everything in my right ear is replaced momentarily by a single frequency, a sinewave, and it's not the same frequency every time. over the course of the next couple seconds, the single-frequency ringing fades out and the normal world fades in. this has happened to me probably 20 times in my life, though it wouldn't surprise me if it was closer to 30.
someone once told me this is the experience of a bank of cilia dying... that loud noise knocks over patches of cilia inside the ear, like a hurricane knocking over saplings or tall grass or something. and that sometimes, after a while, the cilia are able to stand back up and continue functioning. but other times they're unable to recover, and then collapse and die. and that's what i'm hearing, a bank of cilia dying forever. and that frequency that rings is one that i will never hear again, ever.
can anybody confirm whether that's a load of crap? also, anybody else ever have this happen?
hearing loss
2the same thing has happened to me maybe a dozen times. it has kinda freaked me out but then i forget about it. i got my ears checked at the audiologist about a year ago and i have no hearing loss so i'm not too worried about it.
ew
ew
hearing loss
3yes, the same has happened to me too, about 12 or so times... I never knew why... but you'd assume that banks of cilia would die in much more number than 30 times...? I sincerely don't know. I also don't know in what condition my hearing is, so I don't know if your theory is true.
hearing loss
4yes, the same has happened to me too, about 12 or so times... I never knew why... but you'd assume that banks of cilia would die in much more number than 30 times...? I sincerely don't know. I also don't know in what condition my hearing is, so I don't know if your theory is true.
hearing loss
5toomanyhelicopters wrote:also, anybody else ever have this happen?
You may be going deaf. Or else stone crazy. Go see an audiologist post-haste. Seriously.
However, if the earhole expert finds nothing wrong, go see a shrink. Just make sure that whatever pills he gives you are the right kind -- you want the ones that quell the "sine waves" and the crazy voices, not the ones that will interfere with, reduce or "decrazify" yr postings.
hearing loss
6doude, crazify totally isn't a real word. c'mon.
i found this out there in cyberspace. :scratching chin:
i found this out there in cyberspace. :scratching chin:
http://www.ishn.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,2162,3249,00.html wrote:Ototoxins -- "ear poisons" -- are substances that can impair hearing. Like any chemical hazard, they can be ingested, absorbed or inhaled into the body. Once in the blood stream, scientists suspect ototoxins do their damage by getting circulated to the ear and absorbed by the auditory nerve or, like noise, by breaking the cochlear hair cells. The result can be mild hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), or total deafness.
In medicine, certain prescription drugs have long been linked to impaired hearing. Commonly used antibiotics like tetracycline and ampicillin are potentially ototoxic. So are some diuretics, aspirin, and drugs used to treat cancer. Even caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine have been shown in some studies to have ototoxic effects.
Known workplace ototoxins include solvents like styrene, xylene, and trichloroethylene; metals like lead and mercury; and asphyxiants like carbon monoxide. Studies have shown that excessive exposure to any of these agents on its own is enough to induce hearing loss. More severe effects can result when ototoxin exposure is combined with noise exposure. In fact, some researchers indicate that even when noise and chemicals are at permissible exposure levels, the impact of a combined exposure can do more damage than a higher exposure to either hazard alone.
hearing loss
7dude-
that's ONLY happened 20 or so times in your life? consider yourself lucky.
after a thread here a while back i went to an audiologist and he relayed the same info to me. my hearing is actually not as fucked as i had thought, and is fact still better than the average musician in my age group - but what does that tell you really....
yes, that happens to me also - though i just say my ears are ringing, though you pretty accurately described the phenomenon. you are indeed slowly losing your hearing. you are also slowly developing lung cancer every time the guy next to you smokes.
the place that was recommended by someone else here that i went to was:
http://www.sensaphonics.com/
that's ONLY happened 20 or so times in your life? consider yourself lucky.
after a thread here a while back i went to an audiologist and he relayed the same info to me. my hearing is actually not as fucked as i had thought, and is fact still better than the average musician in my age group - but what does that tell you really....
yes, that happens to me also - though i just say my ears are ringing, though you pretty accurately described the phenomenon. you are indeed slowly losing your hearing. you are also slowly developing lung cancer every time the guy next to you smokes.
the place that was recommended by someone else here that i went to was:
http://www.sensaphonics.com/
hearing loss
8i'm guessing that you may experiencing some kind of noise damage, given that this is a music board.
what you're getting is transient tinnitus. what you may eventually get is permanent tinnitus if you continue to expose your ears to unsuitable noise levels or frequencies. cilia are the microscopic hairs in the cochlea that respond to air pressure movements and register the frequency levels at a neurological level for the brain to pick up by moving like tall grass blowing in the wind (that's how i picture it anyway).
if the sounds are just too loud, gut-churningly low or glass-shattering high, the cilia that register those particular frequencies will break. this in effect confuses the brain, and a noise at that frequency is permanently registered by the brain because the cilia cannot move back into the "no signal received" position - permanent tinnitus. you hear with your brain - the ears just catch the sounds in the form of air movements.
if the hairs are able to recover, you eventually lose the ringing sounds - temporary tinnitus (for example, after a gig)
like any part of the body, sometimes the cilia can just twitch and trigger the brain to receive a noise. transient tinnitus.
tinnitus does not automatically mean a hearing loss. it's a distortion of frequencies, not a reduced ability to hear sound. a pure tone audiological assessment will help assess any hearing impairment. just take precautions by wearing ear plugs. i find it helps me hear the music better anyway.
by the way, apparently ears can toughen up - they can get quite resistant to loud noise without suffering significant damage. a bit like getting hard skin on your hands when you do a lot of manual labour.
perhaps the American Speech & Hearing Association (ASHA) have some useful websites.
what you're getting is transient tinnitus. what you may eventually get is permanent tinnitus if you continue to expose your ears to unsuitable noise levels or frequencies. cilia are the microscopic hairs in the cochlea that respond to air pressure movements and register the frequency levels at a neurological level for the brain to pick up by moving like tall grass blowing in the wind (that's how i picture it anyway).
if the sounds are just too loud, gut-churningly low or glass-shattering high, the cilia that register those particular frequencies will break. this in effect confuses the brain, and a noise at that frequency is permanently registered by the brain because the cilia cannot move back into the "no signal received" position - permanent tinnitus. you hear with your brain - the ears just catch the sounds in the form of air movements.
if the hairs are able to recover, you eventually lose the ringing sounds - temporary tinnitus (for example, after a gig)
like any part of the body, sometimes the cilia can just twitch and trigger the brain to receive a noise. transient tinnitus.
tinnitus does not automatically mean a hearing loss. it's a distortion of frequencies, not a reduced ability to hear sound. a pure tone audiological assessment will help assess any hearing impairment. just take precautions by wearing ear plugs. i find it helps me hear the music better anyway.
by the way, apparently ears can toughen up - they can get quite resistant to loud noise without suffering significant damage. a bit like getting hard skin on your hands when you do a lot of manual labour.
perhaps the American Speech & Hearing Association (ASHA) have some useful websites.
Last edited by floog_Archive on Wed Jul 28, 2004 2:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
hearing loss
9toomanyhelicopters wrote:In medicine, certain prescription drugs have long been linked to impaired hearing. Commonly used antibiotics like tetracycline and ampicillin are potentially ototoxic. So are some diuretics, aspirin, and drugs used to treat cancer. Even caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine have been shown in some studies to have ototoxic effects.
I guess this explains why shitty bands become tolerable after you down 14 Red Bull-and-vodkas while smoking half a pack of Marlboros.
hearing loss
10Chris G wrote:I guess this explains why shitty bands become tolerable after you down 14 Red Bull-and-vodkas while smoking half a pack of Marlboros.
here's the walk home after that one, eh?
http://www.wagenschenke.ch/