Tinnitus with and without Hearing Loss

[Dominic1955]

Is there difference in habituation between tinnitus with hearing loss and tinnitus without hearing loss? Can anyone reply ?

 

[glynis]

Tinnitus with out hearing loss has a chance of going and with hearing loss it will most likely stay and for some people they will need hearing aids to cope and help take the edge off their tinnitus.
As to who would habituate better ?
I think it would be the same for both and depending on your threshold and how much you can tolerate and the impact it has on your life and if live on your own or had to give up work and the support you get.....lots of love glynis

 

[Mdsouza]

I do hv ear AIDS it really helped lessen my T. I do not get good sleep
Due to noise at night can I hv any suggestion pls

 

[Telis]

If you have loud T and a lot of hearing loss then yeah it's pretty obvious, getting used to this is a nightmare, makes it hard if not impossible to mask or hear any kind of silence.

 

[devonlee]

Since getting hearing aids I feel that my tinnitus is getting worse. I notice it a lot more. I used to go most of the morning just noticing it once or twice. Now it seems to always be loud and nagging. Trying to get used to it but it's not easy.

 

[fhs]

I think T without hearing loss is usually milder and less noticeable because it's easier to hear ambient sounds.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18317787

According to the study people with T and without hearing loss are much better off. Masking levels are much lower for those without hearing loss.

 

[GregCA]

Since getting hearing aids I feel that my tinnitus is getting worse. I notice it a lot more. I used to go most of the morning just noticing it once or twice. Now it seems to always be loud and nagging. Trying to get used to it but it's not easy.

Do you take them off for the night? and if so, is your T better when you wake up?

 

[Kendall]

Since getting hearing aids I feel that my tinnitus is getting worse. I notice it a lot more. I used to go most of the morning just noticing it once or twice. Now it seems to always be loud and nagging. Trying to get used to it but it's not easy.

I read that hearing aids help make T less noticable, it sucks its not helping lessen it for you. I will need hearing aids in the near future, i have mild to moderate hearing loss along with T in both ears.

 

[devonlee]

@GregCA I do take them off at night. Prior to hearing aids, my tinnitus was better in the morning. Since getting hearing aids my tinnitus seems to be the same volume all day long. It used to get progressively louder throughout the day. Now it's just loud all the time I feel.

@Kendall If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I'm 27 and work as a nurse in a hospital. I've picked the brains of a few of the general medicine doctors here and they all say I'm too young to have hearing loss - I kind of agree. I would say that my loud noise exposure would be less than the average person. As mentioned, my work environment isn't particularly loud. I used to blast my music as a teenager, and maybe too much in my car when I was 20, 21 but I feel like it's still not the cause of my hearing loss/ tinnitus. The main reason I say that is because the hearing loss is bilateral and equal. I feel like if it was damage from loud noise exposure, it would be more prominent on one side.

 

[devonlee]

I will also add that I opted to go without a white noise generator in my hearing aids. "Background noise" has always been annoying to me.

 

[dgray]

Since getting hearing aids I feel that my tinnitus is getting worse. I notice it a lot more. I used to go most of the morning just noticing it once or twice. Now it seems to always be loud and nagging. Trying to get used to it but it's not easy.

Hi, I have hearing aids and experienced the same effect when I first started wearing the devices. Mine was that they weren't adjusted properly. However, I recall you saying how well the aids worked in reation to hearing - the doctor may have increased the amplification too much. Just a thought - God Bless

 

[devonlee]

Hi, I have hearing aids and experienced the same effect when I first started wearing the devices. Mine was that they weren't adjusted properly. However, I recall you saying how well the aids worked in reation to hearing - the doctor may have increased the amplification too much. Just a thought - God Bless

That makes a lot of sense actually. I find myself turning them down a lot at home where it is quiet. I almost never turn them up.
Another issue I'm having is that they are causing pain in my right ear. I think the dome is too big but I live really far away from my audiologist so I'm hoping I can go somewhere to purchase an x-small one to see if that helps the right ear. It seems a little bit swollen, that's how it feels, so that could be the cause of the increased tinnitus too maybe.

PS I've been using q-tips to take any ear wax off of the hearing aids, is that how people normally clean them?

 

[GregCA]

PS I've been using q-tips to take any ear wax off of the hearing aids, is that how people normally clean them?

Mine came with a little brush for that purpose.

 

[Alue]

I think T without hearing loss is usually milder and less noticeable because it's easier to hear ambient sounds.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18317787

According to the study people with T and without hearing loss are much better off. Masking levels are much lower for those without hearing loss.

I beg to differ. I have no (detectable) hearing loss yet I cannot mask my tinnitus. My tinnitus matching levels (DBSL) were pretty high too. Masking and matching levels are kind of meaningless unless you determine the sensory level first. If a person has a 30 db sensory level on their audiogram and they match their tinnitus to a 40db tone, it's still quieter than a person that has a 0 db sensory level that matches their tinnitus to a 30db tone. The same is true for masking volumes.

I think I recall reading a study that seemed to have the opposite results as that one. I don't think there is a huge relationship between the two.

 

[devonlee]

Someone once commented "tinnitus is hearing loss" and while I disagree with that statement, I think about it all the time.

 

[slipware]

Since getting hearing aids I feel that my tinnitus is getting worse. I notice it a lot more. I used to go most of the morning just noticing it once or twice. Now it seems to always be loud and nagging. Trying to get used to it but it's not easy.

Yes, me too, I have reactive tinnitus, and distorted hearing through my ear. The hearing aid just makes hearing distortion louder, and T worse.

 

[devonlee]

Yes, me too, I have reactive tinnitus, and distorted hearing through my ear. The hearing aid just makes hearing distortion louder, and T worse.

My hearing has improved a lot. I didn't even realize how much I couldn't hear prior to getting the hearing aids. The tinnitus is worse though and I feel like new sounds are coming now.

 

[fhs]

I beg to differ. I have no (detectable) hearing loss yet I cannot mask my tinnitus. My tinnitus matching levels (DBSL) were pretty high too. Masking and matching levels are kind of meaningless unless you determine the sensory level first.

That's insane that someone can get tinnitus with perfect hearing and not be able mask it. Did you happen to check and see if each ear can hear tones like 50hz and 10khz at low volumes?

 

[GregCA]

If a person has a 30 db sensory level on their audiogram and they match their tinnitus to a 40db tone, it's still quieter than a person that has a 0 db sensory level that matches their tinnitus to a 30db tone.

This is a bit confusing to me. What you see on your audiogram is usually called a threshold.
The sensory level (in dB) is the perceived sound level AFTER the threshold has been subtracted, because that's exactly that: it's what you perceive (you don't perceive any sound up to your threshold - by definition).
In other words, if you have a hearing loss of 40 dB at your T frequency, and the audiologist cranks up the volume on the T matching sound, you will not hear anything until s/he crosses the 40 dB bar.
At that point you start hearing and determine what "matches" your T volume. If the audiologist keeps cranking up to 60 dB and you say "that's it", then the dB SL measured is 20 dB, because that's what you perceive, given your 40 dB loss.

See here.

 

[Alue]

This is a bit confusing to me. What you see on your audiogram is usually called a threshold.
The sensory level (in dB) is the perceived sound level AFTER the threshold has been subtracted, because that's exactly that: it's what you perceive (you don't perceive any sound up to your threshold - by definition).
In other words, if you have a hearing loss of 40 dB at your T frequency, and the audiologist cranks up the volume on the T matching sound, you will not hear anything until s/he crosses the 40 dB bar.
At that point you start hearing and determine what "matches" your T volume. If the audiologist keeps cranking up to 60 dB and you say "that's it", then the dB SL measured is 20 dB, because that's what you perceive, given your 40 dB loss.

See here.

Yes, I know I've had it done a number of times. Maybe I didn't phrase that well. What I meant to say is it's pretty obvious why someone with hearing loss would require a higher masking volume if it's not being adjusted for sensory level. Now if you adjusted that masking volume to their sensory level would it be that much different?

That's insane that someone can get tinnitus with perfect hearing and not be able mask it. Did you happen to check and see if each ear can hear tones like 50hz and 10khz at low volumes?

It's called hidden hearing loss. It's been talked about many times here on the forum. You can have a normal audiogram but still have fairly significant hearing damage. The connections, the synapses, can still be transmitting sound, but the signal is noisy. You can still hear the tones, but there is a loss in fidelity. That being said, I do have some hearing loss in the ultra high frequencies.

There are many people here on this forum that have loud tinnitus with no detectable hearing loss. I have spoken with several neurotologists that work in tinnitus research, and typically when there is tinnitus there is some amount of hearing loss (we'll call it hearing damage), but our methods of detecting that damage are inadequate. The level of tinnitus isn't directly related to the level of hearing loss. As you probably know some people can have severe hearing loss and have no tinnitus. Tinnitus is more of a brain response than an ear thing.

 

[Sam Bridge]

@Kendall[/USER] If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I'm 27 and work as a nurse in a hospital. I've picked the brains of a few of the general medicine doctors here and they all say I'm too young to have hearing loss - I kind of agree. I would say that my loud noise exposure would be less than the average person. As mentioned, my work environment isn't particularly loud. I used to blast my music as a teenager, and maybe too much in my car when I was 20, 21 but I feel like it's still not the cause of my hearing loss/ tinnitus. The main reason I say that is because the hearing loss is bilateral and equal. I feel like if it was damage from loud noise exposure, it would be more prominent on one side.

Hi Devon im also 27 and what that doctor said about being too young is stupid. You can get hearing loss at any age if your exposed to loud sounds regularly. My right ear is proof of that, noise induced mild hearing loss at 3-4khz. Not saying your loss is because of the loud exposure you mention but it could be, i know mine is from all the concerts and earphone usage i exposed myself too.

 

[GregCA]

Yes, I know I've had it done a number of times. Maybe I didn't phrase that well. What I meant to say is it's pretty obvious why someone with hearing loss would require a higher masking volume if it's not being adjusted for sensory level.

Yes I suspected it was a phrasing issue.

Now if you adjusted that masking volume to their sensory level would it be that much different?

I guess what you mean is that a masking sound of 20 dB for a person with no loss is equivalent to a masking sound of 50 dB for a person with a 30 dB loss.
Both of them hear their T at 20 dB: they experience the same perception.

 

[Foncky]

I've picked the brains of a few of the general medicine doctors here and they all say I'm too young to have hearing loss - I kind of agree.

Age has nothing to do with it. I'm 30 and have huge hearing loss at 4kHz and above.

You have to get back your audiogram (ask them to send it by email, it's yours) to understand what's going on. If you don't know how to read it, post it here.

 

[GregCA]

Age has nothing to do with it. I'm 30 and have huge hearing loss at 4kHz and above.

Isn't that due to acoustic trauma though?

Age has a well known effect on hearing loss (i.e. presbycusis). Not all hearing loss is related to aging (I'm a prime example of that), but our hearing apparatus certainly gets worse as we get old. There are even standard curves that determine the "average loss based on your age" to know if you follow the "normal degradation" or not.
I think this is what @devonlee refers to when the doctors say she's too young for hearing loss. It probably means that statistically speaking, she's too young for "age-related hearing loss". They're not thinking about all the other issues that can cause hearing loss (which she clearly has), because she hasn't mentioned any trauma/disease/history of loud exposure/etc.

Keep in mind that there are always outliers. I'm sure there are people whose "ear aging" goes much faster than others, and the other way around. It's not surprising to find people in this very forum with "more than average" hearing loss.

 

[Foncky]

Ok you're right !

Yes mine is due to acoustic trauma but not only. Many people exposed themselves way more than I did, and they have no obvious hearing loss. I was just very prone to it. Devonlee might have started it years ago without noticing, when she was a teenager for instance.

 

[Alue]

Age related hearing loss and noise related hearing loss typically have different patterns.

 

[stophiss]

Age related hearing loss and noise related hearing loss typically have different patterns.

Alue,
Could you take a moment to summarize the difference in these patterns?
Thanks

 

[Kendall]

@devonlee i'm 40. Most of my hearing loss is from cholesteatoma and loud noise exposure.

 

[devonlee]

@Kendall @GregCA What the doctor meant, I think, when he said I was too young to have hearing loss was based on my lack of loud noise exposure. That said, as previously mentioned, maybe my years of going to night clubs are to blame, even if it is 4+ years since I last went to one. All I can hope now, if it is in fact hearing loss due to loud noise exposure, is that the progression is slow so long as I protect my hearing.

FYI: I also stopped wearing the hearing aids. They were making the tinnitus astronomically worse so for now I balance loss of hearing vs. tinnitus, basically as I was before. Also finally got my ENT appointment but it's not until May 10th.....

 

[devonlee]

Alue,
Could you take a moment to summarize the difference in these patterns?
Thanks

I would appreciate this as well @Alue