I got tinnitus it seems outta nowhere

[uncfnp]

Purely anecdotal but I have had one positive covid patient report a worsening of his baseline tinnitus for about 2 weeks before returning to his previous level.

 

[TonyBottomTime]

I think it would be pretty coincidental to have this come out of nowhere given your dives and your history in that ear. You may aggravated an existing condition that has nothing to do with diving in and of itself; that's up to the ENT to determine.

Do you equalize using a Valsalva maneuver? If so, how do you perform it? A forceful or vigorous Valsalva can cause inner ear barotrauma. You could also have developed a mild case of inner ear DCS as @Ucarkus suggested; I think that was one of the factors in the tinnitus that I have. In either case, unfortunately there's very little that can be done medically. This is not an endorsement and I do not receive compensation from the developer, but: there's an app called Neuromonics that you can get. I have it on my iPhone. It plays relaxing music plus a noise to mask the tinnitus. You have to have top-quality earbuds with a wide frequency range to take full advantage of it; it also allows you to tailor the masking noise to your own audiogram results.

Best regards,
DDM

Yup, the valsalva, but like I was saying with these dives, I feel like I implemented the method properly. Never forced it, took my time descending, equalized every moment I could. No pain, no problem. I have however have had very forceful equalizations in the past, but never with pain, just a lot of pushing in my sinus.

 

[TonyBottomTime]

I didn't read every post but given the recent date, I wonder if you had gotten vaccinated? I didn't really notice having tinnitus until after my moderna shots.

No, I got tinnitus well before my vax.

 

[Jacgul]

I've had tinnitus for years. My guess, not knowing anything about non-trauma médecine, is that the cause will be the determining factor. Years of gunfire and explosions caused mine. Liquid build up of some kind would probably be different.
With mine, I have absolutely no issue clearing my ears and in fact, do not always have to do tha Valsalva effect, although it does seem to be the quickest.

 

[TonyBottomTime]

After all is said and done, attempting to see the few dive physicians in my area has been to no avail. Apparently you can't just talk to a doctor without it being an ordeal, a prolonged and expensive out-of-pocket ordeal. Butttttttt..... another reason I lost interest in seeing a dive Dr., is that for the past 2 weeks my tinnitus has been on the decline. Moreover, for the past 4 days, the tinnitus has disappeared completely!!

So for one last series on questions (@Duke Dive Medicine)

Is this a sign things are healing or resolving itself? Or is this just a trough in my tinnitus issue?

My biggest fear is that once I try to dive again, the tinnitus will come back much worse.
If I keep my diving modest (less then 100ft/30m), do I just run the risk of the tinnitus coming back with a vengeance?

And finally, once I dive again and as long as equalize safely, properly, painlessly and I feel great during/after the dive, can I just ignore any tinnitus that reemerges? Or is that an indication I'm pushing my ear to the limits?

 

[Tripp]

After all is said and done, attempting to see the few dive physicians in my area has been to no avail. Apparently you can't just talk to a doctor without it being an ordeal, a prolonged and expensive out-of-pocket ordeal. Butttttttt..... another reason I lost interest in seeing a dive Dr., is that for the past 2 weeks my tinnitus has been on the decline. Moreover, for the past 4 days, the tinnitus has disappeared completely!!

So for one last series on questions (@Duke Dive Medicine)

Is this a sign things are healing or resolving itself? Or is this just a trough in my tinnitus issue?

My biggest fear is that once I try to dive again, the tinnitus will come back much worse.
If I keep my diving modest (less then 100ft/30m), do I just run the risk of the tinnitus coming back with a vengeance?

And finally, once I dive again and as long as equalize safely, properly, painlessly and I feel great during/after the dive, can I just ignore any tinnitus that reemerges? Or is that an indication I'm pushing my ear to the limits?

You are assuming with all of these questions that your tinnitus is diving related. It may not be. Non-divers also get tinnitus. Developing tinnitus after diving does not mean that diving caused the tinnitus. I'm very glad yours has abated. Let's hope it stays gone, but I hope you don't give up on diving...

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

After all is said and done, attempting to see the few dive physicians in my area has been to no avail. Apparently you can't just talk to a doctor without it being an ordeal, a prolonged and expensive out-of-pocket ordeal. Butttttttt..... another reason I lost interest in seeing a dive Dr., is that for the past 2 weeks my tinnitus has been on the decline. Moreover, for the past 4 days, the tinnitus has disappeared completely!!

So for one last series on questions (@Duke Dive Medicine)

Is this a sign things are healing or resolving itself? Or is this just a trough in my tinnitus issue?

My biggest fear is that once I try to dive again, the tinnitus will come back much worse.
If I keep my diving modest (less then 100ft/30m), do I just run the risk of the tinnitus coming back with a vengeance?

And finally, once I dive again and as long as equalize safely, properly, painlessly and I feel great during/after the dive, can I just ignore any tinnitus that reemerges? Or is that an indication I'm pushing my ear to the limits?

Hi Tony,

Some speculation:

From your description, you didn't do anything to precipitate inner ear barotrauma. But, given your report of the symptoms, I don't think it can be ruled out. The rub is that normally someone with IEBT will have given a history of difficulty equalizing an ear and possibly a forceful Valsalva maneuver. If you did suffer from IEBT without any apparent cause, then you could be subject to further injury. It's possible that you have some reduced sensitivity in that ear as we sometimes see with our head/neck radiation patients in hyperbarics, in which case you might not feel a trauma happening.

If you had a mild case of inner ear DCS, it's reassuring that the tinnitus is seems to have resolved, and our recommendation to divers post-DCS is to refrain from diving until residual symptoms are well and truly gone.

Again, you could also have an inner ear condition that has nothing to do with diving but is aggravated by pressure change.

Or, you could simply have had a cold or a mild case of COVID that cause your ear to plug up, gave you some tinnitus, and now it's getting better.

So, a recommendation about diving from me (or anyone here) would be imprudent given that we don't know what caused your tinnitus in the first place. Only a good otologist (ENT who specializes in the E part) who's examined you in person would be in a position to give you a solid answer. If I were in your shoes I'd want to get to the bottom of it and make sure I didn't do anything to make it come back, possibly permanently.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[TonyBottomTime]

Thanks for all the support and advice to all. Being that I've been doing great these past several weeks, I'll take my chances with diving again without seeing a dive Dr. I honestly did/do I want to see one but I am simply fed up with the medical system to continue in my search of a better Dr. If something does happen again with my ear, I know where not to go (my PCP) and will make the effort to find the right person. By that time, maybe my patience would be restored too!

I don't have any plans of diving within the next 6 months or so, so I'll have plenty time to accrue more recovery time. Definitely will dive very conservatively next time, and what the heck, maybe I'll make a dive trip of just conservative diving (less the 30ft/10m) every other day while staying at sea level for at least 18 hours.



.

 

[Trt_Smrt]

I got tinnitus some 4 months ago...just one day driving it popped out of nowhere and has been here since then. Got examined by ENT, no fluid behind the eardrum, hearing test didnt show any serious damage or missing frequencies, did head MRI and there is nothing to relate it to. My phisician has a theory that its comming do to a pinched nerve in my neck as i can "regulate" my tinnitus frequency by moving lower jaw to the back and up...putting some pressure on a jaw joint (but this I could do for at least 15 years prior to getting tinnitus).
Since it appeared I've been diving up to 30m without any problems so far...it doesn't change anything in volume and/or frequency. I always take care to equalize as soon as I experience even slight pressure on the eardrum.
Dove in cold and warm water...no change.

So I'm going to continue diving as it apparently has nothing to do with my tinnitus symptoms...so why quitting it if it doesn't worsen the situation.

 

[Joe2518]

I'll be curious what happens when I dive deeper