Legal Bill

I could write a book about my hearing saga. Earaches as a child, loud noises as a teen and twenty something, sinus infections in my 30s, undiagnosed equlibrium and pain finally leading to a cholesteatoma surgery in my 40s, hearing aide that cost $$$ and did nothing, second surgery, and here I am saying "what?" 50% of the time.

Starbrd

Everybody loses some hearing acuity as they age. It is called presbyacusis. Normal loss due to aging manifests itself as a roll off at the higher frequencies. Thus it will be harder to understand female voices which are higher pitched. It will also be harder to discriminate some consonants such as b and p. It will also be harder to understand speech in the presence of noise.

As long as you can get along in your daily activities hearing aids are not normally needed. Otherwise there are now some very good albeit expensive hearing aids that use signal processing and can be tailored to the specific loss. Inexpensive hearing aids that only amplify are not very useful.

Morris

In the last 12 months, I have lost about 15% of my hearing in one ear. I can live with that part easy, but it's caused a ringing 24/7. Sometimes I don't notice it, sometimes it's very loud. Went to the Dr. and he says the brain recognizes the loss and is "hearing" noises (the ringing) where it used to hear sounds. Or something like that. It made sense, but he said there's nothing that can be done about it. I hope I don't have this ringing the rest of my life. Should I see another ear doc?

NNY S2k

I know I doin't hear as well as when I was a youngster however I'm doing better than a lot of people around my age. I'd say that background noise is the biggest problem, and being able to only listen to 1 thing at a time.

Emil St-Hilaire

After years of racing,Formula Atlantic Cars,and,Stock cars,and Drag cars,,my hearing,is about 60%,of what it shoudl be...

I'll have to wear hearing aids,soon...

-Emil.

Vanishing Point

No appreciable loss according to my doctor, but I've worn hearing protection religiously around high decibel engines, machinery and equipment.

Starbrd

How do you know you have lost 15% in one ear? Did you have a base audiogram from a year ago?

Tinnitus (ringing) is not usually associated with hearing loss. Tinnitus may cause some apparent shift in the hearing level.

There may be something going on in that ear. You probably should go to see an otolaringologist to get to the bottom of this.

Morris

Thanks for the advice Starbrd, but that's exactly who I went to. I noticed the loss, then made an appt. and that's what he told me. Are you a doctor? Cause I wanted to know if I should seek another opinion. The 15% was my guess, but they confirmed some loss in that ear.

MsPerky

^ I don't think the ringing will go away. It's called tinnitus. I have it in one ear. Mine is not really ringing but a whooshing sound as described below, and the intensity does vary. I have gotten used to it and hardly notice it most of the time. However, it does get worse temporarily if I go to a rock concert with loud music. Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

"Tinnitus can be perceived in one or both ears or in the head. It is usually described as a ringing noise, but in some patients it takes the form of a high pitched whining, buzzing, hissing, humming, or whistling sound, or as ticking, clicking, roaring, "crickets" or "tree frogs" or "locusts", tunes, songs, or beeping.[3] It has also been described as a "whooshing" sound, as of wind or waves.[4]. Tinnitus can be intermittent or it can be continuous. In the latter case, this "phantom" sound can create great distress in the sufferer.

Tinnitus is not itself a disease but a symptom resulting from a range of underlying causes. Causes include ear infections, foreign objects or wax in the ear, nose allergies that prevent (or induce) fluid drain and cause wax build-up, and injury from loud noises. Tinnitus is also a side-effect of some oral medications, such as aspirin, and may also result from an abnormally low level of serotonin activity. It is also a classical side effect of Quinidine, a Class IA anti-arrhythmic. In many cases, however, no underlying physical cause can be identified."

Starbrd

My PhD is in Psychoacoustics and I have done a lot of research in the effects of noise on hearing.

How did you notice that you had a hearing loss? When you are quoted a number of 15% it is hard to know what the actual threshold shift is because there are many different methods of calculating that value. Knowing what your actual loss is at the various frequencies would be more useful. Did the doctor give you a copy of your audiogram?

Did you get exposed to a sudden very loud noise in that ear?

Your doctor's explanation of why you have the tinnitus does not make sense to me. Tinnitus is often the result of damage to the receptors in the inner ear.

It is not likely that the tinnitus is the result of some medicine you are taking because it would then show up bilaterally. If it were the result of trauma to the ear then it is something you will just have to live with. If not, it would be good to dig deeper and find out what is actually happening.

Here is a good overview of tinnitus: http://www.medicinenet.com/tinnitus/article.htm