How Many Have Tinnitus?

[SomethingAnything]

I have that too. In very noisy rooms with lots of people talking loudly it's too painful and I have to leave. I try to carry earplugs but I don't always remember. I also have a single pitch high frequency tinnitus in my left ear but I only notice that in very quiet rooms. It doesn't stop me sleeping.

I now automatically take earplugs to indoor concerts in case I need them.

Interestingly, one of the loudest concerts in recent times at which I was very glad I brought earplugs for both myself and my wife was a Beatles tribute act in Liverpool's The Cavern. That was all to do with the band going full tilt in the harsh acoustics (the band were young but very good). I've tipped off others since re The Cavern and received grateful thanks afterwards.

I also needed them for Mogwai. Blimey, when they get loud, they get loud!

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I've got Rin Tin Tinnitus . I hear dogs.

 

[mandrix]

I've got Rin Tinnitus . I hear dogs.

You better watch out! There may be dogs about.
Maybe it's just your neighbors dogs.

 

[Genious]

Rock loving teen in the 70s so of course I have hearing loss. Sleep with a fan to cover up the buzz in my head. Didn't know it how bad I had it until I did some work in an anechoic chamber at IBM. Kind of frightening.

My older brother is a musician and he has it bad. Surgery. Hearing aids. Worried he might kill himself during the worst of it.

I never realized how bad mine was until covid. I live in noisy Toronto and own a recording studio but during covid spent most of the time way up North where a few of us stayed isolated. The peace and quiet really brought out that constant sound from years of aural abuse.

 

[James Hoffmann]

There are hearing aids that will help. Musician Ian Hunter had to bow out of the last Mott The Hoople reunion tour because his tinnitus was unbearable.
He posted that he is now using hearing aids that cancel out most of it.
I think they figure out what frequency each person's ringing is, then use the same frequency out of phase to cancel it.
I'm sure they're out of my budget...

I've been down this road. The technology isn't there yet. Hearing aids (ueven the expensive ones that I've tried) don't eliminate the tinnitus, they just amplify sound (though they are getting better at hitting narrower frequency bands).
The main issue is that the tinnitus IS the effect of the hearing loss, instead of just a reduction in auditory acuity. And there is, sadly, no way to eliminate the tinnitus, so we must resort to these methods of overwhelming it and distracting from it.
I wish I'd taken better care of my hearing when it would have made a difference; for the past 25 years I've worn ear protection - professional grade devices for the last 15 years - and I still am rapidly approaching the point where I'll need at least one hearing aid (left ear).

 

[humprof]

I'm gonna plug this book here instead of in "What's The Latest Book You've Read," not because I think folks here don't read, but because the book isn't strictly music-related. (Although it's not unrelated, by any means.)

Anyway: I think everybody on this thread--for that matter, everybody who has tinnitus and/or hearing loss, whether it's from a lifetime of loud music or serving in the military or working in heavy industry (or farming or landscaping or construction or transportation or...) or whatever--will be interested in this book, which I just finished last night: David Owen's Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World (2019).

Beware, though: if you're the least bit hypochondriacal, like me, it'll have you fretting--especially in the final couple of chapters, where Owen lays out why a lot of experts now think the official standards and the common wisdom about thresholds for damage to hearing are way off. Also: it'll probably make you hyper-aware of your own tinnitus for the entire time you're reading the book!

That said: Owen, who's a staff writer at The New Yorker, is such a genial and engaging writer, so curious and sympathetic (he's almost 70, and he's a sufferer like us), and able to explain the physiology of hearing and the science of hearing aids and hearing loss (and developing therapies for its amelioration and restoration) so plainly and clearly, that you'll want to push through.

Five years on, it could benefit from an update to account for the demise of the Bose "HearPhones" (which Owen loved) and the advent of AirPods-as-hearing-aids (and a thousand other PSAPs/OTC hearing aids), but it's still a great read.

You can score a used copy pretty cheaply, and (appropriately enough) there's also an audiobook version.

https://www.davidowen.net/david_owen/2019/11/volume-control.html

An interview on NPR's Fresh Air:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...certs-our-deafening-world-is-hurting-our-ears

And a promo video for the magazine article in which the book originated:

 

[Owen Smith]

Beware, though: if you're the least bit hypochondriacal, like me, it'll have you fretting--especially in the final couple of chapters, where Owen lays out why a lot of experts now think the official standards and the common wisdom about thresholds for damage to hearing are way off.

The natural world is vastly quieter than the world technology has built, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is true.

 

[SomethingAnything]

humprof - Are there any useful tips from it you can share with us?

 

[Sonik Wiz]

You better watch out! There may be dogs about.
Maybe it's just your neighbors dogs.

My dogs howl like Banshees when they hear sirens. They are my neighbors dogs...

 

[humprof]

humprof - Are there any useful tips from it you can share with us?

#1 tip: Get good ear protection! (Different kinds for different occasions. Even when you're vacuuming around the house, or grinding coffee, or whatever. But especially when using power tools, lawnmowers, and the like. Or riding the subway.)