Sorry to hear. You’re not alone and I’m constantly surprised to learn how many people I know are dealing with hearing concerns once I started talking about mine more.

My note to younger self is similar: get great earplugs and use them diligently.

A note of caution regarding earplugs: they can introduce infection, which in turn (I suspect) may play a role in triggering or causing tinnitus. It probably depends on individual predisposition and climate (to me it happened in hot humid environment), but I recommend caution.

I wish I could use earplugs (or IEM headphones with good sound isolation) a lot of the time, but I found out the hard way (after infection subsided I have intermittent tinnitus as well).

> Sorry to hear.

Phrasing…

I thought it was funny.

Have you been on antibiotics since you had it? If so, did it make it any worse?

I have a slight case of tinnitus and need to do a 2 week round of neomycin. Doctor says it shouldn't make it worse since it's a short course, but I'm still concerned/anxious about it.

It's been with me for 20+ years now, originally triggered by a concert in Paradiso in Amsterdam that I got free tickets to on account of repairing a bunch of cabling under the stage. The next day there was a really loud buzz on top of everything else that only slowly went away. After that it periodically recurred, usually right after exposure to some loud noise (especially: grinder, that one does it every time). I do what I can with ear protection to keep what I've got (which is a slowly losing battle), without any sound around me there is this very high pitched whine and with some low level masking sound that becomes manageable.

But e5 on the piano played loud is an instant trigger, that particular frequency is really not working for me. Never made any link with antibiotics but if I ever have to do a cure I'll be sure to pay attention. What mechanism are you concerned about? Is this a well known thing?

Do you have an audiologist regularly look at your ears? Obstruction and buildup can make tinnitus worse.

I find I really should wear earplugs way more often than I think. Putting dishes away, shoveling snow, scraping ice, even just running a sink. For everyday wear I cut down cheap foam plugs to ~half length (and reduce the depth of insertion), and I also wash them beforehand/periodically with plant-based soap. This removes additives in the foam which I find can cause skin irritation and reduce breathability.

Hope you get some relief.

> Do you have an audiologist regularly look at your ears?

I did in the past, haven't in years so thank you for the reminder, I really should do that. I think in part it is because I've simply given up on ever seeing an improvement, just a very slow rearguard fight.

I think it's less of a concern for someone like you where it was brought on by loud noise vs someone like me where it's likely due to an imbalanced microbiome where taking antibiotics could potentially damage your microbiome further, leading to worsening tinnitus.

You should be okay. I've found a couple of studies that have looked at groups of patients in the hundreds, with no worsening of hearing loss (and presumably, no worsening of tinnitus) [1][2]. Caveat is that both studies were done in kids, since they get more ear infections in general. Also, "topical ear drop medications containing gentamycin or neomycin do not appear to be ototoxic in humans unless the tympanic membrane (ear drum) is perforated" [3].

[1]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16890085/

[2]https://doi.org/10.1177/019459989310900114

[3]https://doi.org/10.4103/0971-7749.161014

>Note to younger self: stay away from loud concerts.

Or try those "concert earplugs." They reduce the overall sound level while better preserving high and mid sounds. It also reduces the booming sound ('occlusion effect') when talking.

I paid $15 for a pair recently, but experimentation shows it's mostly just silicone earplugs with a hole through the center and a small mesh screen.

Removing the fancy "audio filter" and stuffing a tiny (tiny!) wisp of cotton in the hole seems to do the same thing, honestly. You can probably reproduce these using 30¢ HF silicone earplugs if you find a way to "drill" a hole through them...

If the solution to concerts is that you have to protect your ears yourself then I would argue that the concerts themselves should be held accountable.

I have tinnitus and it SUCKS. The people who threw the outdoor music festivals I went to in my 20s should be brought to trial...