Jacked my ear!

REDD

REDD

Fractal Fanatic
I was playing at stage volume Monday for about an hour tweaking my Axe Fxii just like normal and that night in my studio I noticed my right ear was ringing and I lost my high frequencies. Now it's Saturday night and it hasn't gotten better. I am so bummed I havent played or listened to music since it happened. Anyone have this or think it could be permanent loss?
 
REDD said:
I was playing at stage volume Monday for about an hour tweaking my Axe Fxii just like normal and that night in my studio I noticed my right ear was ringing and I lost my high frequencies. Now it's Saturday night and it hasn't gotten better. I am so bummed I havent played or listened to music since it happened. Anyone have this or think it could be permanent loss?
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Speaking from experience, I'm sorry to say, it's probably permanent.

I've had Tinnitus for 20+ years now. Not only that, but the mechanism that closes to protect the ear drum from sudden loud noises, no longer works, so sharp, loud sounds (metal on metal, rattling plates, someone screaming, etc.), are excruciating for me.

I'm certain I did the majority of the damage at an indoor April Wine concert, back in the mid-nineties. I remember it felt like my ears were bleeding that night...I should have left, but stupid me, I didn't and now I'm paying the price. The worst time is at night, when it's quiet. During the day, the ringing is there, but I don't notice it as much, unless I focus on it.
 
Toopy14 said:
Speaking from experience, I'm sorry to say, it's probably permanent.

I've had Tinnitus for 20+ years now. Not only that, but the mechanism that closes to protect the ear drum from sudden loud noises, no longer works, so sharp, loud sounds (metal on metal, rattling plates, someone screaming, etc.), are excruciating for me.

I'm certain I did the majority of the damage at an indoor April Wine concert, back in the mid-nineties. I remember it felt like my ears were bleeding that night...I should have left, but stupid me, I didn't and now I'm paying the price. The worst time is at night, when it's quiet. During the day, the ringing is there, but I don't notice it as much, unless I focus on it.
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Didn't want to hear that, bad choice of words. Thanks for the reply though man. Sorry to hear you have damaged yours.
 
Any feelings of fullness/pressure in the ear ? Any pain ? Vertigo or unsteadiness of balance ?

Temporary threshold shift (TTS) from loud noises can result in reduced thresholds for a day or two, yet thresholds typically return. What can happen with prolonged exposure is permanent threshold shift (PTS) and this usually does present with a "noise notch" in thresholds around 3-4 kHz. Its a factor of both duration and intensity, inversely related, meaning short duration at high intensity or longer duration at lower intensity both can cause some harm.

There are also cases of sudden sensorineural hearing loss where the cause of the hearing loss aren't known, though typically is viral, sometimes recovering fully, sometimes partially, and in some cases not at all.

I would recommend a visit with an ENT/Audiologist if you have a sudden and significant loss. Time is often of the essence in cases of sudden hearing loss as the administration of antibiotics and/or steroids give the best chance for restoring the hearing.

I am a board certified Doctor of Audiology by the way
 
Toopy14 said:
Speaking from experience, I'm sorry to say, it's probably permanent.

I've had Tinnitus for 20+ years now. Not only that, but the mechanism that closes to protect the ear drum from sudden loud noises, no longer works, so sharp, loud sounds (metal on metal, rattling plates, someone screaming, etc.), are excruciating for me.
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The tensor tympani muscle which I believe your referring to isn't damaged by loud noises. Its also highly debatable if the acoustic reflex (which that contraction is called) actually was intended to protect the ears from loud noises. Consider this: "noise" be it machine noise, aircraft engines, music, etc, is a very recent thing in evolutionary time. The acoustic reflex would of had to develop over thousands of years in keeping with the theories of evolution and mutation, yet things were pretty darn quiet back then right ? So how then do we have a biological function that was that designed to essentially help "protect" us from noise sources that weren't going to be invented for thousands of years ? Thought provoking concept, no ??

Anyways, your issue with louder noises sounds more like auditory recruitment, which is basically reduced dynamic range. Loud sounds are still as loud as they are to someone with normal hearing thresholds, however, you've got elevated thresholds, so the jump from barely audible to uncomfortably loud is smaller, ie; less dynamic range.
 
lqdsnddist said:
The tensor tympani muscle which I believe your referring to isn't damaged by loud noises. Its also highly debatable if the acoustic reflex (which that contraction is called) actually was intended to protect the ears from loud noises. Consider this: "noise" be it machine noise, aircraft engines, music, etc, is a very recent thing in evolutionary time. The acoustic reflex would of had to develop over thousands of years in keeping with the theories of evolution and mutation, yet things were pretty darn quiet back then right ? So how then do we have a biological function that was that designed to essentially help "protect" us from noise sources that weren't going to be invented for thousands of years ? Thought provoking concept, no ??
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I reckon ppl shouted a lot more back then. Its a defence mechanism so that someone shouting in your ear wont disable you.
 
That certainly is a theory, no one wants a loud neanderthal shouting in their ear....

Others can claim "intelligent design" (and in that instance is actually does sound quite good foresight that in 4000 years or so we'd develop electric guitars, and they were good (and loud))

Theories also suggest that its actually intended to damped the occlusion effect of our own voices, the sounds of chewing, et al., as the reflex is measurable with jaw movement in a lot of individuals

Most useful application of it though is acoustic reflex testing which can 1) determine some ballpark hearing thresholds as your not going to produce a measurable response with a significant hearing loss (usually around 40-50 dB HL) and 2) it gives information on the afferent and efferent neural pathways to and from the brain. We determine this by testing the ipsilateral and contralateral ear, since its a binaural process, the reflex triggering regardless of which ear is stimulated. If it doesn't happen on one side that suggest possible pathology of the 7th or 8th cranial nerve. In fact, prior to imaging testing like MRI, acoustic reflex testing was the standard measure of things like acoustic neuromas, though these days a MRI certainly is a better tool to use when deciding if a physician should do surgery or not.
 
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