Why Some People Have Loud Tinnitus While Others Don't?

[ThomasC]

There is a correlation between the degree of hearing loss and the severity of loudness but it seems there is way more than that.

My brother is a guitarist player, he also used to listen loud music through headphones: he has mild tinnitus (and no measured hearing loss).

My mother lost 25 % of her hearing (25 % of her hearing in the 0-8 kHz range) and as she ages her hearing worsens: she has mild tinnitus.

My father has some hearing problems too: mild to moderate but intermittent tinnitus.

Some people have good hearing profiles, their tinnitus is not noise induced but it's loud.

It's bugging me, I'm trying to figure out what may impact tinnitus loudness. Any idea?

 

[MattS]

This is a great question.

Sadly, I don't think the research community yet has any idea. In fact, I'm not positive that the research community has yet even fully asked the question!

The answer to this question would likely get us about 2/3rds of the way to understanding the actual mechanisms underlying tinnitus. One day, no doubt!

 

[JohnAdams]

Not what practices, foods, or medicines, but the actual mechanism? Why do some people have faint tinnitus, and others very loud? What is the exact reason? If it is the amount of hearing loss then why doesn't hearing loss correlate to tinnitus very well? We know there is hearing loss without tinnitus, so what is actually causing the loudness level discrepancy?

 

[Michael B]

I have tinnitus on both sides with the left side having the bad tinnitus. That said, my hearing is better on my left side than my right.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

Two good articles on cause and highest biomedical reasons for loudness.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2686891/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4134893/

 

[Jaysterk]

I have tinnitus on both sides with the left side having the bad tinnitus. That said, my hearing is better on my left side than my right.

Same... exactly the same.