That’s awful Howard. I hope it comes back.
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This! Avoid earbud headphones, especially crappy ones that you have to crank to hear anything.
Sorry to hear about your problems, @howard , hopefully it gets better.
FWIW, SWMBO’s nephew has it (25 year-old). He went to several doctors, and the found he has a receded jaw (not the teeth, but the whole jaw bone in the hinge). His doctors told him the back of the jawbone is pressing on a nerve. Apparently that is a common enough cause, that they told him they may be able to fix it surgically. Worth having a look at, although knowing a few people who have it, they mostly were told it’s not really treatable beyond using ambient sounds.
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It’s a little known fact that jaw issues are also a common cause of tinnitus, even if there is absolutely nothing wrong with the person’s hearing. The jaw and the inner ear are very closely connected.
Good advice about in-ear headphones! They’re the worst for causing hearing damage.
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Yeah I am getting rid of my earbuds for sure, just replaced them with over-ears. Just noticed that one pair was 16 ohm too, which would lead to higher levels than expected. I rarely have my phone volume over half, though, and never over 70% or so.
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I have found all the ways of dealing with tinnitus that HowLowCanYouGet listed to be helpful as well. I have about a 3-4 kHz ringing my right ear that is 24/7. Not sure if 75 dB is mezzoforte, but it’s pretty damn loud. No cure yet for this, just ways to deal with it and try to avoid things that make it worse.
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I used to teach 6th graders science, and would randomly grab a student’s earbud out of their ear during break. It was always so loud I could hear the noise without getting the earbud anywhere close to my ear. I actually got upset enough to make a 1 day course that told the students about how annoying my tinnitus loss is, and how to prevent it. I’m not sure how many students I might have helped, but even helping one would be reason enough to spend a class in something so important.
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I had a lot of ear infections as a kid in the 70’s, as a result, a lot of fluid build up.
I had “grommets” installed that are designed to allow fluid to drain.
They fell out twice and had to be reinserted. On the 3rd time, they pushed them in too far and scarred my ear drums, I have suffered Tinnitus ever since (almost 40yrs now).
A lot of coping strategies mentioned above really help.
I cannot sleep in a silent room, must have noise of some type, usually a radio.
I cannot wear noise cancelling headphones unless the sound is already playing.
Doing something that requires all my concentration allows me to stop noticing it.
Have lost some high-range hearing… hence I love learning to play bass!
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Considering the age range of 6th graders, most will probably ignore your advice, and pay for it later.
Why would anyone be wearing earbuds in a class environment anyways. Maybe the best thing would be to ban the wearing of earbuds while students are in class but, chances are, that won’t happen in this day and age. At least you tried to help 
Hopefully someone will pay attention to you.
It’s crazy considering how easy it is to help prevent hearing loss.
Hell, I even wear earplugs when I cut the grass.
The neighbors laugh but my hearing is just fine.
Hearing tested much better this week, might have saved it. Tinnitus is still at much worse levels than usual though.
More followups next week. We’ll see.
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Back at the doctor again with another episode of acute hearing loss on the left side. Dammit.
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Oh, man, what a drag! Is it higher frequencies mainly or all over the range? Blows big time in any case 
Thanks!
Got a bunch of drugs, we’ll see. Test came back as the second worst I have had in two years; hearing loss of 40db on the left side.
People have reported success by listening to certain adjusted-frequency sounds. This is by far the best and most professional website about that www.mynoise.net. It was created by an acoustic engineer from Belgium who only uses real-life natural sounds for his samples.
On the top page, look for this:
And there are many more.
Hope it helps, and hang in there!
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Big fan of that website! Good call!
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Thanks! I love the idea of that site.
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@howard if you want to give it a shot, you’re gonna get better results if you first calibrate the frequencies of the EQ. In this way, every sound will keep your hearing and your headphones into account, compensating for the loss of hearing on some specific frequencies.
https://mynoise.net/calibration.php
Your personal hearing curve will be saved with a cookie into the browser and recovered next time you access the site and select any sound. If you sign up, the curve will be stored in your account, instead.
Once calibrated, when you access a specific sound, look for the panel on the left side. There is a section related to calibration (iEQ), You may want to click on one of the options. I usually go with full calibration.
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Thanks a ton, yeah I will try this. I was actually thinking about making my own in my synths.
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Wow!
It actually works
Going to try to do this regularly.
Only been listening for 5 mins so far, can hear the tinnitus with the sounds but when I take off the headphones it goes away
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