Our Hearing

[southall-1998]

Admin, if this is in the wrong place. Then please do move it.

My hearing is fairly good. But I do have constant mild ringing in both ears. Just to mention it. I had my adenoids and tonsils removed, many years ago when I was 5.

I also believe, there is some high frequency hearing loss happening in my hearing too.

With the high frequency loss, does this affect the way we hear the midrange from our systems? Or, does it affect the transparency the most?

To some of you members on here. How do you still enjoy your systems with your flawed hearing?

S.

[struth]

Its called Tinnitus and you usually get it from hearing too much loud noise, either from workplace or say, headphones etc,.... Ive had it since my 30's and used to drive me nuts(mine was from an industrial accident) It can get a bit better but Id avoid headphones or too loud music. I dont think it will affect mid range that much tbh, although you will hear it dubbed over what your listening to. High freq will be affected most

[walpurgis]

Tinnitus usually affects one ear or the other. Perceived ringing in both is likely something else. I get a sense of ringing in my head. Not to extremes and most of the time I can ignore it. I've had it a couple of years, since I started on the BP meds I'm currently on.

[walpurgis]

I also believe, there is some high frequency hearing loss happening in my hearing too. S.

See if you can find a test CD with sample tones and sweep tones Shane. Very handy for finding your hearing limits (and checking what your system can do).

[Audio Al]

I had constant problems with my ears , ringing , whistling , all sorts of strange noises . I kept cleaning my ears , used ear drops , cotton buds and a metal hair clip to scrape out the ear wax ( Ears spotlessly clean )
So bad I went to the doctors

He asked how I cleaned them and when I told him he went ballistic :eek: and gave me a severe telling off

He said I was at risk of bursting my ear drum sticking hair clips inside my ears and making things worse by ramming the wax in with a cotton bud

He gave me a NHS leaflet re ear maintenance that explained that ears are self cleaning and the wax works its own way out

Hi final advice was " Don't put anything smaller than your fist in you ear " Visually they may not look clean but no more strange noises :)

[struth]

there can be lots of reasons for it, but sound pressure is the main one. Infections and fluid buildup behind ear are 2 others.Mine was so bad initially I couldnt sleep, and nearly topped myself lol. It can get a bit better as mine has but its still there in background and can get quickly worse when music is loud. Certainly you have to be very careful with sticking things in your ear and the membrane is thin and sensitive.

[julesd68]

He gave me a NHS leaflet re ear maintenance that explained that ears are self cleaning and the wax works its own way out

Well he's not correct there at all! It would be true to say that of most people, but some of us suffer from a build up of hard wax that needs removing from time to time.
My ears have produced too much wax since childhood. The safest and most non-instrusive way to remove the wax nowadays is microsuction. I get mine done about once a year - if I don't the wax covers up the drum and I lose my hearing ...

[Audio Al]

This information leaflet has been written to tell you about your ears and how to look after them. Not all of the information contained in this leaflet will be relevant to you. Your Aural Care nurse will show you which parts are important for you to read. However, you may nd the other information generally useful.
How do I clean my ears?
You DON’T!
Your ears are self cleaning. The skin in your ears acts like a conveyor belt. It travels along your ear canal from your ear drum bringing any debris with it. Sometimes this ‘conveyor belt’ motion does not work very effectively, so you need to have your ears cleaned out by the Practice Nurse at your GP surgery or by the Aural Care service.
If you use cotton buds or anything else to clean your ears, you can disrupt the ears’ natural cleaning system. Often the only thing this achieves is to push wax further down the ear canal, making you feel deaf temporarily and causing damage to your ear canal or your ear drum.


From the leaflet mentioned ;)

[hifi_dave]

Another reason for Tinnitus is a side effect of some medications. I had bad 'hissing' and other problems whilst taking Frusemide a few years back This is a heavy duty diuretic and because of the problems I was taken off it. The 'hissing' disappeared a couple of days later..:steam:

[Stryder5]

Another reason for Tinnitus is a side effect of some medications. I had bad 'hissing' and other problems whilst taking Frusemide a few years back This is a heavy duty diuretic and because of the problems I was taken off it. The 'hissing' disappeared a couple of days later..:steam:

I'm sure it had an effect on me that was p.ssing a lot, no hissing :scratch:

[hifinutt]

ha ha !!! :lol:
I never knew frusemide did that !

yes ears are very fragile . some folks advise a little olive oil weekly to soften and keep clear . although ear syringing can be done , its a last resort really but sometimes inevitable

[Ronksley]

ha ha !!! :lol:
I never knew frusemide did that !

yes ears are very fragile . some folks advise a little olive oil weekly to soften and keep clear . although ear syringing can be done , its a last resort really but sometimes inevitable

Olive Oil is a fantastic way to get an ear infection, it is highly calorific and non sterile. Ears are full of germs please do not feed them. Sodium bicarb is much better and safer I have problems with fungal infections and get some pretty horrid gunk out my ears.

I thought silence might be helpful after spending three weeks in hospital in wards that had no radios or televisions after this my tinnitus seemed to have cleared but it might have been due to the anti inflammatory side effects of the steroids I was being given.

Now I do tend to agree with the pressure makes tinnitus worse but am sure mine would be a lot better if I dint have music or the radio on all the time I am at home live near the M1 and live the outskirts of a large city.
My hearing is damaged from too many loud gigs as a teenager and ear infections, spent nearly two years going to Ear Nose and Throat clinic and had a MI scan as they couldn’t work out why the results of hearing tests were so random.

[farflungstar]

I've been trying to figure out the cause of my tinnitus since it began about 7 months ago. It's the usual hissing but can change depending on the day. Private specialist said it was caused by stress and to go away and live with it.

Tried coming off meds, tried milk free diet, salt, sugar free diet, hash free, and used every available ear product on the market. Tried steroids, beta blockers, antihistamines, antibiotics, herbs and acupuncture.

I had the same same about 30 years ago and it vanished after about 5 months. No one could explain why. I don't and never have listened to high volumes.

Does it affect my Listening? Yes and no. It depends on the day and the type of music. I would kill or pay dearly to just be able to play music without going through the question and answers I ask myself before settling down to listen. I don't have hearing loss and I can wake up and it is completely gone - silent. Then, later it comes back.

I would rather lose an eye or an arm than my hearing. It's my most precious faculty.
Ade

Sent from my Aquaris E4.5 using Tapatalk

[julesd68]

ha ha !!! :lol:
I never knew frusemide did that !

yes ears are very fragile . some folks advise a little olive oil weekly to soften and keep clear . although ear syringing can be done , its a last resort really but sometimes inevitable

I would try to avoid ear syringing if at all possible - it's very old school now. It basically moves pressurised water down your ear canal which isn't good for your ear drums at all. It can be quite painful and your ears are more prone to infection immediately afterwards for a few days. You also have to soften the ear wax using drops for about a week before having them syringed. With the new "microsuction" technique it's much less invasive and I find it pain free; also you don't have to loosen the wax before the treatment. I pay to get this done privately but there's no way on earth I would go back to syringing ...

[Rothchild]

There's a product called Otex which works wonders to 'fizz' wax out of ears.

[Pete The Cat]

I've been trying to figure out the cause of my tinnitus since it began about 7 months ago. It's the usual hissing but can change depending on the day. Private specialist said it was caused by stress and to go away and live with it.

Tried coming off meds, tried milk free diet, salt, sugar free diet, hash free, and used every available ear product on the market. Tried steroids, beta blockers, antihistamines, antibiotics, herbs and acupuncture.

I had the same same about 30 years ago and it vanished after about 5 months. No one could explain why. I don't and never have listened to high volumes.

Does it affect my Listening? Yes and no. It depends on the day and the type of music. I would kill or pay dearly to just be able to play music without going through the question and answers I ask myself before settling down to listen. I don't have hearing loss and I can wake up and it is completely gone - silent. Then, later it comes back.

I would rather lose an eye or an arm than my hearing. It's my most precious faculty.
Ade

Sent from my Aquaris E4.5 using Tapatalk


Several years ago I damaged my hearing after a concert. It gave me Hyperacusis (also known as threshold shift - where the level of sound that your hearing finds acceptable becomes depressed so that the world is unlistenably loud and distorted - even quiet sounds become sharp, bright and scratchy) and Tinnitus. The guy I was with had no after effects at all. For 6 months it was the end of the world. Slowly my ears began to accept normal sound levels again and after 2-3 years the H came under control to a point where I could listen to music at a reasonable level albeit I won't even go near a cinema again. The T is forever and is as loud or as quiet as I allow it to be – it is real but the extent of it is in the mind and it feeds off itself, and when I have a cold or am tired it’s more noticeable. Once you move on with life it recedes. Easy to say now but time is the best healer.

Pete

[walpurgis]

Several years ago I damaged my hearing after a concert. It gave me Hyperacusis (also known as threshold shift - where the level of sound that your hearing finds acceptable becomes depressed so that the world is unlistenably loud and distorted - even quiet sounds become sharp, bright and scratchy).

Pete

Despite being partly deaf, paradoxically, I seem to have developed a touch of that too. I find I really can't bear loud voices near me and other loud noises have become a bit uncomfortable. The family shout a lot and I have to tell them to keep it down as it is too much for me. Weird!

[Pete The Cat]

Despite being partly deaf, paradoxically, I seem to have developed a touch of that too. I find I really can't bear loud voices near me and other loud noises have become a bit uncomfortable. The family shout a lot and I have to tell them to keep it down as it is too much for me. Weird!

From what the consultant and hearing therapist told me, it's like burning your hand makes it susceptible to pain when you brush it against something until it has healed. Hyperacusis is paradoxical, you think damage would make your hearing worse but even tiny sounds leap out at you in 3D and kind of scratch your ears. It's simply that the level of noise that is your pain threshold has been reset much lower. Weird and clever too in a really perverse way. Voices are often an aggravation to me also, they really grate - I find being in a busy restaurant irritating even now. But I can listen to music again at a level many people would regard as reasonable in a home environment and compared to where I was when I first did the damage I'll gladly take that.

Pete

[walpurgis]

Yeah. Funny that. Music at useful (but not silly) levels does not bother me.

I think it's more sudden, unexpected sounds that cause the discomfort.

The dozy buggers around here don't help with their fireworks at night. There was an almighty bang the other evening while I was outside. Nearly blew me out of my slippers! :eek:

[WAD62]

One safe and healthy thing to try is sea water nasal spray...:)

I have tinnitus in one ear, and there's a direct link to sinus/Eustachian tube blockage, hence it increases with colds etc. a blast of sea water up the nose can help here...the level reduces as the pressure equalises

This may be a specific problem to me, however it's worth a try...

[struth]

One safe and healthy thing to try is sea water nasal spray...:)

I have tinnitus in one ear, and there's a direct link to sinus/Eustachian tube blockage, hence it increases with colds etc. a blast of sea water up the nose can help here...the level reduces as the pressure equalises

This may be a specific problem to me, however it's worth a try...

No, i use it too for sinus but it does improve tinnitus a bit too. I use Sterimar

[Pete The Cat]

+1 for nasal spray. I have narrow tubes (for most of my childhood I struggled to breathe through my nose) which the consultant reckoned also made me inherently vulnerable to hearing damage. Flying can be excrutiatingly painful so I take Sudafed for a couple of weeks beforehand, nasal spray on boarding, and then snort Olbas oil and suck cold lozenges while in the air. It sounds like a hypochondriac's cocktail but the sensation of your head inflating to the point of explosion is very disconcerting and no end of nice air stewardesses offering boiled sweets can help.

To my original points about Hyperacusis (threshold shift) amd Tinnitus, I bang on a bit because when they first hit me and I researched the internet I only found doom and gloom stories from sufferers. I remember one story about a guy who killed himself after damaging his hearing at a Them Crooked Vultures gig. It's a dark place when you injure your ears, but I post in the hope that people in that state will read and see that it does improve with time and you get through it.

Pete

[Clifford.T Ward]

+1 for nasal spray. I have narrow tubes (for most of my childhood I struggled to breathe through my nose) which the consultant reckoned also made me inherently vulnerable to hearing damage. Flying can be excrutiatingly painful so I take Sudafed for a couple of weeks beforehand, nasal spray on boarding, and then snort Olbas oil and suck cold lozenges while in the air. It sounds like a hypochondriac's cocktail but the sensation of your head inflating to the point of explosion is very disconcerting and no end of nice air stewardesses offering boiled sweets can help.

To my original points about Hyperacusis (threshold shift) amd Tinnitus, I bang on a bit because when they first hit me and I researched the internet I only found doom and gloom stories from sufferers. I remember one story about a guy who killed himself after damaging his hearing at a Them Crooked Vultures gig. It's a dark place when you injure your ears, but I post in the hope that people in that state will read and see that it does improve with time and you get through it.

Pete

To give you some hope ...7 years ago my wife had a really serious illness......research on the net made very dark reading especially forums for that disease ....spoke to a specialist to get a full picture and they were good ....a gem was this ....don't reaserch on the net too far...all the negative points get posted....those doing ok and positivly get on with life and enjoy it they don't post on the net BUT they are out there and you don't hear the positive ones they are too busy living!

[struth]

Indeed. Good point. When it happed to me there was no internet...or mobile phones bar those huge things that delboy had:eyebrows: its strange but we got so used to having the worlds knowledge and its rubbish masquerading as knowledge at our fingertips pretty much everywhere we go now, we forget that life went on fine without it ..

[Macca]

It has made it much easier to settle pub arguments about trivial facts though.