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Thread: Ringing in the ears

  1. #1
    Sophmoric Existentialist
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    Default Ringing in the ears

    My 14 year old grandson has tinnitus. He's had it for years, he says ever since he can remember. It's not common in kids. He's had some hearing assessments, and has a little loss of hearing in the affected ear. There was a hole in that eardrum, but it has healed over.

    I know the poor kid thought the specialist we're seeing was going to be able to make the ringing go away, but of course, there is little that can be done. The doc has ordered an MRI, but says he's pretty sure there's no growth or anything, this is just to eliminate the possibility. If the ringing is the result of an old infection, that may show up. But still, no treatment is likely.

    So, I wonder if anyone knows anything about this, any other treatments you've read of or heard of, or tried. Right now, he listens to his I-Pod when he goes to bed, but he says about all it does is make another noise on top of the ringing.
    Sophmoric Existentialist

  2. #2
    my god, he's full of stars... OneCentStamp's avatar
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    I have mild tinnitus, from years of band practices in tiny concrete rooms, ear-splitting club gigs with no plugs, and front row seats at big concerts. My tinnitus is mild enough that it's rarely distracting. I sleep fine with just the white noise of a fan.

    However, there is one treatment that I've heard of, both from interviews with musicians and from the ear doctor who made my filter plugs (yes, I finally got some, about 10 years too late), that might help. It involved zeroing in on the pitch of the tinnitus, then listening to a sound generator that made that same pitch for a certain number of minutes each day. The idea was that your brain would learn to ignore or desensitize itself to that pitch, which would make the tinnitus seem to disappear. The drawback was that you had to do it every day, for long periods in the case of severe tinnitus.

    It was an experimental treatment when I heard of it. I don't know if it's gotten out of the experimental stage.
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  3. #3
    Oliphaunt Rube E. Tewesday's avatar
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    Here's a recent New Yorker article that may be of interest:

    http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009 ... t_groopman

  4. #4
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    But are the results of tinnitus actual sounds or are they just being made up by your brain?

    As someone who often stays up late when there is little ambient noise, I regularly hear high-pitched electrical sounding noises that I can never determine the source of. If I plug my ears, the volume lessens, but I take it this wouldn't happen for a tinnitus sufferer?
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  5. #5
    my god, he's full of stars... OneCentStamp's avatar
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    Quote Originally posted by ivan astikov
    But are the results of tinnitus actual sounds or are they just being made up by your brain?
    By definition, they're never actual sounds. But the mechanism can vary. Sometimes it's purely neurological; temporary or even permanent tinnitus can result from injury to the head, even injury that doesn't mechanically damage the ear.

    Other times, and this is the case with me and other rock and roll casualties, it's mechanical: cilia in the inner ear become permanently flattened by loud noise, and the kind of ringing that you get in the seconds after a firecracker goes off in the room, I get all the time.
    "You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."

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  6. #6
    Sophmoric Existentialist
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    Thanks for the replies.

    The dr. didn't cheer T up by telling him that even deaf people have ringing in their ears.
    Sophmoric Existentialist

  7. #7
    my god, he's full of stars... OneCentStamp's avatar
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    Quote Originally posted by vison
    The dr. didn't cheer T up by telling him that even deaf people have ringing in their ears.
    Can you imagine how bad that would suck? That's like a eunuch getting blue balls. All of the drawbacks of a paired organ, with none of the perks.
    "You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."

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  8. #8
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    Tinnitus can also be caused by some flaw in the ear's anatomy - perhaps a blood vessel lies too close to the ear drum or there's some other anomaly, which is why doctors often request an MRI for patients complaining of tinnitus.
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  9. #9
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    I have had tinnitus for as long as I can remember, a high-pitched ringing in both ears, kind of like what CRT monitors sometimes produce. I definitely had it as a kid, I can clearly remember wondering about it at a fairly early age. The only thing I can offer is that I got used to it, and rarely notice it unless I specifically think about it (like now!), or am straining to hear some quiet sound. I can usually hear quiet sounds despite it, even those darn monitors!

  10. #10
    I've had better days, but I don't care! hatesfreedom's avatar
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    Didn't I read somewhere that William Shatner had the ringining thing in his ears too. I think i did.

  11. #11
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    I have it as well. One thing that really seems to aggravate it is Aleve. How weird is that?
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  12. #12
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    Quote Originally posted by Chefguy
    I have it as well. One thing that really seems to aggravate it is Aleve. How weird is that?
    Not weird at all, that's quite common in fact. Other NSAIDs also cause it.

  13. #13
    Elephant TheFlame's avatar
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    Default Re: Ringing in the ears

    Quote Originally posted by hatesfreedom
    Didn't I read somewhere that William Shatner had the ringining thing in his ears too. I think i did.
    Yes. William Shatner suffered from tinnitus caused by explosions on film sets. See .
    I didn't make the world this way, it was like this when I got here

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