Tinnitus
 

About three weeks ago I got an ear infection. When it cleared up I noticed ringing in that ear. I thought it might go away, but it hasn't. I have tinnitus in my left ear.

Tinnitus is listed in several threads as a possible result from blasts, etc., but we haven't covered what you might do to mitigate the symptoms. I've noticed that sitting outside helps, as the sound of the waves drowns out the ringing. Unfortunately, I only have 6 more months of living by the beach. Internet research suggests everything from B-12 to Gingko biloba to acupuncture.

From what I understand, it cannot be cured. So -- since I intend to live many more years -- any advice on how to deal with this?

I am no audiologist and I hate to be the one to tell you this, but if you actually have tinnitus, it may come and go, but you have it for life.

I have it as well and I have good days and bad. As long as it does not interfere with your sleeping, you are not too bad off.

Make sure that it is documented in your medical records.

TR

I've only had one night so far that was really bad. I'd had a very stressful day and I think that made it worse.

Will do.

I’ve had it for as long as I can remember. It’s really only a problem at night. Over the years I’ve used soft music and sound machines. They work fine, but I found that a small fan works best for me.

Tinnitus is annoying, but no more so than wearing glasses.

Pat

I have had it for many years and have found no one or nothing to relieve it.

I have noticed it more since I have retired and moved up here where it is very quite. Now this can be a good thing if you are in to crickets, but it is a little weird hearing crickets when the snow is falling. Now you can also put it to good use when hubby tells you something with which you would rather not deal. "Honey, did you tell me that? I'm sorry but sometimes your soft and soothing voice coincides with the same frequency as my tinnitus and I just don't hear you". Spoken ,of course, in one of those sweet and unassuming mellow tones you all seem to be able to muster at the appropriate times.

I used to tell my young troops who had never heard a shot fired in anger, when we pulled those ambush patrols along the DMZ in Korea in the late 70s, that when the crickets and frogs stopped making noise in the rice paddies then we had visitors coming. Now I have to rely on other senses in order to detect the Phrench and Indians coming down from Canada:D

Or is it Memorex?
 

The noise in my ears is a steady hum, like standing near high voltage lines. The Doc said it was due to hearing loss and didn't mention tinnitus and nothing could be done. Ideas? Dave

I also use a small fan, it's "white noise" for me and find I now can't sleep without one running.

I've had tinnitus as long as I can remember. I'm sure it stems from being deaf in one ear. It does have it's humurous side. While in the army I thought about becoming a heliocopter pilot. During the hearing test they put in the room with the earphones and told me to press a button when I heard a high pitched sound. Wanting to get it right I was pressing the button each time I heard a high pitched sound. After about five minutes of this the technician opened the door to tell me he had not started the test yet. :D

Although it's been rumored, I only heard noises, not voices. :D

It looks like I'm in some great company here. ;)

Now this is what I'm talking about! Thanks for the advice, Sir. I'll give it a trial run today to see how it works. :D

This is a thread that I find very valuable. I did my hearing test at the MEPS a year ago when trying to get an age waiver for the Corps. The Navy docs waived it. Could not get an age waiver so I went to the Army looking for 11B.
The Army docs would NOT waive it, even tho the CMO had recommended it and had 3 consults from audiologists that stated the hearing loss due to tinnitus was not bad enough to keep me from serving and wouldn't be a problem.

(I did the same thing with the buttons;) )

Now I have been told that the NG does not send waiver requests to USAREC and to go the NG/SF route. Fingers crossed. I dont know why they ask for consults (3) and never read them.

Great site, I searched for this one. And posted my intro and filled out profile.

If I were you, I would do some research and see what is said on this site about the selfishness of age waivers and the rationale for having age limits.

TR

http://audiotools.com/ordabok_h.html
Psychoacoustic Masking
Actually a set of techniques used to "fool" the ear or rather to get around various shortcomings in devices or techniques by exploiting certain defects, non-linearity’s and other abnormalities in how your ears work and how the brain makes use of audio information. The simplest and the most commonly seen technique is to make use of the integration tendencies of your ears, for instance you cannot detect distortions that are less than 1ms since the ear will simply ignore them and integrate what became before and after into one distortion free sound, so if a distortion can be shaped into extremely sharp transients by concentrating the energy, you will not hear it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoacoustics
In some situations an otherwise clearly audible sound can be masked by another sound. For example, conversation at a bus stop can be completely impossible if a loud bus is driving past. This phenomenon is called masking. A weaker sound is masked if it is made inaudible in the presence of a louder sound. The masking phenomenon occurs because any loud sound will distort the Absolute Threshold of Hearing, making quieter, otherwise perceptible sounds inaudible.

The reason that fans, soft music and sound machines work to reduce the effects of tinnitus is because of the phenomenon of psychoacoustic masking. The ear acts as an integrator, that is it has a amplitude “sweet spot” and noises below this threshold are inaudible. Noises above the threshold raise it.

The ringing you hear when no other audible source is present is due to damage to the inner ear. This sound is real, not imagined, but is very low level. Any source that is 10 dB louder (10 dB is a 10 times power level increase and also the amount of increase required for most people to detect a change) will usually cause you to not recognize or be annoyed by the ringing.

Regards from a fellow sufferer,
Hank

TR:

You are fortunate - my tinnitus is so bad I have not only a fan but background music going and it still takes 15mg Ambien to get to sleep.

Just to cover all bases
 

Ird - were you taking an antibiotic to clear up the infection? (some ATBs have that as a side effect)

In the population that frequents this discussion board, tinnitus is most likely a result of hearing damage from exposure to loud noise. :D 90% of the time, this is the primary cause.

However, it may also be a side effect from certain medications or substances, so this is something to rule out before you let the ringing drive you off the roof of a building.
Aspirin, other salicylates (I don't know if oil of wintergreen would cause tinnitus, but it's a salicylate, so I'll mention it here)
Other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
Loop diuretics (furosemide, others)
Benzodiazepines (valium, xanax, others)
Zoloft
Calcium channel blockers
Chloroquine
Fluoroquinolones (cipro, levaquin, avelox)
Tetracycline, erythromycin
PPIs, such as nexium, prilosec, protonix

There is such a thing as "objective tinnitus", which can be heard by the examiner as well as the patient. This can be caused by vascular abnormalities (carotid artery stenosis, AV shunt) or some other issues. The upside is that this type may be surgically correctable.


'zilla