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20th hour of ringing in ear after headphone accident. Permanent?

post #1 of 30
11/22/10 at 9:16am
Thread Starter 

Last night I had been using VLC to watcha video that had an unusually low volume and was listening with my Sennheiser cans. To compensate for the low volume, I kicked VLC's volume up towards 200%. After finishing the video, I left the app open and forgot about it for a while before deciding to open up a FLAC file, a rock song... Within an instant I had instinctively threw off my headphones.

 

Definitely had some immediate pain and a ringing that became apparent quite quickly. The headphones are trashed now and wont play music even at low volume without crackling. But most worrying is that after falling asleep with the ringing, I woke up with it as well. And now that I've finished my day and am in the silence of my room again, the ringing is still there.

 

I have also felt fatigued all day, with the same sort of ear pains that I associate with having been sick when I was younger.

 

Has anybody had something similar happen? Did the ringing stop/when? Any advice?

 

Thanks guys. :(


Edited by Centauri - 11/22/10 at 9:17am
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post #2 of 30
11/22/10 at 9:26am

I'd see a doctor.

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post #3 of 30
11/22/10 at 10:13am

I'm with Nikongod on this one, see a doctor, not your GP but an ear guy. The thing is, if you did damage your hearing, I don't know what he could do other than to confirm you damaged your hearing.

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post #4 of 30
11/22/10 at 11:32am
Thread Starter 

That's kind of my thought on seeing a doctor at the moment - why? What's he gonna do? Stick a magical ringing-be-gone computer thing into my ears?

 

I'm more looking for somebody to tell me that it's more likely than not that the ringing will go away within a period of days and not be permanent.

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post #5 of 30
11/22/10 at 3:05pm

A doctor would be the best person to answer your questions. Nikongod and Fatcat have given the best advise. If serious damage was done you may be able to reduce the risk of further damage by seeking a medical professional.


Edited by balderon - 11/22/10 at 3:09pm
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post #6 of 30
11/23/10 at 8:14am

I think you should be fine. Normal headphones shouldnt be able to produce more than 115 decibels which should be fine to your hearing unless it is exposed for a long time. In contrast, people who go to concerts get expose to about 120 db for an extended period of time and most of come back home with there ears ringing and still recovers in less than a week. You can use this chart that I found online for reference. 

decibel_exposure_chart.gif

 

EDIT: This is just my opinion!!! Like the people above said, you should still go see a doctor. 


Edited by beamthegreat - 11/23/10 at 8:19am
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post #7 of 30
11/23/10 at 8:49am

The ringing will go away within a period of days and not be permanent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously though I'd go see the doctor.
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Centauri View Post

That's kind of my thought on seeing a doctor at the moment - why? What's he gonna do? Stick a magical ringing-be-gone computer thing into my ears?

 

I'm more looking for somebody to tell me that it's more likely than not that the ringing will go away within a period of days and not be permanent.

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post #8 of 30
11/23/10 at 9:15am

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by beamthegreat View Post

<snip>

people who go to concerts get expose to about 120 db for an extended period of time and most of come back home with there ears ringing and still recovers in less than a week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kboe View Post

The ringing will go away within a period of days and not be permanent.

I thought the same thing after attending a concert sitting front row center stage. 10 years later tinnitus comes and goes in one ear.

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post #9 of 30
11/23/10 at 10:46am

I still have tinnitus 10+ years after attending a few too-many metal concerts. I remember 2 concerts which afterwards I had an extremely loud ringing in my ears for weeks that felt permanent, but eventually faded into only being noticeable in very quiet places. But those are relatively high decibels over a period of hours; you got an extremely high shot of decibels in an instant which could've made you deaf had it been higher, so consider yourself lucky.

 

I wouldn't worry, it'll fade. But if you really want to know the damage, see a doctor.


Edited by alien3456 - 11/23/10 at 10:47am
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post #10 of 30
11/23/10 at 1:37pm
Thread Starter 

Well, it's been nearly 48hrs and the ringing hasn't subsided at all, at least not so far as I've noticed. Though it's not enough to distract me when I'm in a class or in a conversation, which I hope is a good sign?

 

Medical care is a little bit tricky for me at the moment since I'm traveling abroad, but I've sent an e-mail to my travel care provider asking how to arrange an appointment so we'll see what I hear in response.

 

Ugh... This is depressing.

 

Thanks for the replies thus far guys, really.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by beamthegreat View Post

I think you should be fine. Normal headphones shouldnt be able to produce more than 115 decibels which should be fine to your hearing unless it is exposed for a long time. In contrast, people who go to concerts get expose to about 120 db for an extended period of time and most of come back home with there ears ringing and still recovers in less than a week. You can use this chart that I found online for reference. 

decibel_exposure_chart.gif

 

EDIT: This is just my opinion!!! Like the people above said, you should still go see a doctor. 


I wonder if that applies to my situation since I had the volume artificially tuned to nearly 200% by software? Or is the 115db limit of headphones a concrete limit of the hardware itself?

 

I had thought that I may have merely shocked my ear drums with the force created by the volume level. Who knows...

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post #11 of 30
11/23/10 at 2:11pm

I have measured headphones (HD580) with an SPL meter and seen at least 122db playing white noise. Headphones can achieve extremely high SPLs.

 

Etymotic claims that the ER4s will hit 120db: I have no reason to doubt them or a good test method. All of the multi-driver IEM MFRs claim MORE than that. 

 

Those are also sustained SPLs, nothing to say what will destroy them.

 

If the ringing is masked by ambient noise there is at the very least relief treatment by the use of background noise. 

 

Edited:

I should also note that the OSHA & and similar european standards for workplace noise are a compromised standard. 


Edited by nikongod - 11/23/10 at 2:14pm
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post #12 of 30
11/25/10 at 5:15am
Thread Starter 

Thought I'd post an update for the sake of sharing information in case anybody else gets in this jam;

 

Last night the ringing intensified. Not massively but enough that it completely kept me from being able to fall asleep. So halfway losing my mind, I sought out some ocean sounds and storm music from the internet to play over my notebook's speakers... which finally did the trick at around 4am. But I slept like shit and was adamant that I would do something about the problem when I woke up for the day.

 

So I picked an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist here in Munich and just walked in the door without an appointment - no problem. After about 2hrs of tests and waiting between tests, the doctor said that I didn't do anything permanent and the the ringing is a result of damaged cells not healing quickly because of low blood flow to them. And so over the course of 30mins, they threw a bag of cortisone into me through a needle which apparently increases blood flow to certain spots somehow or something. He said the ringing may go away on its own, it may take weeks... but the cortisone forces the issue of healing quite quickly.

 

Anyways, the gist of the conversation I had was that many people get similar damage and blow it off thinking nothing can be done. But during the first few weeks, this cortisone type thing will usually do the trick. But after months there really isn't anything that can be done.

 

I only had the injection an hour or so ago so I can't say that it's done anything yet, but the doctor's casual demeanor has me quite hopeful. :-)


Edited by Centauri - 11/25/10 at 5:18am
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post #13 of 30
11/25/10 at 5:22am

^ Thanks for the update. I hope this treatment has a positive effect soon. Keep us posted

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post #14 of 30
11/26/10 at 7:02pm

seriously. 200% vol in VLC can be a lot. good you werent using IEMs...

 

get an appointment with a specialist,  a gynecologist would do just fine

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post #15 of 30
11/26/10 at 9:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Centauri View Post

Thought I'd post an update for the sake of sharing information in case anybody else gets in this jam;

 

Last night the ringing intensified. Not massively but enough that it completely kept me from being able to fall asleep. So halfway losing my mind, I sought out some ocean sounds and storm music from the internet to play over my notebook's speakers... which finally did the trick at around 4am. But I slept like shit and was adamant that I would do something about the problem when I woke up for the day.

 

So I picked an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist here in Munich and just walked in the door without an appointment - no problem. After about 2hrs of tests and waiting between tests, the doctor said that I didn't do anything permanent and the the ringing is a result of damaged cells not healing quickly because of low blood flow to them. And so over the course of 30mins, they threw a bag of cortisone into me through a needle which apparently increases blood flow to certain spots somehow or something. He said the ringing may go away on its own, it may take weeks... but the cortisone forces the issue of healing quite quickly.

 

Anyways, the gist of the conversation I had was that many people get similar damage and blow it off thinking nothing can be done. But during the first few weeks, this cortisone type thing will usually do the trick. But after months there really isn't anything that can be done.

 

I only had the injection an hour or so ago so I can't say that it's done anything yet, but the doctor's casual demeanor has me quite hopeful. :-)


Good to hear mate. Hopefully everything goes back to normal soon!

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