud. I know these phone apps are not very precise, but I wanted a ballpark figure about the noise going on here.

I'm here during the last 4 hours and 0 discomfort and tinnitus spike. Let's see tomorrow. If I spike I'll have to suspend my social life for some months. Let's see how it goes...

 

Your audiogram only goes up to 8 kHz. Noise-induced tinnitus is caused by high-frequency hearing loss usually from 12-20 kHz. Sometimes it’s not detectable at all if it’s due to synapse loss, and no audiogram will tell you that.

Basically audiograms suck in general. They’re an outdated tool from the 60’s and are still only used because of how easy they are to perform and read.

ENTs should really know this and it’s total incompetence that most don’t.

Ask for an extended audiogram next time.