15 ms·

Yep, I joined the tinnitus bandwagon in the beginning of the pandemic. I was locked up at home and neighbouring dogs wouldn't shut up all day, so I resorted to

Yep, I joined the tinnitus bandwagon in the beginning of the pandemic. I was locked up at home and neighbouring dogs wouldn't shut up all day, so I resorted to earplugs and here I am now. Surprisingly I met at least 5 other people with the same problem recently, and they were all told by doctors that it was due to stress and not earplugs/headphones. I call it BS.

nanidin 4y ago
Earplugs gave you tinnitus? Do you mean earbuds? Earplugs are typically hearing PPE.
- eliseumds 4y ago
  I've done pretty much everything I could imagine to try to identify the root cause, no doctor could give a reasonable diagnosis. My tinnitus started after a night with earplugs, but it could have been a coincidence since I also used noise-cancelled Sony headphones. Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - Zircom 4y ago
    Not to be rude but you ascribing an equal likelihood of causing tinnitus to one night of using earplugs(which BLOCK sound from your ears) vs presumably regular/sustained use of noise cancelling headphones(which BLAST sound into your ears) borders on ridiculousness and make me think you're just trolling..
    - Izkata 4y ago
      Earplugs go into the ear similar to earbuds, but are squishy and meant to be rolled thin so you can get them in a bit further (then they decompress halfway inside your ear and fill in the gaps). If you push them in too far I imagine they can damage the eardrum, which could cause tinnitus. After trying earplugs myself a few months ago, I decided it was too risky to sleep with them due to the pressure I felt in my ear (the one against the pillow) when I lay on my side.
      - AngryData 4y ago
        You would have to push your ear plugs in so far that you couldn't take them out to get anywhere near the eardrum though.
    - Panoramix 4y ago
      My tinnitus started after a night out with earplugs. Basically the earplugs pushed wax buildup deep into my eardrum. It took quite a while to remove that wax, and while that improved things a lot, the tinnitus stayed after that.
    - Khelavaster 4y ago
      Noise cancelling headphones definitively promote tinnitus
  - krackers 4y ago
    Interesting, I've seen the claim of NC induced tinnitus a few other times. In terms of noise induced hearing loss it the canceling should not be an issue (since in the worst case of a complete misprediction you get only a doubling in intensity which), but since no canceling is perfect maybe the residual ends up adversely affecting the auditory pathways at a neurological level somehow.
  - writeslowly 4y ago
    Maybe you first noticed it while using earplugs (since they’d block out basically everything else) and now it’s become difficult to ignore? I had something similar happen with noticing floaters in my eyes constantly over the pandemic
- ivanche 4y ago
  Anecdata, but another case here. I wear them approx. 6 months per year because of knocking heating sounds. Anyway, doctor recommended to do ear cleansing once a year and it helped, maybe 80% of the ringing sound is gone. Earplugs caused all the grease to end up compressed and deep in the ear canal. After a while it blocked signal transmission through the auditory nerve enough so that my brain thinks there's no audio input and it starts compensating with these imaginary ringing sounds.
- burntoutfire 4y ago
  Earplugs can give you tinnitus because they provide almost complete silence, in which your brain can latch on to the tinniest pre-existing tinnitus sound that was already there (which is pretty common in the current era of hearing-damaging equipment and environments), but you didn't notice it before. Once the brain notices it, it's basically impossible to unhear it. That's my theory at least.
helloooooooo 4y ago
I got pretty bad tinnitus due to stress induced bruxism. Identifying the source of the stress that caused it was difficult, but it turned out it was video games! So I stopped playing them so much, and the tinnitus went away
dylan604 4y ago
Of all of the years as a DJ using headphones in loud settings, all of the concerts, all of the events with loud amplified sound systems, etc, I was able to avoid tinnitus. It wasn't until I was driving and was t-boned in my side of the car with a side impact airbag going off. I walked away from the car with nothing more than a few scratches from flying glass, this lovely ringing in the ear, and this lousy t-shirt.
- sebow 4y ago
  As a concert attender I probably recall the event that was the most likely cause which gave me tinnitus. It was an EDM concert where the front speakers sounded very 'rough' and also the stupid decision on my (& my friends) part to stay as close in the front as possible, for more than 1 hour. I think close impacts from airwaves (crashes, staying close to speakers, etc) are the most popular cause, as listening 'responsibly' on headphones did not gave me tinnitus before, nor did my usual edm concert attendance (excepting obviously the following couple of days). The eardrum can recover but once it's been 'cracked' remedies are very rare (if they exist at all, haven't researched).

nanidin 4y ago

Earplugs gave you tinnitus? Do you mean earbuds? Earplugs are typically hearing PPE.

eliseumds 4y ago
I've done pretty much everything I could imagine to try to identify the root cause, no doctor could give a reasonable diagnosis. My tinnitus started after a night with earplugs, but it could have been a coincidence since I also used noise-cancelled Sony headphones. Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Zircom 4y ago
  Not to be rude but you ascribing an equal likelihood of causing tinnitus to one night of using earplugs(which BLOCK sound from your ears) vs presumably regular/sustained use of noise cancelling headphones(which BLAST sound into your ears) borders on ridiculousness and make me think you're just trolling..
  - Izkata 4y ago
    Earplugs go into the ear similar to earbuds, but are squishy and meant to be rolled thin so you can get them in a bit further (then they decompress halfway inside your ear and fill in the gaps). If you push them in too far I imagine they can damage the eardrum, which could cause tinnitus. After trying earplugs myself a few months ago, I decided it was too risky to sleep with them due to the pressure I felt in my ear (the one against the pillow) when I lay on my side.
    - AngryData 4y ago
      You would have to push your ear plugs in so far that you couldn't take them out to get anywhere near the eardrum though.
  - Panoramix 4y ago
    My tinnitus started after a night out with earplugs. Basically the earplugs pushed wax buildup deep into my eardrum. It took quite a while to remove that wax, and while that improved things a lot, the tinnitus stayed after that.
  - Khelavaster 4y ago
    Noise cancelling headphones definitively promote tinnitus
- krackers 4y ago
  Interesting, I've seen the claim of NC induced tinnitus a few other times. In terms of noise induced hearing loss it the canceling should not be an issue (since in the worst case of a complete misprediction you get only a doubling in intensity which), but since no canceling is perfect maybe the residual ends up adversely affecting the auditory pathways at a neurological level somehow.
- writeslowly 4y ago
  Maybe you first noticed it while using earplugs (since they’d block out basically everything else) and now it’s become difficult to ignore? I had something similar happen with noticing floaters in my eyes constantly over the pandemic
ivanche 4y ago
Anecdata, but another case here. I wear them approx. 6 months per year because of knocking heating sounds. Anyway, doctor recommended to do ear cleansing once a year and it helped, maybe 80% of the ringing sound is gone. Earplugs caused all the grease to end up compressed and deep in the ear canal. After a while it blocked signal transmission through the auditory nerve enough so that my brain thinks there's no audio input and it starts compensating with these imaginary ringing sounds.
burntoutfire 4y ago
Earplugs can give you tinnitus because they provide almost complete silence, in which your brain can latch on to the tinniest pre-existing tinnitus sound that was already there (which is pretty common in the current era of hearing-damaging equipment and environments), but you didn't notice it before. Once the brain notices it, it's basically impossible to unhear it. That's my theory at least.

helloooooooo 4y ago

I got pretty bad tinnitus due to stress induced bruxism. Identifying the source of the stress that caused it was difficult, but it turned out it was video games! So I stopped playing them so much, and the tinnitus went away

dylan604 4y ago

Of all of the years as a DJ using headphones in loud settings, all of the concerts, all of the events with loud amplified sound systems, etc, I was able to avoid tinnitus. It wasn't until I was driving and was t-boned in my side of the car with a side impact airbag going off. I walked away from the car with nothing more than a few scratches from flying glass, this lovely ringing in the ear, and this lousy t-shirt.

sebow 4y ago
As a concert attender I probably recall the event that was the most likely cause which gave me tinnitus. It was an EDM concert where the front speakers sounded very 'rough' and also the stupid decision on my (& my friends) part to stay as close in the front as possible, for more than 1 hour. I think close impacts from airwaves (crashes, staying close to speakers, etc) are the most popular cause, as listening 'responsibly' on headphones did not gave me tinnitus before, nor did my usual edm concert attendance (excepting obviously the following couple of days). The eardrum can recover but once it's been 'cracked' remedies are very rare (if they exist at all, haven't researched).