This blows my mind, but it's not surprising (tinnitus prevalence)

[Champ]

http://chronicle.com/blogs/arts/study-spotlights-music-students-hearing-risks/28015

Only 15 percent of students surveyed agreed with the sentence, "I have difficulty hearing." However, when asked about tinnitus, 54 percent reported occasional ringing or buzzing, with 5 percent reporting "frequently occurring tinnitus." Tinnitus, the authors note "is often a sign of transient damage to the auditory system from excessive noise exposure." Previous studies, the authors note, "have shown that over half of students majoring in music display declines in hearing over a three-year period, suggesting that some students in this study who perceive no difficulty hearing may actually have reduced audiometric thresholds."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/8055470/Hearing-loss-high-among-musicians

More than 60 per cent of adult orchestral musicians are breaking their best instrument - their hearing.

In the most comprehensive audiological study of orchestral musicians, 60.7 per cent of those aged 27-66 had hearing loss, as well as 22 per cent of those aged 18-38, and 16 per cent in child musicians aged 8-12.

 

[Per]

We all loose hearing by age and there are so many people with severe T&H that have no significant hearing loss. If you look closely at MRI scans a majority of people have all sorts of minor damages to their physique that they don't really suffer by. It's just there and you will find it if you look for it. So how many people with hearing loss and T has T because of the hearing loss? That's impossible to say but I think we can agree that some medical professions tend to conclude with hearing loss being the cause of T in way too many cases. They don't know how long the hearing loss have been there, for some T can come decades after hearing loss due to other life altering things. 95% of all humans have a weaker heart when they are 75 compared to when they were 21. So does this prove that age alone creates heart attacks? No. It proves that its very common to have better heart at 18 compared to 70. Should we then conclude with a weak heart being the cause of all deaths? Well, we could if we were ENT's

 

[Relic Hunter]

I would say that the majority of people here in the USA have never had an hearing test. If it were possible to give everyone an audiogram I believe that the percent of people with hearing loss would be far greater than expected regardless of ones lifestyle. In my opinion due to the noisy environment we live in and the ageing population here in the USA I would venture to say that 50 percent of the population would show hearing loss.

According to reports I have read about 10 percent of the population here have tinnitus. I believe that if accurate figures could be obtained it would then show that the majority of people who have hearing loss do not have tinnitus or should I say chronic bothersome tinnitus.

Without accurate and complete data all we can say for sure is that the majority of people with chronic tinnitus have some level of hearing loss.

Sometime ago on another forum I asked at what DB level of hearing loss did you fist notice your tinnitus.
Answers ranged from no hearing loss to 95DB of loss. It is clear that tinnitus does just not begin at any certain level of hearing loss or with any hearing loss. It just begins.

In my own case I had 30 to 45DB high Frez. loss 42 years ago but no tinnitus. My hearing worsened to about 65DB loss and has remained stable for the last 20 years. I may have had tinnitus then but it was so mild I ignored it. It was only about 4 years ago it went ballistic and with no change in my hearing. What turned up the volume.

 

[Per]

@Relic Hunter,

That proves my point. T is so complex and involves the central nervous system so the direct connection between T and hearing loss is not easy to define. Cause as you write it's possible to have hearing loss with no T and even increasingly bad hearing and still no T. WHEN did the T occur is a more interesting question to be raised. When, why, if and to what extent etc. It's so easy for people dealing with statistics to skip the decimals, they tend to think in pairs. "we found out that you have a hearing loss so now we know why you have T." That is far too simple.

 

[meeruf]

@Relic Hunter,

That proves my point. T is so complex and involves the central nervous system so the direct connection between T and hearing loss is not easy to define. Cause as you write it's possible to have hearing loss with no T and even increasingly bad hearing and still no T. WHEN did the T occur is a more interesting question to be raised. When, why, if and to what extent etc. It's so easy for people dealing with statistics to skip the decimals, they tend to think in pairs. "we found out that you have a hearing loss so now we know why you have T." That is far too simple.

Mine occurred after a sudden hearing-loss when diving. Whats interesting is that the ringing has gone much lower, but my hearing have stayed more or less the same. @Relic Hunter says he has a 65db hearing-loss and severe tinnitus. I have a 90db hearing-loss but almost no tinnitus anymore. My tinnitus don't mach my hearing-loss either.

My neighbor is severe deaf in one ear. But he have no tinnitus. He is 50 years old and have played in orchestra all is life. Makes you wonder..

 

[erik]

Hmm I have no hearing loss up to 14K and I have sometimes really loud T......Per makes good point that T is very complex and much more than just hearing related.

 

[gary]

@Relic Hunter,

That proves my point. T is so complex and involves the central nervous system so the direct connection between T and hearing loss is not easy to define. Cause as you write it's possible to have hearing loss with no T and even increasingly bad hearing and still no T. WHEN did the T occur is a more interesting question to be raised. When, why, if and to what extent etc. It's so easy for people dealing with statistics to skip the decimals, they tend to think in pairs. "we found out that you have a hearing loss so now we know why you have T." That is far too simple.

That's exactly what my first ENT told me. Tinnitus is so much more complicated, even a lot of people in the otic medical field working independently, have so many different opinions. To bad they they can't/won't work under the same roof, so to speak...

I have learned more about T here, than any of the numerous Dr's I have seen.

 

[t-man]

The thing is, we don't really live in a world that is any more noisy. Throughout century people worked in industrial factories, fought world wars and been to some of the loudest rock concerts in existence, so why are we hearing about it being so prevalent now?

 

[Per]

@t-man,

The world is more noisy today because it's more constant noise, at the same time it's become more stressful, that's a bad combo. Mobile phones, portable music players, home entertainment systems, larger cities, frequent flying, more activity in general and no where to hide. As I have sad numerous times here on this forum, I believe T is far more about HOW the auditory system is treating these noises together with the stress and trauma of always being exposed to them, as it is about actual physical hearing loss. It's about the science of neurology.