Tinnitus Gone When I Put In Earplugs? What Is This?

[sotwell]

I have had your typical run of the mill tinnitus for about a year and pretty much can not tell it's there. This is something new. Woke up about 3 am a few weeks back and left ear had a high pitch that would stop and start almost like morse code. Saw doc, was put on Prednisone which stopped the ringing.

Now what I have is I can hear the pitch with outside noises. If I type on my keyboard, I hear a ting with each key stroke. If I am watching TV voices have a ting on the end of them. Sometimes this gets excited but normally chills out.

If I put in a earplug I can almost completely eliminate the ting.

ENT said ears and hearing are fine. He said maybe it's spasms that will subside at some point.

I did notice that my temple is sore above this ear, not sure if that is related, or it could be stress related.

Anyone else have something similar?

 

[Earing]

Do you clench or grind you teeth? That can cause tinnitus and can also cause the sore muscles around the temple.

 

[Jr_time]

I have a ringing in both ear and a buzzing on my left ear. If I wear earplugs the ringing gets louder due to the earplugs, but the buzzing stops. I wonder why this happens.

 

[Earing]

I have a ringing in both ear and a buzzing on my left ear. If I wear earplugs the ringing gets louder due to the earplugs, but the buzzing stops. I wonder why this happens.

You may have dysacusis. From Google:

Dysacusis is a hearing impairment characterized by difficulty in processing details of sound due to distortion in frequency or intensity rather than primarily a loss of the ability to perceive sound. The term is sometimes used to describe pain or discomfort due to sound, a condition also known as auditory dysaesthesia.

So the earplugs are probably lowering the input level, thus eliminating the distortion.

 

[Digital Doc]

I notice that when I first put in earplugs, my T is louder, and then a few minutes later the T almost goes away. My theory is that my brain just tunes out the T when I put the earplugs in, and gets bored with the noise of it when it lacks the other stimuli. I use this as when I sleep with the earplugs, when I wake up in the morning my T is the quietest it is for the day.

 

[AndrewW]

Similar experience here.

My "baseline" is a static/hiss which seems to react to noise of specific types/volumes to become a tone. It's not particularly loud, but sits on top of other noises in a relatively quiet environment (e.g., office with window open, TV) which is really annoying.

I've noticed that wearing earplugs or being in a very quiet place actually causes the tinnitus to become quieter (after a while), or at least it loses its angry metallic edge. Initially with earplugs the noise is almost gone, however at night when trying to sleep it can gradually come back and prevent me from sleeping.

Despite wearing earplugs to sleep I am trying to ween myself off on advice from knowledgable members of this forum. Easier said than done though, as I've slept with them for over 15 years. The idea of giving my brain nothing but tinnitus to listen to for 8+ hours doesn't seem like a good idea, especially given that certain types of sound therapy during the day seem to help.

 

[Jr_time]

You may have dysacusis. From Google:

Dysacusis is a hearing impairment characterized by difficulty in processing details of sound due to distortion in frequency or intensity rather than primarily a loss of the ability to perceive sound. The term is sometimes used to describe pain or discomfort due to sound, a condition also known as auditory dysaesthesia.

So the earplugs are probably lowering the input level, thus eliminating the distortion.

Thank you. So this is what gives my buzzing sound?

 

[Vukis]

Same here, all this crap started 2-3 weeks ago after stressfull week. Have found here some stories and for 80% people this feeling gone after 2-12 months, but for some it left permanent. How I understood this is dysacusis. Now I'm reacting with additional whistling sound to these sounds: traffic noises, fan, refrigerator, air conditioning and etc. Last week stuck in my head additional pedestrians traffic light signal. I thought that maybe I'm already crazy, but this is dysacusis, I need to be patient and wait. I don't need to use earplugs and I hope this will disappear. I don't know what caused this: in July tried one week med gabapentin, at 29'July had tmj mri, or maybe stress.