Sqad...

[237SJ]

What are your thoughts on tinnitus - does it ever get better on it`s own?

[Old_Geezer]

Depends on the cause. If it's not wax or something equally simple I think you just have to cope with it from there on. The brain can filter it out if you concentrate on some other interest.

[Sqad]

As O_ Geezer says, it depends upon the cause, but knowing you as i do, you have surfed the net and you are talking about nerve or brain induced tinnitus and to answer your question........very unlikely to get better on it's own.

There are things that you can do to relieve or ameliorate the effects of tinnitus, but that does not form any part of your question.

[237SJ]

It`s definitely not caused by wax or anything like that. I think it`s caused by years of pressure changes on the eardrum (so nerves)? Quite a few of us at work have it. I know the sound can be masked but looking at NHS Choices, they say that sometimes it gets better on it`s own. I don`t think I believe them though (much as I`d like to)

[Sqad]

Does this problem apply to you 237?

How old is the patient?
Is the subject on medication and if so what?
Is the tinnitus in one ear or both?

[237SJ]

It`s me Sqad. It`s a strange noise. I first noticed it after getting off an aircraft but now I notice all of the time. You know the old style TVs? Not the modern LED ones. You know when they were switched on but there was no picture? There was a sort of electrical sound - a sort of high pitched cross between a hiss and a whistle. Well that`s what it sounds like.

[Sqad]

237......we cross posts. It is likely that differing pressure changes and perhaps engine noise has damaged your nerves, possibly hearing and the tinnitus has followed.
It rarely gets better on it's own in my opinion.

[237SJ]

I find myself saying "Pardon"? a lot at work now. The upper deck of a 747 is particularly bad. There is a shock wave that goes over the "bump" on a 747 which doesn`t help because it makes it noisy. Recently, I was talking to a customer and after saying "Pardon" a couple of times, he said "I know how you feel, I`m a helicopter pilot and my hearing is shot too"

[jno]

mine's slowly got worse rather than better. It's not a lot of fun (haven't been to a pub for 20 years as I can't pick people's voices out, don't have a mobile phone as I couldn't take calls outdoors etc). Just the constant sounds of cicadas chirping. If you can find some way to stop it getting worse, do; I wouldn't count on it going away at all.

[237SJ]

jno - I have had the sound of circadas as well but that tends to be short lived and reverts to the steady sound.

[Sqad]

O.K.....it would be a good idea to see an ENT specialist and have a hearing test and a tinnitus match, mainly for reassurance,but I cannot see that anything other than a masker (if necessary) could help.

If it is just ONE ear, then other factors need excluding, but if it is both, as i suspect, then my comments are appropriate.

[237SJ]

I think it`s both ears, Sqad. The Christmas before last, I had a problem with blocked ears (I remember asking you about it) and I think the noise started in earnest then. At the moment, I have a bit of a cold and am off work and the noise is worse. I did think that there was no cure but I was just hoping

[jno]

it may be that a cold blocks your hearing of external noises a bit but doesn't block internal ones like tinnitus so it feels worse.

[trt]

I have had it for about 15+years, both ears and have had scans & tried maskers.

At first I thought I couldn't possibly live with this for the rest of my life, but as time has gone by, I don't know its there, except for now as I am thinking/typing about it :-)

[-SharonA-]

They say that tinnitus is worst when all is quiet. The nerves in the ear is straining to hear something. Hence they recommend listening to some quiet music or nature sounds.

[jourdain2]

Mine tends to come and go - it's weird. I remember the first time I heard this high-pitched buzzing (both ears) I wondered if my blood-pressure had soared or something. Then, over weeks, it disappeared and now every-so-often it comes back, hangs around and then I realise it has gone again. Sort that one out anyone!

[jno]

that might be The Hum, jourdain, though it's usually described as a low noise

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum

[Old_Geezer]

If you find a cure let us all know. Mine came on, both ears fairly equally, when walking home from work one day, and didn't stop. A similar description to your own. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish a ringing from a whistle from a hiss. It's just a combination of many frequencies I guess. Sometimes it seems more noticeable than others, but if I'm not absorbed with something it is more evident. At the level I have it is ignorable for the most part. I think you just have to shrug and accept things could be worse. It's not the end of the world.

[jennyjoan]

this might reassure you 237 - it does go away. BUT comes again. I find when I take pills it definitely triggers it. My sound is "painful" - it sounds like a bee floating in and out of the ear. You will get peace eventually xxx.

[Clanad]

To reiterate 237SJ's description, I find that most of my cohorts in aviation, especially any one over , say 50 years old, are experiencing hearing-loss related tinnitus, including your's truly. Problem seems to have originated in the era in which most of us began learning to fly. At that time, sound related hearing loss wasn't well understood and most of us flew aircraft that had little or no insulation... jus a thin piece of metal firewall between the cockpit and the engine compartment. It wasn't until later that earphones for radio communication became the standard and much later still that sound reducing earphones were introduced. At roughly the same historical period, hearing tests were introduced as part of the First Class flight physical which transport pilots are required to hold.

The results of the hearing test, in its graphical depiction look like the ski jump at winter's Olympics... the lower ranges (equivalent to human voices) are fairly steady and straight line, but when the higher ranges are reached the ability to hear them dives.

In many cases, not only did most of us experience sustained loud noises but, as my Doctor explained after questioning me about hunting when I was young, loud, percussive sounds (such as gunfire) are equally debilitating.

Doc also confirmed what's been said here, that the brain, not receiving sounds at a given range, 'creates' its own sound in the form of ringing or other anomaly. I occasionally here chirping and/or musical notes (or so it seems) but mainly a constant ringing that never goes away... but like a sore thumb, becomes so common place that one becomes nearly unaware of it over a period of time.

Lotsa over-the-counter remedies advertised, but don't waste your money. I have had friends that began wearing hearing aids and have all stated that the ringing has subsided or actually gone away while wearing th devices... No scientific proof of that though... yet at least...

[Copacetic]

I have partial hearing loss and constant tinnitus, some days it drives me to distraction, other days I can block it out. I have seen no improvement at all.