Sudden Hearing Loss—What Happens Next?
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A man explained:
I am a 37 year old male who has experienced sudden hearing loss in my right ear. Unfortunately, the problem was not treated right away. Prednisone therapy, which didn’t help, was initiated 13 days after the loss. In hearing tests I could not understand any speech, though I hear tones and some low register sounds. I’m curious to know the possibility, if any, of the hearing returning. My MRI came out negative and I experienced very little, if any, vertigo. It has now been four weeks since the loss. If my hearing does not recover, does the ringing, at least, eventually die down? Do hearing aids assist in reducing the ringing?
Sudden hearing loss typically strikes without warning. The standard treatment is Prednisone. Beginning it as soon as possible after the sudden hearing loss gives the best chances of recovery. Just remember that sometimes Prednisone works and sometimes it doesn’t. Also, sometimes hearing comes back on its own without, or in spite of, any treatment.
In your case, it seems the Prednisone didn’t work. Even though you began it after 13 days, that is not necessarily too late—but the sooner you begin, typically the better results you have.
Unfortunately, it seems that neither the Prednisone, nor time, has restored your hearing. Typically, the worse the sudden loss, the less chance there is of full, or even any, recovery.
The way it usually works is that the hearing you have at the end of 30 days or so is what you will be left with—unless your hearing has been returning a bit at a time all along, in which case it could continue to improve after the 30 days. Since you haven’t had any significant hearing returning during this time, I think the chances that more will return are slim.
You ask, “If my hearing does not recover, does the ringing, at least, eventually die down?”
It may, or may not. In any case, you can learn to habituate to your tinnitus so it no longer bothers you—no matter how loud or soft it is. The thing to do is not dwell on, or focus on, your tinnitus. Totally ignore it, and act like it isn’t there. When you do this, you will notice that your tinnitus tends to fade into the background and not be so intrusive. Not easy to do, I know, but it does work for many people. I’ve had tinnitus for 40 plus years now, and although my ears are ringing away as I write this, I do not let my tinnitus bother me. It is just “there”. (Of course, if I had by “druthers”, I’d rather it wasn’t there at all!)
Conversely, if you dwell on your tinnitus, it will get even worse. That is why it is so important, right from the start, to learn to focus on other things and thus ignore your tinnitus.
Since people typically perceive their tinnitus as louder when there is no sound around, enriching your sound environment helps mask your tinnitus. That is why wearing hearing aids help a lot of people cope with their tinnitus. Hearing aids bring in lots of real sounds for your brain to process so it doesn’t concentrate on your tinnitus as much. Thus, your tinnitus seems to fade into the background to some degree. However, when you take your hearing aids off at night, the lack of real sounds allows your tinnitus to come back until the next morning when you put your aids in again.
One trick to help you manage your tinnitus during the night is to set your clock radio to stay on for an hour or so, so your brain has real sounds to listen to while you fall asleep. Other people find that having a fan running in their bedroom does the same thing. Still others listen to CDs of environmental sounds—rain, waves on the seashore, birds, etc. and have good results with that. Do what works best for you. Hopefully your tinnitus will only be a minor annoyance in your life, not a major problem.
If this doesn’t work, my book, “When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How” teaches you a number of things you can do to help yourself successfully live with your tinnitus.
My daughter suffered SHL that started with fluttering in her right ear on 9/6/09, then progressed to the exact kind of loss this man describes within 24 hrs. Started anti-viral and Pred about a week later with no improvement for 60 days. Then minor improvement but stabilized with about 60% loss, plus ringing. Yesterday (11/13/09) she called and said her ear made a funny “rubber band” sound during a meeting and then again 3hrs later at diner – then total recovery! Very strange and wonderful!
So your daughter take all the steroid for whole 60 days
My friend had been deaf since he was 5 years old and had to learn sign language and a lot of other things to cope with his deafness. he is now 42 and we where in the park together and he said to me “did you ever notice how birds sing very good tunes with each other, a lot like humans”. I was thinking, how does he know that? then he said to me “they sound very beautiful”. I was amazed, he didn’t even notice, but after 42 years of deafness, his hearing suddenly returned.
My left ear suddenly loss hearing with vertigo. On 2.10.2019. But could not bearing the balancing of my body. Could work properly. Could I recover my hearing loss.
Hi JD:
Your hearing loss may recover spontaneously, it may recover (at least partially) with treatment, or it may never come back, in spite of any treatment. If some hearing has come back since the day of your hearing loss, that is a good sign. If no hearing has returned by now, the chances of getting much hearing back is slim.
Cordially,
Neil
helo every1,i have a sudden problem of deafness.when i went to doctor he told me dat it is due to some virus.i took treatment for about 3 months n got improved about 60-70%.but still i have problem in listening.pls help me if any1 can,on this issue.i’ll v.v.thankful
Hello, I recently had a stroke like incident which caused me to have sudden hearing loss in both ears, and I lost my ability to walk which I’m working on, my MRI showed inflammation in my brain which caused the incident. I’ve been fit with hearing aids and they treated me with steroids for the inflamation, I was told my hearing may come back after the treatment I still can’t seem to hear and it has been over 30 days, I’m wondering if wearing the aids will hinder my likelihood of my hearing returning, I also read that some people had a return of hearing after 6 months which is what I’m praying for I had my incident in August and it is now late November.
Hi Leah:
No, wearing hearing aids won’t prevent your hearing from returning–but they will help you in the meantime, and in the future if your hearing should not return. So there is no downside to wearing your hearing aids now and as long as you need them.
Don’t give up hope, but at the same time, plan for a life with hearing loss so you are not devastated if your hearing doesn’t return as you hope it will. And if your hearing comes back you can rejoice.
I wish you well.
Neil
Suffered sudden hearing loss to left ear 4 months ago. Oral predisone with no response decided against injections due to my loss being profound. Thank goodness with therapy my dizzy drunk walking spell have all but vanished. Dealing with the constant ringing. My biggest question is that if my injury was due to a virus how can I be sure it is not still lurking around to cause more damage though I believe my Doctors have been good I have been unable to get this question answered.
Hi Greg:
Obviously the best way to guard against future problems with viruses (and indeed any infectious agents) is to improve the function of your immune system. A robust immune system has the ability to fight off most infections with no trouble.
Since about 80% of your immune system actually resides in your gut, maintaining healthy “good” bacteria in your gut flora will go a long ways to keeping your immune system robust and thus keeping you healthy. Taking good probiotics and/or regularly eating live fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, etc. is an excellent way to achieve this.
And on the other side of the equation, eating too much sugar (and sugar in all its forms is ubiquitous in processed foods) shoots down your immune system.
Also, maintaining a healthy level of Vitamin D3 in your blood is very important. The proper level of Vitamin D3 in your blood should be between 50 and 70 ng/ml. Most people are way below this level and it reflects on their health problems. The best way to get adequate Vitamin D3 is to get daily sunshine outdoors. Or you can take Vitamin D3 capsules.
Cordially,
Neil
Im 34 years old and suffered profound hearing loss across all frequencies 7 weeks ago. I received treatment within 12 hours-50mg prednisolone for two weeks plus 6 intratympanic dexamethasone injections (one per week) plus steroid drops 3xdaily for six weeks through a grommet in my ear. I went from dead ear to 90-110db loss which is still no way functional hearing. My question is, is it possible to recover hearing at this late stage or is this it? My ENT thinks it was viral but said we can’t ever know for sure. He also said it’s impossible to know if my nerve is dead or if it’s the hair cells that were damaged. Is there in fact anyway to ever find out? I should also point out that It was diagnosed as idiopathic SSNHL and unilateral loss
Hi Louise:
When you suffer almost complete hearing loss, my rule of thumb is that probably only a little will come back–just as you experienced–even in spite of the best treatment. Another of my rules of thumb is that the hearing you have after 30 days is what you will be left with. Thus, unfortunately, barring a miracle, I don’t think any more of your hearing will come back.
As to whether your auditory nerve is dead or the hair cells or other structures in your inner are are dead, I suspect it is the hair cells and underlying structures, not the auditory nerve. In fact, almost never is the auditory nerve dead as such. That is why cochlear implants work so well on people that have experienced SSHL such as you have.
Unfortunately, you are probably not eligible for a cochlear implant since you have normal hearing in one ear. (So far, only those that have intractable tinnitus in the deaf ear have been approved for a CI when they have normal hearing in the other ear.)
All is not lost however. Now you need to learn the tricks of living as a person with only one ear. One trick when in classrooms, meetings and church is to sit near one wall with your deaf ear to the wall. That way your good ear listens into the room and lets you hear better.
The same applies when talking to someone. Have them sit opposite you where you can both hear and see them. If they must sit beside you, have them sit on your hearing ear side. This eliminates the head shadow effect and you will hear them much better without straining.
You should also check out a CROS hearing aid that puts a microphone on your deaf side and wirelessly pipes the sound to your good ear so you can hear people on your deaf side much better.
Even with a CROS aid, you still won’t have directionality of sound so you have to use your eyes to locate the source of sounds. You can’t rely on your one ear. Also, train your family to say where they are not just yell “in here” because you can’t tell where “in here” is. Have them call out, “I’m in the kitchen or wherever”. Little tricks like these will make communicating ever so much easier.
I wish you well.
Cordially,
Neil
Thanks for your quick response Neil, it is very helpful and appreciated. If it is in fact damage to the hair cells is there any way they can test so I know for sure? I heard about an test to check the outer hair cells called OAE? Test. But is it outer or inner hair cells or both?
Thanks again
Hello Neil! My boyfriend experienced sudden hearing loss in one hear about a month ago. He started treatment a week later and did not get better, but about two days ago, suddenly regained all his hearing! However, today he told me he is hearing badly once again. Is this possible? To get better and then suddenly worse? Or is it probably not hearing loss but something else? Thank you!
Hi Constanza:
I need more information before I can really answer your questions. For starters, what treatment did he receive? Does he have any autoimmune disease?
Depending on the exact cause of the sudden hearing loss, yes, it is possible to hear, not hear and hear again. It’s not common, but weird things like that can happen.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Niel,
A similar thing has happened to me. My left ear started to feel muffled Sunday night, and was much worse Monday Morning. I went to the doctor Monday afternoon and started Prednisone that night. My hearing seemed normal Tuesday Morning but Wednesday morning it started to get worse again and now its back to its original state.
I haven’t lost my hearing completely, but everything seems very muffled.
Any idea what is going on here?
Best,
Kim
Hi Kim:
Not a clue. You haven’t given me enough information about your situation for me to be able to figure out what’s going on.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Louise:
When yoe have a massive hearing loss like you had, it is both the outer and inner hair cells that die.
OAE (otoacoustic emissions) testing only works up to mild hearing loss or so. (A rule of thumb is that OAEs are present if hearing is 35 dB or better.) After that the OAEs are absent. For example, I have a severe loss and don’t have OAEs.
In your case it is almost certainly damage to your hair cells (and/or underlying structures such as the spiral ganglion), not to the auditory nerve itself. Damage to the auditory nerve itself is rare in my opinion unless you have conditions such as auditory neuromas–things like that.
As I said previously, viral attacks kill the hair cells, but not the nerve. That is why such people are good candidates for cochlear implants and typically do very well–proving that the nerve is fully functional.
Cordially,
Neil
Thanks Neil, I certainly hope that’s right and it is the hair cells. It gives me hope because they are in stage 2 trials for hair cell regeneration from what I’m told. With this said, even if that’s the case and its successful it’s likely to be decades away and by then atrophy will have set in and it will probably be too late for me. I’ve been doing sound induce constraint therapy but told it won’t help because I’m profoundly deaf so nothing to stimulate in order to prevent atrophy anyway.
Hi Louise:
Hair cell regeneration is still a good 10 years away in my opinion–and may never work as well as expected. But atrophy may not be as much as you think. The real area where you don’t want atrophy is in the auditory circuits in your brain. The good news is that your good ear is keeping those circuits working properly even without the input from your bad ear.
Cordially,
Neil
Just 4 days ago the hearing in my right ear was mostly gone I don’t know why . I feel like I have gone deaf in my right ear what do I do?
Hi Rebecca:
You need to go to an ear specialist (ENT or otologist) and have him check out your ears.
Cordially,
Neil
Had a cold on Feb 17 2016 and on Feb 22 2016 suddenly went deaf in left ear Went to Primary Dr immediately and was put on Amoxicillin and Flonase I was not told to this could be so serious. As a result saw an ENT on March 23 2016 and was diagnosed with SSHL with severe hearing loss in my left ear. I am so upset I am beside myself I am on a high dose of Prednisone for the next 2 weeks and hoping for the best. My question is even though it has been 30 days is there a chance that some of my hearing will return? I would be happy for that. Thanks for listening Any input would be appreciated,
Hi Anne:
Your question is a great one and deserves a more complete answer, so I wrote a new article answering it. You can read it at The Hum Test for Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr Bauman it’s me again Anne. I am giving you the report that was sent to my primary care dr. It says tgere is severe mucus drainage and edema without any masses or lesions. Tympanic membranes and external auditory canals are within normal limits bilaterally. Hope that tells you more. Thanks for caring
Hi Ann:
I take this to mean you have no outer ear problems, but you have a cold. Since you have so much hearing loss, he could have told you to have a complete audiological evaluation which would have instantly told the audiologist whether you have a conductive loss due to middle ear congestion (temporary) or a sensorineural loss in your inner ear (typically permanent) due to a viral attack on your inner ear (cold virus), or both.
Once they knew that, your doctors could have immediately come up with the appropriate treatment. But that is all in the past now.
Cordially,
Neil
Thanks Neil I guess I just have to get used to this new way of life but it is truly devastating and hard to adapt to I have another question the noise I hear in the bad ear is constant wind blowing and sometimes my head feels so full and I am not dizzy but just a little off. Will that subside or is this it? I realize you are not God but you are very knowledgeable and helpful so I value your opinion and quick response. Also I am scheduled for an MRI on April 6 and as you can imagine I am freaking out I was told 99% comes out fine so lets hope. Thank you!
Hello Dr Bauman,
My name is Sophie, I am 25 and I suffered Sshl a month ago. Went to the Gp the day after who was clueless and dismissed me saying everything looked fine. Booked with an ENT 3 days later. At the Ent I did the audiology tests which confirmed profound loss. The doctor however did not start me right away with the standart treatment, and instead sent me to the Er to have a CT scan. At the hospital I asked to be seen by a specialist but was told the resident Ent would be in only next tuesday (7days after onset).
That day I went to a consultation with the doctor who finally diagnosed my with Sshl and started treatment immediatly. I did the normal course of medication, and even got the injection directly into the eardrum. However there was only and tiny improvement… I am feeling very anxious thinking that I should have started treatment earlier, and that maybe I could have saved some hearing. I think I can adapt, but right now I am so depressed thinking why wasn’t I treated earliner? Is 7 days from onset too late for treatment to be effective?
I would appreciate some words… Thank you Doctor!
Hi Sophie:
Starting treatment as soon as you have SSHL is preferable, but some people get good results 7 or more days later. So don’t beat yourself up over this. Yes, your doctors should have been on the ball and started treatment immediately, but they didn’t. Maybe you would have had better results, maybe not.
Remember, there is no guarantee that steroids will help. For some people that help a lot. For some people they don’t help at all. And for others hearing comes back on its own whether you have the drugs or not. Unfortunately, in your case, it may be that nothing is going to significantly help you.
Since it is well over a month now since this happened, it’s time to turn your attention to learning how to successfully live with only one ear rather than mulling over the past.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello Dr. Bauman,
I am a 44-year-old man. I developed pulsatile tinnitus in my right ear in December, which was joined by ringing tinnitus a couple of months later. I also had sensitivity to noises, such as dishes. Over the past three days I had intermittent, now constant hearing loss in that right ear. Two ENTs were unable to find a cause of any of this, despite extensive imaging studies. My ENT started me on Prednazone for the hearing loss. I am on day one. He said he thought the ringing tinnitus and pulsatile tinnitus were coincidental, not related, problems. Now he thinks the hearing loss is coincidental, not related, to those. That sounds implausible to me, and causes me to have even less confidence in him than I had before, which wasn’t a whole lot.
Have you heard of this course of symptoms — pulsatile tinnitus (which never abated until the hearing disappeared entirely), then ringing tinnitus, then SHL? And do you have any suggestions?
(Incidentally, I tried to post previously from my phone and it doesn’t appear to have worked — if it did, sorry for the duplicate post.)
Alexander
Hi Alexander:
Your other comment did come through to me, but I hadn’t approved it yet, thus you never saw it. I’ve just deleted it and will answer this one.
Do I understand correctly that you have lost ALL hearing in your right ear? And that the pulsatile tinnitus stopped when you lost your hearing in this ear, and the ringing tinnitus started at that time?
You don’t mention any balance problems, but did you have any dizziness, vertigo or a sense of imbalance at the time you lost your hearing?
Personally, I think all three of these things are related. Here’s one possible scenario assuming the sequence in my question above. First, you had pulsatile tinnitus. This indicates turbulent blood flow in an artery near your inner ear. This could have many causes, but I’m assuming that it was caused by high blood pressure and build-up of plaque inside the artery. What could have happened is that a piece of the plaque eventually broke off and got carried to the cochlear artery where it partially blocked it (or temporarily blocked it) causing the intermittent hearing loss. Then it solidly blocked it, and because the hair cells (and other cells) were denied blood for too long, they died and thus you have complete hearing loss in that ear.
With the hearing loss, you could no longer hear the pulsatile tinnitus. However, the ringing kind of tinnitus began since tinnitus accompanies hearing loss 90+% of the time.
The result is that you are deaf in that ear and have the ringing tinnitus.
There could be other scenarios, but until I know more about the exact sequence of events and what you experienced, that seems to be the most likely scenario based on what you have said so far.
IF you have a blocked cochlear artery AND IF it is not too late, your doctor could give you clot busting drugs to try to clear the blockage. I don’t know whether this will work now as several days have passed. If the blockage is not complete, the hair cells may just be “sick” from lack of oxygen and if blood flow is restored, your hearing could come back.
I’d sure like to know why your doctor thinks these three thing- are unrelated. How does he justify his opinion?
Cordially,
Neil
Quite a few years ago my husband had a problem with his neck. The doctor sent him to a physical therapist. While doing one of the exercises he heard what sounded like bubble wrap popping and then developed ringing in his ears. Fast forward to a few months ago. My husband again was having a pain in his neck. He woke up with SHL in his left ear. He went to the doctor who sent him to an ENT. They tested his hearing and then sent him to a neurologist. He felt the neck and the hearing loss were related. He ended up going to 2 neurologists which both told him the two things were not related. No one had recommended any steroid treatment. They basically told him to live with it. In the last few days he has noticed a pain in that ear when he is around certain sounds. Could this be hearing coming back? I sure hope so. He is a musician and is unable to hear certain notes.
Hi Carol:
I think, given what you have told me, that your husband’s C1 and C2 vertebrae are out of alignment. If I were him, I’m go to a special kind of chiropractor called an upper cervical spine chiropractor. And even with these guys, I’d try to find one that practices the “Blair” method. You will likely find that a lot of your husbands problems stem from these vertebrae being out of proper alignment. Doctors and conventional chiropractors are basically clueless about this so they typically won’t be able to help him.
To find a Blair upper cervical chiropractor (or indeed any of the other kinds of upper cervical spine chiropractors relatively near you, go to http://www.upcspine.com, then hover over “Practitioners” and select the continent you are one from the drop down menu.
Find your state or province (if you live in North America and click on “View”. You’ll see a listing of all the Upper Cervical chiropractors in your state. To find a Blair chiropractor look at the heading (about 2 or 3 lines from the bottom of each listing called “Upper cervical approach/technique used:” Look for Blair there. You’ll see other more common ones such as Atlas Orthogonal, NUCCA, Grostic, Knee-Chest, Palmer specific, Orthospinology, and of few others.
Hopefully, there is one not too far from you, but be aware that Blair chiropractors are not very common so it is not unusual that you’d have to travel 200 or more miles to get to one. If the distance is too far, you might want to try one of the others.
I don’t believe that the pain he feels when around certain sounds is a good thing–meaning his hearing is coming back–but a bad thing–indicating further problems. That is why, if I were in his shoes, I’d be checked out by an upper cervical spine chiropractor and ensure that all my vertebrae (especially C1 and C2) are in proper alignment.
Cordially,
Neil
I had SSNHL on 3rd January, 2016. I was given steroid injection and oral steroid followed by intra-tympanic inj. nothing worked. I have profound deafness PTA 98.3 in my left ear.
I am worried about my good ear because I feel different type of sensations in it. I can at times hear queer noises when I turn my head….sometimes fullness… I had acute hyperacusis in this ear but it is gradually subsiding. What do you suggest me to do.
Hi Madhushree:
From the little you are telling me and by reading between the lines, I suspect that your upper 2 vertebrae in your neck are out of proper alignment. I see you are in India. Over here in the USA, I’d suggest you go to an upper spine specialist. There are not very many in Asia in general. You can find them at http://www.upcspine.com/prac2.asp?rid=2.
That would be my first choice. Otherwise, a conventional chiropractor that knows how to work with the top two vertebrae would be my second choice.
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you Dr. Bauman
At the outset what test can I do to confirm what you are suspecting. Will a X-ray be alright or do I need an MRI. I did MRI of brain and it was normal …in fact all other tests like ANA etc were normal.
I will be going to the Us this August for two years on a research project. I will be there at Philly. Can you please suggest any doctor from Perelman Hospital at UPenn.
Will my hearing revert back?
Thank you once again for your kind reply.
Hi Madhushree:
To do what I suggested, you need to go to a Blair upper cervical spine chiropractor and let him take the appropriate x-rays. The x-rays typical doctors take are not good enough–not at the right angles, etc. Nor do regular doctors know how to read (interpret) them correctly.
The kind of doctors I am talking about do not work at hospitals. They work independently. Use the information I give in the article to find all the upper spine chiropractors in the Philly area (or in adjoining states) and choose one of them. I don’t know any specific ones in that area.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello Dr Bauman, i am 42 and had a SHL 2 weeks ago. I was already 25% down in both ears from a loss that happened 9 years ago and was not really diagnosed. This time (just like last time), I was given Cortison within the first week followed by 4 injections in the timpan. Nothing changed, i have lost 65% on the left, and am still at 20% loss on the right. I pushed to get antiviral treatment and started it 2 weeks after the loss. I am not sure what else to do, and am very frustrated about this, not knowing what it is coming from..I am healthy, no smoke, exercise, and no genetic background for it, so what is it? The only thing i have is rather low blood pressure ( i am often cold) and i dont drink a lot.is it related? Thanks
Hi Nathalie:
The first thing I’d want to know is whether you had any active virus in your body in the week or so BEFORE you had the hearing loss. If so, then your loss could very well have been from a virus attacking your inner ear.
I’m not a medical doctor so don’t know all the ins and outs of medical conditions, but don’t see an obvious connection between low blood pressure and sudden hearing loss. But I AM wondering if you’ve had your thyroid checked. Feeling cold could be from an underactive thyroid gland, and indirectly that may be causing some hearing problems too as hearing loss is also associated with an underactive thyroid.
So have your doctor check out your thyroid.
Cordially,
Neil
Dr Bauman,
Thanks for maintaining this blog (and for responding to questions in this space). I’m really surprised how few places there are for folks with Sudden Hearing Loss and related issues to share their stories and ask questions. (Plenty of inconclusive research papers to be found, however!)
I’m on Day 16 with Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss. My loss is in higher frequencies accompanied by high frequency Tinnitus. I first saw the ENT on Day 10, who diagnosed me and prescribed oral Prednisone starting at 24mg and tapering off over 6 days.
On Day 15 I had a return visit with the ENT and a new audiogram, which showed some improvement.
Below are my initial audiogram results from Day 10, followed by the follow-up results from Day 15:
250 hz –> 30db, 15db
500 hz –> 25db, 10db
1000 hz -> 20db, 10db
2000 hz -> 25db, 15db
3000 hz -> 35db, 25db
4000 hz -> 75db, 40db
6000 hz -> 80db, 55db
8000 hz -> 85db, 65db
As you can see, the higher frequencies (while improved) are still quite impaired.
I fully tapered off the oral Prednisone two days ago (Day 14), and today my ENT gave me an intratympanic injection of dexamethasone into the middle ear.
Since we saw improvement with a short course of low dosage Oral Prednisone, I was surprised he switched me to the intratympanic steroid. His response was since the Prednisone seemed to help, I’d be an even better candidate for the injection. Why he didn’t do both, I don’t know, and if the injection alone doesn’t help, I worry that my best chances for continued recovery diminish with each passing day. (He’s only giving me one injection, and my next appointment with him is 9 days from now, on Day 28).
Questions for you:
1) Based on your knowledge, do you think I’ll see continued improvement switching from Oral Prenisone to a single injection of the intratympanic steroid?
2) If the intratympanic steroid is effective, over what period of time do you think I can expect to see some improvement? (I believe I started to see improvement on the Oral Prednisone two days after starting.)
3) Do you think the timeline for follow-up is sound (pardon the pun), or should I be pushing to be seen again and/or get more steroids sooner?
4) How good do you think my chances for further improvement are? Again, it’s now been 16 days since hearing loss started.
5) Any other thoughts/suggestions?
Thanks in advance for reading this far, and answering any questions you feel comfortable answering!
Hi Gooch:
You’ve had good improvement so far. You have gotten more or less half the hearing back that you lost. Now to answer your questions.
1. Theoretically, intratympanic steroid injections are better than systemic doses (pills) because it gets to where it is needed without affecting your whole body as much. I can’t answer your question as to whether a single dose of intratympanic steroids is as good as continued daily doses via pills. I’ve not read research on comparing their effectiveness.
2. It was good that you saw improvement beginning on day 2. One of my rules of thumb says that the sooner you begin to see improvement, the better your chances of getting close to a full recovery. So based on that, I am optimistic. Another of my rules of thumb says that the hearing you have at the end of 30 days is probably what you’ll be left with going forward. The exception is that if you are still seeing improvements daily at that point, it can continue for some more days.
3. Again, I don’t know as I’ve not seen research to support how effective periodic intratympanic injections are and how far apart they should be.
4. As I said it 2 above, if you are continuing to see improvement, then you can be hopeful it will continue. If the improvement stops or really slows down as you approach the 30 day limit, then I’d say your chances are getting pretty slim. I take it that you are now about day 23 or so since you had the loss. Have you had another audiogram to see what’s happening now? If there is no change from your previous audiogram, then it’s probably time to stop taking steroids as they are no longer working. If there is some improvement, then one more round of steroids may be helpful. You just don’t want to take them too long so they don’t affect the rest of your body.
Sorry I didn’t answer sooner, but I’ve been away at a conference and am now trying to get caught up.
Cordially,
Neil
Dr Bauman, Thanks very much for your thoughtful reply. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my (many) questions.
I ended up asking my ENT for a second round of Oral steroids on Day 17 (last Wednesday), this time a 12 day taper of Prednisone starting at 40MG.
I saw a second ENT today (a neurotologist), who was very generous with his time and thoughts, and I have switched care from my first ENT to the second. (At the very least, he’s a better personality fit for me.) He was impressed with my early recovery, although it has slowed since my last audiogram on Day 15 (which was before I got the IT injection and the second, stronger round of Oral Pred).
Below are my latest audiogram results from Day 10, followed by Day 15 and today (Day 24):
250 hz –> 30db, 15db, 10db
500 hz –> 25db, 10db, 5db
1000 hz -> 20db, 10db, 5db
2000 hz -> 25db, 15db, 15db
3000 hz -> 35db, 25db, 15db
4000 hz -> 75db, 40db, 30db
6000 hz -> 80db, 55db, 50db
8000 hz -> 85db, 65db, 65db
Like you, I think my new ENT anticipates diminishing returns at this point (we’re nearly at that 30 day mark), but after some discussion, we resolved to try another IT injection just in case (and if we do see further improvement next week, maybe one more.
Thank you again for your help!
Hi Gooch:
You’ve had a good amount of hearing come back. Considering how much you lost, getting more or less 50% back is doing well. As you can see, in the frequencies where you didn’t lose much, you got most of it back and in the high frequencies where you lost a lot, you got a lesser amount back. This is “normal”.
Don’t give up treatment as long as you are improving–but when improvement stops, it’s time to stop the steroids–wait a couple of weeks or so, and then see about getting a hearing aid for that ear if your audiologist thinks that’s the way to go.
I wish you well.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr Bauman:
It seems my case may be more complicated than we thought. I went to my ENT again today, and it seems my hearing is fluctuating.
I had a third IT injection last week (on day 31), even though we didn’t see any real improvement since the second IT injection a week prior. Figured better to do too much than too little.
We weren’t really expecting much if any improvement, but instead my hearing got worse.
Below are my right ear audiogram results from Day 10, followed by Day 15, Day 24, Day 31 and Day 38 (today):
250 hz –> 30db, 15db, 10db, 10db, 35db
500 hz –> 25db, 10db, 5db, 10db, 20db
1000 hz -> 20db, 10db, 5db, 5db, 10db
2000 hz -> 25db, 15db, 15db, 5db, 20db
3000 hz -> 35db, 25db, 15db, 15db, 20db
4000 hz -> 75db, 40db, 30db, 30db, 40db
6000 hz -> 80db, 55db, 50db, 50db, 55db
8000 hz -> 85db, 65db, 65db, 65db, 55db
There were some minor changes in the left ear, too (listed below are Day 10, Day 15 and Day 38; they didn’t test that ear the two other days I got the right ear tested).
250db –> 5db, 10db, 20db
500db –> 15db, 15db, 15db
1000db –> 10 db, 5db, 5db
2000db –> 5db, 10db, 0db
4000db –> 10db, 10db, 5db
8000db –> 5db, 5db, 5db
My ENT is recommending we now wait for a month and see where my hearing is at that point.
He said it was beginning to look like I could I could have Cochlear Hydrops or (in his opinion much less likely) Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease. He told me that he puts his patients with Cochlear Hydrops on a low sodium diet (between 1500-2000mg/day) and diuretics. He said I might consider cutting down on sodium over the next month, but to not take it to any extremes.
If it is Cochlear Hydrops, in addition to what now appears to be fluctuating hearing loss, I also have many of the other classic symptoms: aural fullness, tinnitus, noise sensitivity and noise distortion.
I haven’t had any vertigo or nausea in conjection with the hearing loss, although I have had a few bouts of vertigo in the past: in Nov of 2014 and before that in 2011. The Epley Manuever seemed to help, and I haven’t experienced any more vertigo for at least 18 months.
I’m curious if any of this rings any alarm bells for you, or whether you have any further thoughts. Do you think there’s anything else I should be doing over the course of this next month?
Thank you again for your help!
Hi Gooch:
It is obvious that the steroids are not working. Thus I don’t think it is worth pursuing further.
If you have cochlear hydrops (or full-blown Meniere’s), then I’d suggest getting checked out by an upper cervical spine chiropractor. It could be that your symptoms are the result of your C1 and C2 vertebrae in your neck being out.
Read my article on Meniere’s disease and see if this rings a bell with you. I think it is definitely worth investigating since you doctor is “out of tricks” and is just playing the waiting game.
The link to this article is http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/atlas-adjustments-alleviate-menieres-disease/
Cordially,
Neil
Hi I have had sudden hearing loss in my right ear for over 12 weeks now I can hear nothing I have tested it by putting ear phones in taking one out of my good ear I can hear nothing in my bad ear also leave ear phone in my good ear and take ear phone out the bad ear and there is no difference . I woke up 27/3/2016 with no hearing in my right ear so a few days later I went to the gp thinking
it was ear wax he checked both my ears and said I had no ear wax at all but had otitis media in my deaf ear prescribed some over the counter decongestant medication two weeks later I went back I’m finding it very difficult to cope at work just want it sorting out saw another doctor who said I had no fluid in my right ear but my left ear was close with ear wax I’ve had them syringed now my hearing hasn’t changed I have learnt to cope a bit better that’s all why I am posting is to ask pics it possible I never had otitis media in the first place and if I did would hearing come back soon after the fluid had gone right away or would it take a few months to return there has been no change at all in my hearing I also have tinnitus which is someone tunning the radio most of the time bells birds tweeting humming and helicopter other times I have an appointment at ent have been told by the go not to come back as there nothing they can do thank you for reading this btw I am finding lip reading a bit helpful in nosey environment s but it’s difficult
Hi Sarah:
I rather doubt you had otitis media or ear wax. The proof is that after the syringing no hearing came back, and once the supposed otitis went away, no hearing came back. Unfortunately, too many doctors see what they want to see–so if you come complaining of sudden hearing loss, they immediately think otitis media and thus “see” otitis media when there is none present. This just wastes your precious “golden hours”. If you had done the “hum test” you (and your doctors) would have known immediately whether it was otitis media or a sudden sensorineural hearing loss–and then he could have acted appropriately.
With otitis media hearing comes back as the gunk drains out of your middle ear/Eustachian tube. This could take a couple of weeks or might take 3 months–but it should be long gone by now.
As for your tinnitus, your ENT is probably correct–there is nothing he can do for it, but that is not to say that nothing can’t be done–because there are a number of things that you can do to get your tinnitus under control.
I’d suggest you read my book, “Take Control of Your Tinnitus–Here’s How”. It is one of the most comprehensive books on tinnitus written in layman’s language. It contains numbers of ways to help you with your tinnitus.
Since you are in the UK, shipping is almost prohibitive from the USA. But the good news is that you can get the eBook (in pdf format) and read it on your computer instead and save a bundle on postage charges.
The link to this book is http://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/take-control-of-your-tinnitus-heres-how/
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you for your help
Hello Dr. Baumann,
I recently lost hearing in my second ear 2 and a half weeks ago. I immediately went to the emergency room, and the day after I started taking Prednisone. Because this is the second hearing loss I’ve experienced in 2 yrs my ENT also is giving me steroid shots once a week, with my second shot received yesterday. Still with the steroid pills and the shots, I have had NO hearing come back to my ear. The ear that I lost 2 yrs ago has some hearing recovery, but I’m afraid that that recovery came much quicker than what I’m experiencing now in my second ear. Reading your comments about the 30 day window has given me some hope, but my question is, “Is it likely that with all the steroids I’m taking and it already being two and a half weeks that I’ll see any sign of improvement?” Also, my doctor is talking to me about the possibility of a cochlear implant. Do you think that can be an option for my ear that, so far, has no hearing at all? As a 29 year old classical musician, the idea of the implant scares me because of the robotic sounds that I now have to live with. Because I can hear with a hearing device in the ear I loss 2 years ago, do you think a hearing aid will suffice while I wait to see if any hearing in my new ear returns? How long should I wait before deciding on an implant and are implants reversible? Is there anything I shouldn’t be doing that might be damaging my ear further while I wait for some recovery?
Thank you,
Vanessa
Hi Vanessa:
If you’ve not had any improvement with steroids, which you began in a timely manner, after 2.5 weeks, I’m not optimistic about your chances of getting much or any hearing back. Remember, sometimes steroids work and other times no hearing comes back in spite of the best treatment. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case with you this time. But I wouldn’t give up hope until the 30 days are past. You may still get some hearing back, but probably it won’t be much if you do.
Thus as your doctor suggested, you should consider getting cochlear implants. As long as your cochlear nerve is working properly, cochlear implants can work wonderfully well even if you have no hearing whatsoever in your bad ear.
You have some good things going for you in that you had normal hearing up to 3 weeks ago. So all the infrastructure is working properly–except in your inner ear. Since the cochlear implant bypasses that part, you may be able to hear and understand speech right from the very first day. It’ll sound funny at first of course, but can quickly revert to normally sounding speech.
I know numbers of people who have had just this experience.
Cochlear implants work better for speech than for music–but they are making good strides in improving the music too. You may find that having a cochlear implant in the bad ear and wearing a hearing aid in the other ear is a good combination as the CI will let you hear higher frequency sounds and your hearing aid, the lower frequency sounds. So together, your brain may be better able to hear music.
If it were me, I’d wait the 30 days and then another 30 days to 2 months. And if nothing changes for the better, I’d get the CI then–not wait for months and months.
CIs are typically not reversible in that inserting them causes some damage to the inner ear. They can be taken out of course, by that doesn’t bring back residual hearing. In your case, it doesn’t seem that you have any residual hearing in your bad ear to worry about so your have nothing to lose by getting a CI–and everything to gain.
I can’t see that you have to do, or not do, anything different with your ear while awaiting recovery or whatever.
Has your doctor, this time or the previous time, suggested what caused your sudden hearing loss?
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly Dr. Baumann! You’re answers have really helped. Unfortunately, my doctor hasn’t done much explaining so I’m seeking out a specialist in a bigger city.
I see him tomorrow for the third and final steroid shot. At this point I’m not sure if it’s even worth getting a third shot? Are the shots causing more temporary damage to my ear drum?
He has no idea of the causes of the hearing loss, or has mentioned the current status in which my ear is in.
As of today, I still haven’t had any hearing, but my ear is also full, I’m experiencing loud tinnitus, can’t pop my ear drum, sand I can hear crackling sounds. I’m hoping that means there’s fluid in the ear that hasn’t been able to drain, and once that drains some of my hearing will be restored. Is that something that’s possible, or am I talking about a miracle?
Thanks again,
Vanessa
Hi Dr Baumann, I experienced SSNHL 2 weeks ago after a virus. I am on a dose of tapering predisonol. I also developed tinnitus in the deaf ear. When there are loud conversations around me my ear gets a full feeling and the noise of the tinnitus increases. What is the cause of this and will this feeling start to settle
Hi Helen:
What you are experiencing is common after experiencing sudden hearing loss. Your hearing system is damaged and thus these kinds of things happen. Give it time and things should settle down. By time, I mean see how things are in 3 months or so. It doesn’t go away overnight.
Cordially,
Neil
It’s been two years and my hearing in right ear comes and goes, right ear is completely deaf for 3 days then in two-three days periods it starts to recover until it’s back to normal that makes it six days. In the beginning time period was about 1-two months between hearing loss attacks but since last few months time period has been reduced to one week to be exact and in perfect timing it occurs and it’s perfectly fine after 5 to six days. I’ve gone through steriods treatment and what not but steroids only reduced time gap.
Hi Mushtaqsam:
What happened two years ago that caused this to start? Any ideas? Did you start taking any drugs or medications? Or increase the dose on existing ones?
The good news is that it doesn’t seem to permanently damage your hearing. Since steroids don’t really seem to help, it doesn’t appear to be Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease.
Do you have any other associated symptoms that might give me a clue what is going on?
Certain drugs, such as Atenolol, can do something like this.
So can the C1 and C2 vertebrae in your neck being out of proper alignment. Do you have any neck or back problems? Or is your neck “tight”?
Sometimes it takes a bit of sleuthing to find the cause, hence all my questions.
Cordially,
Neil
Just to mention I’m only 16 now and this problem started with puberty when I was 14.
I guess problem got worse due to excessive masturbation and when i stopped it, sudden hearing loss followed with nightfall.
I experience tinnitus after nightfall/masturbation and pain in head plus nasal problems. Sometimes neck problems as well.
Hi Mushtaqsam:
I have not heard varying hearing loss associated with masturbation. I think that is an old wives tale.
However, some people do get temporary hearing loss from exerting themselves too much–maybe that is the reason behind you funny hearing loss. You could also have problems with your neck that is messing up your hearing/tinnitus.
Cordially,
Neil
Any suggestions on how to treat this? I’ve scheduled brain MRI would it help? Before steroids course time period b/w sshl was about two to three months and it decreased to till 1 week through steroids course.
And it comes in perfect timing.
I’ve a feeling you’re right about neck problems since I experience pain in back of head connected to C1/C2. Which tests should I go for?
Small arachnoid cyst along left anterior temporal convexity found in brain MRI.
Hi Dr. Baumann, I experienced sudden profound hearing loss in my right ear 6 days ago. I’m 38 years old. I went to bed with a ringing in that ear and woke up with balance issues and no hearing. Just before going to bed I had had a few glasses of wine and did a few yoga poses for my lower back pain. I hadn’t had any illness in the previous month. I went to urgent care the morning of since it was a Sunday. they assumed it was fluid in my ear and gave me a prescription for antivert for the balance issues and said if it doesn’t come back in 3-4 days see my doctor. The next day I saw my primary, she again assumed it was just plugged and gave me an ENT refer all but said to make the appointment a few days out. I read more about sudden hearing loss and got into the ENT the next morning where it was confirmed Profound sudden hearing loss. I was given oral steroids and a shot that day and a shot 3 days later. I haven’t noticed any improvement and since my loss is greater than 100 dB I don’t expect to. I am still worried about the cause and keeping my good ear. Any suggestions for further treatment or possible causes? I will have an MRI next week. Thank you so much!
Hi Jen:
Unfortunately, I doubt much/any hearing will come back. The odds are against you.
What you describe sounds like either one of two things. First would be a viral attack. If you had any active virus in your body, then that could have been what happened. Very often viruses do not attack both ears at once (thankfully). This can happen overnight like you experienced–and typically wreck both your hearing and balance–like you also experienced. So that would be my number 1 choice. Only you know if you had any active viruses in your body somewhere–flu, cold, herpes, varicella, etc., etc.
The second possibility for causing the same damage would be a blood clot in the tiny artery leading to your inner ear. If it was blocked, it could kill/badly damage both your hearing and balance on that side.
Another possibility is certain drugs. But you didn’t indicate that you are taking any drugs. Most drugs don’t work that fast, but a few can.
Do any of these possibilities “ring a bell” with you?
You had timely treatment with Prednisone, and if it doesn’t work, there is not too much else doctors do. If it was a blood clot, then a clot buster drug would have had to be given in the first fem hours to do any good.
Cordially,
Neil
Dr. Bauman,
I see that most people are asking about sudden hearing loss and hearing loss after a virus. But could you give me any info on hearing loss after loud noise? I was foolishly not strict with my ear protection on the shooting range one day and have re-acquired some hearing but definitely not all. I have about 15% loss in my right ear (improved from about 80%) and still have about 60% loss in my left (improved from 100% loss). Most of the research I’ve done says I’ll either get my hearing back or not, and that steroids wouldn’t help in my circumstance. Should I go see an ENT anyway? Or shall I wait and see, and count my blessings that I have gotten this much back?
Hi Andy:
Steroids may help IF you have them administered soon enough. You don’t say how long ago this happened. If it was less that 2 weeks ago, then you might want to try the steroids. But if it is much longer than 2 weeks, they will probably not help much if at all.
If this is recent (2 or 3 days), then you might want to see the ENT, but if it is more than two weeks or so, probably he wouldn’t be able to do anything to significantly help you regain your hearing.
I’d definitely count your blessings. At least most of the temporary threshold shift (hearing loss) did not turn into a permanent hearing loss.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello, I’m experiencing series of sensorineural hearing loss/sudden hearing loss attacks over exact period and hearing loss returns back to normal in 5-6 days. I just had brain MRI to find this “Small arachnoid cyst along left anterior temporal convexity”
Hi I woke up with fullness in my ear two weeks ago. Then lost complete hearing five days ago. I went to the ENT three days ago. I have complete hearing loss and buzzing and ringing. He gave me injections of steroids and put me on 60 milligrams orally. He thinks it’s from a virus. I fell a month ago and hit the left side of my face. Could this have caused it?
Hi Laura:
Why does your doctor think it was a virus? Did you have a cold, flu, herpes, shingles, etc., etc. in the month preceding this episode? If so, then it may well be a viral attack.
However, if you did not have any active virus anywhere in your body during this time, then I tend to doubt it was a viral attack.
You don’t mention whether you had any balance problems–dizziness, vertigo, etc or feelings of imbalance. Did you have any?
Falling and hitting your face could throw your neck out of alignment and that could possibly cause your symptoms, but I rather doubt it was the cause with the scant information you have given me.
Cordially,
Neil
Experiencing frequent attacks of auto-reversible sudden deafness in right ear developing over period of 24 hours which recovers on it’s own to normal hearing during exact period of 5-7 days. Local ent’s can’t seem to diagnose the problem.
Experiencing frequent attacks of auto-reversible sudden deafness in right ear developing over period of 24 hours which recovers on it’s own to normal hearing during exact period of 5-7 days along with tinnitus with changing positions and feeling of fluid in ear when lying on either side of ear with no sign of fluid presence or anything when doctor inspects. Local ent’s can’t seem to diagnose the problem. I read your meniere article and went for cervical spine mri and this is the conclusion of report: Mild straightening of cervical spine curvature seen.
Hi Aron:
Why didn’t you go to an upper cervical chiropractor and let them do their own diagnosis? The medical doctors reading the MRIs don’t have the training to tell if your upper cervical spine is off by the tiny amount that could cause the various symptoms. They just said it was off. You need to see an upper cervical chiropractor to get the real “skinny” on what is wrong with your neck.
What brings on your episodes? How frequent are they?
Are they related to position? or stress? or ?
Cordially,
Neil
I”ll visit upper chiropractor in coming week, in the beginning I’d say year ago gap b/w attacks were of 1-3 months and I noticed them associated with allergens, since past three months attacks are very frequent with 1-2 week gap ma. I try to stay away from allergens, changing positions especially when sitting or lying causes tinnitus and pressure to head plus fluid feeling in right ear. I am not able to diagnose the specific reason maybe multiple thingd are causing these frequent attacks or thing that is part of my usual routine which I’m not aware of.
One question, can vitamin b12 deficiency cause the related problem?
Audio reports,
http://m.imgur.com/sLRBYnJ – during attack
http://imgur.com/cPXlGXa- hearing recovering in right ear after two days and this is pretty much what happens every time.
Excuse the left ear loss, it was like this since 2 years no idea why, I didn’t notice hearing loss in left until start of this problem.
Hi Aron:
Your hearing loss is certainly quite dramatic. The fact that your hearing comes back to its old level is good and shows that the problem is not permanent.
I’d like to know what the upper cervical chiropractor says and whether it affects your hearing to the good after treatment.
Typically, when your tinnitus changes with position, that indicates that your neck is out and needs to be put back into proper alignment.
I’m no expert on whether vitamin B12 deficiency can affect hearing, but there are some studies that indicate this is true. You could always try taking B12 supplements and see whether this makes any difference.
Cordially,
Neil
http://imgur.com/cPXlGXa
-correct second link
Dr. Bauman,
I’m deaf all my life, but i wear hearing aids in my good left deaf ear and can hear well with music and speech. My right is very deaf and hearing aids don’t help.
2 Years ago I got tinnitus in my left good ear and got nasal cortiosteriod spray from the doctor after 3 days. I also applied for CI implant.
Anyways, this year I have gotten sudden hearing loss for about 9 to 14 days and hearing aids dont help during this time. Tinnitus is very brutal during the loss. After those weeks I regain the hearing again, distorted at first but then eventually normal and clear. But this have happened 4 times now once each months or 2.
The trigger I’ve found is mostly from after listening to music. Usually overnight it disappears or when I wake up and it slowly disappears over 2 hours. I can hear it fading away..
Right now, I’m afraid of listening to music so I tend not to play them.
I think I’ve gotten tinnitus from listening to game music and the laptop loud fan noises from overheating while playing. Or from smoking maybe. Since It spikes my tinnitus if I smoke so I’ve quit since then. I also play on the computar a ton and ride bikes often.
I’m still uneasy about the CI implant since it might sound robotic or music will not be the same.. Real tough choice since I like playing piano and guitars.
Do you know whats happening with my hearing loss that occurs weekly per month? They seem to always return.
Thank you.
Hi Rob:
What’s happening to your hearing–going and then coming back–is certainly not common. I’d have to know a lot more about you and your lifestyle before I could hazard a guess as to what is happening in your case. It could be related to blood flow in your ears, you neck could be out, your body could be toxic, your diet is deficient, ototoxic medications, etc., etc.
I don’t really think it is related to listening to music–unless you play your music so loud that you get a temporary threshold shift. Typically this goes away in a few minutes to a few hours and sometimes up to a few days–then hearing returns to normal. If this is the case, then just listen to your music at a more reasonable level.
Since tinnitus often accompanies hearing loss, I’m not surprised that your tinnitus gets worse when your hearing drops.
Regarding a cochlear implant, many people with CIs find that music does not sound normal to them. For some it never does. For others, as time goes on, it begins to sound more and more normal. There’s no way to predict what will happen ahead of time.
You could always have the CI implanted in your deaf ear and use your hearing aid in your better ear. That often gives good results and lets you enjoy music more as you still have some residual hearing in your better ear.
Cordially,
Neil
HELLO ,
I lost my hearing in the right hear when i was 17 years and i was subjected to medication. 1st i was done a syringe therapy and it didn’t work and drugs and that didnt work and upto now just turned 21 and still looking for a solution , i want to gain my hearing back. PLEASE REPLY
Hi Kenneth:
What was the cause of your sudden hearing loss when you were 17? Knowing that may give a clue as to whether there is any likelihood of any treatment that will restore your hearing. Unfortunately, the chances of getting your hearing back after 4 years will probably take a miracle.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello Dr Bauman,
Thank you for your very informative website and very detailed answers to reader’s questions.
I would like to share a success story. Eleven days ago, on a Monday, I experienced sudden hearing loss. Over the course of two hours, I went from normal hearing to becoming unable to hear conversations or television with my left ear. The dial tone on my phone was almost inaudible, and sounded like raspy buzz.
I saw an urgent care physician within 36 hours and an ENT two days later. My hearing test showed about a 55 dB reduction in the left ear at most frequencies, with a small peak at 4 kHz. Word recognition was about 40 percent.
My original treatment was Medrol, which was changed to 60 mG Prednisone last Friday by the ENT. On Saturday, I had a intratympanic injection of dexamethasone.
My hearing began returning slowly at first and then accelerated. Today, only six days after the injection I had a second hearing test. My hearing is now essentially normal. Word recognition is 100 percent and the graphs of the two ears almost overlap almost perfectly. The left ear drops off by only a few dB at high frequencies. The audiologist feels that this may actually improve when the injection hole in the
eardrum heals. I feel very fortunate to have this result.
My advice to anyone experiencing SHL is to seek help immediately. Yes, it is frightening to think about the possibility of injections into the ear, but not as frightening as losing the hearing permanently.
My neck seems alright now and it was due to muscle spasm, it didn’t help the problem though. I did a work up study and figured attack comes on targetted day for e.g. It’s been coming on tuesday since a month and before that it was saturday “no matter the odds “and it comes in perfect timing. In addition hearing loss goes down to 100 percent in right and after period of 3-4 days it gradually starts to recover with pre-attack hearing on day 7th or 8th. I hope you can make something out of this info
Hi Aron:
Did you just assume your neck is ok, or did you go to an upper cervical chiropractor to be sure?
What is different about your current Tuesdays, and previously about your Saturdays that might trigger this. There has got to be something that you do differently that causes them. You’re the only person that can answer that question.
Cordially,
Neil
I visited upper cervical chiropravtor and he insisted my neck is fine, the pain I felt was due to muscular spasm.
As in currently, it’s like the attack happens exactly a week since 3 months after hearing is fully recovered, what I meant about tuesdays and saturday is attack comes with perfect timing and is pretty much predicted.
However before three months gap b/w attack was 2-3 weeks. Sometimes, I’d say twice or thrice during these three months gap was 2 weeks instead of one.
Before my previous attack I was taking vitamin e supplements and it seemed to delay attack a little, I started taking them again today along to see the difference.
I can’t figure if something is triggering attack because it seems to be systematic.
Hi Aron:
There must be some sort of cycle that is triggering them. Some things do have regular cycles and last for given lengths of time. For example, my wife and I were at the eye doctors getting our annual exam. She mentioned that when she had ocular migraines they lasted about 20 minutes. The doctor explained that they last exactly 18 minutes in every person. Why? Who knows?
My firsh wife used to get migraines that lasted exactly 3 days and 3 nights. If she noted the time one started, she knew to the hour when it would go away. Why that specific length of time? Who knows? But it was always that way.
So you have something that triggers them. The trick is finding it and stopping the trigger if at all possible.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr ..Iam Sara 41 years old I start around one month back to have sever vertigo with vomiting for 2 hours it stop with iv fluids and antiemetic medication .this was the first and within one week I had another but mild attack which improve With oral medication.
I had my forth attack 2 weeks back which was sever as my Bp became low and attack continue for more than 3 hours with vertigo. Nystagmus.
I had CT Scan and MRI done and both came normal.
After the attack I notice I lost my hearing on the left ear and it was checked and it was profound SN hearing loss ..so I was stated on prednisolone high dose 60 mg per day for 10 days but no improvement and I start taper it down now and I took also antiviral also course.
I had with the initial attack ear fullness and tinnitus but after the vertigo go I had no issuse with my balance but now iam still have issue with my balance…
So what you think Dr..iam having meniere or vestibular neurititis because still iam not having final diagnosis …iam now on diuretics plus betahistine plus prednisolone
Anything else do I need to do
Thank you
Hi Sara:
The three things that come to mind are that you are having several Meniere’s disease attacks (or possibly vestibular neuritis), or a viral attack on your inner ears, or even possibly the ototoxic results of taking certain ototoxic drugs.
From what you say, I tend to think you may have Meniere’s disease. If that is so, I’d suggest you read my article on how to say goodbye to your Meniere’s and consider if this is something you want to try. You can read this article at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/atlas-adjustments-alleviate-menieres-disease/ . This is the best way to treat Meniere’s in my opinion.
Cordially,
Neil
Thanks for your continous help Doc, means alot. Just one last question csn it be related with auto immune since it’s so perfect in timing or maybe viral attack or vascular disorders or any other known disease? Sorry to bother you but this problem has nearly restricted my usual routine, I request for your little tips onto this.
Hi Aron:
I don’t really know in your case. I can’t see a viral attack being regular like that. Possibly it could be AIED although I’ve never head it to be regular either. Vascular disorders are a possibility since migraines can have their own “timetables”.
Cordially,
Neil
I’m experiencing tinnitus with changing positions. Certain postures are suitable while others are not, moreover when i sleep lying on either side of ear there’s fluid feeling in ears along with slight ear ache and pain by side of ear for 10 or so seconds.
I considered it to be neck related problem and consulted ortheopedist and rheumatologist. MRI/ X-rays and their opinion concluded my neck is fine plus i don’t have any symptoms related to cervical pain.
In addition, after taking shower(i use cotton buds to prevent water going in) or using elevator or drinking excessive water, pressure in my right ear gets disturbed though sometimes eating something restores pressure especially if it is caused by drinking water.
What could possibly the problem?
Hi Christo:
You either have tinnitus from your neck being out (and your doctors are no help obviously since they are not looking in the right place and for the right things.) I would go to an upper cervical spine chiropractor (not to the regular kind) and have your neck–specifically C1 and C2 vertebrae–checked out. You can find an UCS chiropractor at http://www.upcspine.com/ and click on practitioners.
The other likely scenario (and you could well have both problems) is that you have somatosensory tinnitus in your head and neck. The 7th edition of my book, “Take Control of Your Tinnitus–Here’s How” has 2 chapters devoted to what somatosensory tinnitus is and how to treat it effectively. You can get this book at http://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/take-control-of-your-tinnitus-heres-how/.
Cordially,
Neil
Doc I found article which is exactly what’s happening to me. I’m talking other symptoms as well along with intermittent hearing loss.(going and coming), cochlear hydrops
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/839917
Can you suggest me some professional advice or treatment for this or some relief tips. What should I do next?
Doc any ways to diagnose endolymphatic hydrops and treatment?
Hi Aron:
If you think you have endolymphatic hydrops, this is just another name for Meniere’s disease. There is only one effective treatment for Meniere’s disease. Doctors don’t have a clue so they continue to beat around the bush like they are in this article you mention.
Read my article on Meniere’s and it’s effective treatment at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/atlas-adjustments-alleviate-menieres-disease/ . Then follow through. That’s what I’d do.
Cordially,
Neil
Doc I got my neck checked multiple times and only problem was muscular spasm which I’ve already treated with help if physiotherapiat. Unfortunately we don’t have chiropractors in pakistan.
If not treatment, can you suggest me some life tips for relief or prolong the period b/w attacks except of course low salt and caffeine diet.
Dear Dr. Bauman,
My hearing loss began on July 7, 2011. It felt “full” and hearing seemed “under water”. I was diagnosed with an ear infection, and treated with antibiotics – didn’t work. They gave me another round – didn’t work. At 3 weeks, I saw a specialist who ran a multitude of tests – no real diagnosis other than “it may be Meniere’s” (I firmly feel it is not due to lack of any other symptoms and the type of hearing loss that I have). The hearing loss worsened over the course of several months (acoustic neuroma was ruled out with contrast MRI). Voices sounded as if they were coming through a voice changer. On Feb. 25, 2012 my ear popped and hearing returned to normal- for two weeks. Since that date my hearing has continued to degrade to almost total hearing loss, tinnitus, and a constant sense of aural fullness. Occasionally, during exercise my hear will pop, relieving the pressure and for a brief moment it “seems” as if I hear a tad better, but I can’t be sure.
I have seen 3 specialists and I feel someone is missing the mark here… they just can’t figure it out.
PS. I did receive a course of Predinsone that started around day 20.
I am writing in hopes that you have any suggestions.
Thank you kindly for your time.
Best,
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer:
If your ear pop and you can hear better, then the problem has to be a mechanical one and that is good news. It means that the hair cells have not died and thus you have permanent hearing loss. (Of course you could have some of both kinds of loss at the same time.)
Since your doctors can’t find a cause, maybe it’s time to think outside the box. My first choice would be to go to an upper cervical spine chiropractor and make sure that your C1 and C2 vertebrae (among others) are all in proper alignment. If they are not, this can give some or all of the Meniere’s symptoms. Read my LONG article “Atlas Adjustments Alleviate Meniere’s Disease” and at the same time read between the lines for other conditions as I aimed this piece specifically at Meniere’s disease, but it also holds true for other ear conditions as well.
Let’s see if that solves your problem.
Cordially,
Neil
I had sudden hearing loss abt 3 wks ago, and started prednisone treatment in 3 or 4 days, just completed it. Hearing regained abt 90 to 95% though with tinnitus. Doc says there is nothing to do except to wait n see if it gets better. Really the case so? What other treatment options are there to make the hearing come back 100%? Mri is clear by the way.thanks.
Hi Adeline:
There is nothing you can do to MAKE hearing come back. Whether it comes back depends on a number of factors including the kind of loss, the type of loss, the severity of your loss, etc.
The standard treatment doctors use for cases of unknown (idiopathic) hearing loss or for suspected hearing loss from noise or drugs is to use Prednisone (or kindred drugs), but there is no concrete evidence that they work better than a placebo.
There is a new treatment I just wrote about, but you have to start treatment within 5 days for it to be effective. Even so, there are no guarantees all hearing will return, but more will return than if treated with Prednisone or have no treatment.
You can read about it at “Constraint-Induced Sound Therapy for Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss“.
In any case, if any hair cells (or underlying structures) have died, the hearing loss is automatically permanent and there is nothing you can do to bring dead cells back to life at this time. (They are working on hair cell regeneration but it will not by ready for use for some years yet.)
Cordially,
Neil
I’m suffering from intermittent hearing loss in one ear. Originally it have little pre-permanent hearing loss but it don’t matter in everyday life. It comes and goes as term intermittent explains, I think it’s related to vascular disorder(blood clotted arteries to inner ear or something) after reading your recent article on cist-causes of sudden hearing loss and after doing my research but of course it’s only a guess.
Hearing loss occurs overnight or develops over 24 hours and progresses to 100 percent loss then gradually recovers.
Hi Salar:
Curious. I’m not sure I agree with you that it is caused by blood clots. I can’t see them forming and then clearing themselves this regularly. But I think you are on the right track in thinking it could be vascular. If something is preventing adequate blood flow to your inner ears, it could result in things not working properly and thus result in temporary hearing loss.
One possibility of this would be if your neck is “out” and thus pinching the blood vessels going to your inner ears, or the nerves going to your inner ears (the eeeeeee8th cranial nerve. If this typically happens overnight and then goes away during the day, this is what I’d suspect. An upper cervical spine chiropractor would be the specialist I’d go to.
Another possibility could be that you have a virus that is affecting your inner ear, and your immune system isn’t quite robust enough to kill it, but more or less keeps in in check. However, I lean towards the first thing I suggested rather than this one.
Cordially,
Neil
Yeah I went to one and my right side neck vessels were all.twisted up and thick. He did x-ray and ruled out other problems like not being in alignment e.t.c.
He’s working on neck for now and figuree it’s a possiblity of calcium deposition in these vessels. I also take ginko biloba for circulation improvement.
I also feel fluid in inner ear when lying on either side can vascular problems result in fluid?For this I’m taking thiazide diuretic once a day and fluid pretty much seems to subside.
Looks like i’ve diagnosed my problem after 2 years of struggle. It seems to be relates with vascular events related to migranes. I’ve been experiencing events of subsequent hearing loss in right ear plus normal recovery with perfect period. I’ve history of migranes since years and after long workup and research it looks like problem is nearly solved. 24 days of steroid course and antihistamine drugs for allergy made events more frequent and so did excess sodium intake all three related to vasoconstriction of arteries especially microcirculatory arteries of ears.
Another trigger I found is orgasm and stress, both proven causes of vasoconstriction. Muscular spasm of neck further worsened the attacks which supports the theory.
I remember the very first event took place right after being exposed to loud speaker right next to my ear during speech ceremony. Exposure to loud noise may be the first cause of constriction of cochlea arteries.
This problem has really eaten me up alive and I’m in need of professional advise on my theory and to suggest successful treatment. I’m already following chiropractic course following your recommendation and it has eased up throbbing pressure on back of head but hasn’t helped the main problem. Maybe you could suggest some proven agents to improve blood circulation of cochlea.
Hi Salar:
Natural vasodilators that work for the inner ear include Ginkgo biloba and Vitamin B3 (Niacin). They also help the rest of your body.
Cordially,
Neil
Will non flush version of niacine work or be effective for inner ear circulation as regular niacine? Though non flush excludes nicotinic acid.
Hi Salar:
I rather doubt it. The flush shows that your blood vessels are dilating and letting more blood through. This is what you need for your inner ears. If you use the non-flush, it would appear that your blood vessels are not dilating and thus it won’t help your ears. That’s how I see it.
Cordially,
Neil
I figured rifht dose for ginkgo but what’d be right dose for niacin? Sorry to bother you again.
Hi Salar:
I don’t know what the “right” dose is for Niacin. What I’d do is take enough so that you get the flush. If you are not flushing, then you can assume your inner ear arteries are not dilating either.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello,
I had sudden deafness in one ear which has recovered almost completely.
After three days I received a hearing test. Lower tones were gone, high tones remained. I heard a beep and noise constantly.
I received prednisol for 10 days. My hearing went away completly but not the noise.
It was terrible and traumatic. Socializing was like sitting in a barrell in a noisy factory. I also read this blog.
Slowly after about three weeks my hearing came back day by day.
It has been four weeks now and in two weeks I receive a hearing test again. The lower tones are still less perceived when I were headphones.
After I read that there was basicly no treatment I read a book called the placebo effect by dr joe dispenza.
It helped me cope, and I believe it helped me get better although there is no evidence for it, nor is it a substitution for medical advice.
Hope you all get well.
Hi Boris:
The truth is, if you have sudden hearing loss, hearing will come back on its own the majority of the time–whether you do anything or not. For some taking Prednisone seems to help. For others, it doesn’t do anything.
I think your hearing came back spontaneously–in spite of your reading the Placebo Effect book. That is not to discount the power of the placebo effect, but in these cases, it is well-known that hearing often returns on its own–at least to some degree. The big thing is that your hearing DID come back.
Cordially,
Neil
On September 1,2016 I had sudden hearing loss in my left ear. I immediately started
50mg prednisolone for two weeks plus 6 intratympanic dexamethasone injections in addition to anti viral medication. With no success. MRI was clear but now I am left with tinnitus and it is horrible. It’s a hissing or rather it sounds like a natural gas line that has been cut off and it is very loud. I have been fitted with a hearing aid but it doesn’t really help the tinnitus. I am currently trying acupuncture and see a naturopath doctor. Both to manage the stress and try of find some relief from the tinnitus. I can handle the hearing loss but the tinnitus is difficult. I have even talked to my doctor about cutting the nerve but have heard mixed results in fact it could make the tinnitus worse. I also heard about an antibiotic that could slowly be injected into the inner ear over a period of time and it kills the nerve and could stop the tinnitus. Have you heard of this procedure and if so what is your opinion on its success.
Hi Linda:
You did all the right things for your sudden hearing loss, at least from a doctor’s perspective. Unfortunately, it didn’t work in your case. This happens. You are not alone in this.
Your tinnitus is likely the result of your hearing loss. Tinnitus very often accompanies sudden hearing loss.
Does your hearing aid have a tinnitus masker built in? For some people just wearing a regular hearing aid helps their tinnitus by giving their ear real sounds to hear again. For others, they need more help. There are various programs built into some hearing aids to help the person deal with their tinnitus. Those with fractal music seem to really help numbers of people.
If I were you, I would NEVER have the auditory nerve cut to try to get rid of my tinnitus. You only have even odds of it being successful. So you have just as much chance of making things worse as you have of making things better. In fact, I think the chances of things getting better are FAR less than the chances of making things worse.
I think you are thinking of the antibiotic Gentamicin. But it also kills the balance nerve so you are left with no balance on that side. And if it doesn’t help your tinnitus, you are now left with permanent balance problems. The trade-off is decidedly not in your favor.
Rather than using a drug to kill your auditory nerve, you need to learn how to take control of your tinnitus so it no longer bothers you. This is what I would do (and have done all my life). My ears are ringing away while I write this, but I do not let my tinnitus bother me. You can learn to do the same.
I explain this and many other strategies for dealing with tinnitus in my book, “Take Control of Your Tinnitus”. You would do well to study it and follow through with what helps you the most. You can get it at http://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/take-control-of-your-tinnitus-heres-how/
Cordially,
Neil
Hello Doc, you suggested ginko and niacin for my idiopathic periodic hearing loss in right ear.
It is indeed vascular disorder, I started with niacin for a week and it couldn’t bring significant improvement but it surely flushed out toxins from arteries to ear. I switched to tankan(ginko egb 761) 1 in morning and 2 at night and god willing it did bring improvement. Though time between periods is moatly same but hearing recovers in 5 days instead of 10 and I’m looling forward to more improvement. It surely looks like vascular diaorder or maybe case of periodic vasospasm/vasoconstriction of inner ear circulation but I’m looking for more effective treatment.
I tracked the problem back to two years, two unusual thinga I did that might have triggered this, Excess vitamin d injections for height growth every week and/or first attack happe ed after exposure to loud speaker in some ceremony. It was next to me I think. Dairy products trigger the attack so I guess it’s related to calcium or vitamjn d connection.
I hope you can make something out of it
Hi Salar:
When you took the excess Vitamin D injections, what was the dose each time? And what Vitamin D did you use. Some doctors use Vitamin D2, but you really want Vitamin D3. And if you take high doses of Vitamin D3, then you also need to take Vitamin K2 so you don’t have toxicity problems. Did you do that?
I don’t necessarily buy that the calcium and Vitamin D in dairy products are the main problem, but if dairy makes your ears worse, then cut it out.
When you take high doses of Vitamin D3, as I said you also need to take appropriate doses of Vitamin K2, AND calcium AND magnesium. All four of these work together so you want to keep them all in balance.
Your Vitamin D3 blood level should optimally be 50 to 70 ng/ml according to Dr. Mercola. Most people have much lover levels and thus have health problems.
Cordially,
Neil
I took it two years baçk for height growth and I was drinking egg + milk mixture daily.
It was vitamin D3 injections and no I did not take any supplements with it. What I fear is calcification of inner ear circulation and I’m having throbbing migranes as well occasionally thus I’m trying to make overall connection.
Maybe calcium levels get high periodically and disturbs my ear.
2000 IU every week for I don’t remeber maybe a month or two and occasionally not like week after week and I already stopped tsking it since two years though
Once the first 21 day course of prednisone has been completed for SSNHL with improvements is a second course typically prescribed?
Hi Andrea:
I think doctors typically prescribe continued courses of Prednisone as long as they are seeing improvement in hearing. You don’t want to take Prednisone too long as it wreaks your body. My rule of thumb is that your hearing quits improving at about 30 days and after that it is typically a waste of time to takemore, but everyone is different. And remember, about 1/3 to half of the time, hearing comes back on its own in spite of any drugs you are prescribed, not because of them.
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you for the prompt response. I have left messages for the ENT regarding the protocol for additional prednisone, but have not received any return calls. I didn’t know what the recommendation might be.
We are at approximately 34 days passed initial fluttering symptoms in the ear, but about 28 since the initial hearing loss was noted. Have there been any reports from folks regarding hearing quality and/or lingering symptoms once a return of hearing has occurred? I have looked for resources online regarding any patient reports, but have not been able to come across any thus far.
Hi Andrea:
The results of returning hearing range all over the place. Some go back to normal. Some have some hearing return and are still hard of hearing and all that entails such as having tinnitus to some degree and trouble understanding speech in noise, or at any time. Some have hyperacusis where some or all sounds are too loud.
Another of my rules of thumb is that the worse your sudden loss, the less hearing you will get back and the more problems you will have with your residual hearing.
So, if you have gotten most of your hearing back, you shouldn’t find things all that different from normal.
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you!
Hey Doc, If you remember my complicated case of attacks of ssnhl coming and going over specific pattern and period, I was just diagnosed with Kidney disease so i just want to give heads up to everyone on this forums.
This type of hearing loss was only a symptom of early kidney disease and i was experiencing hardly any other symptoms. I checked my calcium levels to start with tracing back my high calcium intake and vitamin D doses which came high. PTH was slightly high with no sign of tumor so I was suggested urine test for calcium and phosphorus which were too low stating decreased renal excretion of phosphorus and calcium.
Other tests followed, I just want to state that when you’re faced with this sort of problem look at big picture and consider your whole system not only ears. Kidney disturbs blood flow, high phosphorus and blood calcium content due to decreased renal excretion hardened my carotid arteries causing constant neck pain and other symptoms plus electrolyte disturbance. All these can easily disturb your hearing or balance disorders.
Hi Salar:
Chinese herbalists will tell you that your ears and kidneys are “connected” so when you have kidney problems, you also often have ear problems. That looks to be the case with you.
Also, drugs used to treat kidney problems often also negatively affect your ears, so you can get hearing loss and tinnitus from taking kidney drugs for example.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr Neil Bauman,
I am 34 year old Male. I suddenly lost my hearing on my right ear around 1PM on Jan 21, 2017 and I am on Prednisone 60mg from Jan 22,2017. I have not yet seen any improvement. My audiology test showed Significant hearing loss on the right ear. From reading your blog, i understood that there is less chance for recovery when there is significant hearing loss. Is that true?, My doctor told me there are patients who recovered from significant hearing loss on one ear. Based on your experience what are my chances for recovery. The second part of my question is that I have sleep apnea and I use CPAP machine every night and when I googled to find out whether there is any link between sleep apnea and SNH , I found many articles suggesting a link. I would like to hear your opinion on sleep apnea and hearing loss. whats the recovery chance if the blood flow has caused the SNH in my case ( thats the case for sleep apnea patients). I would appreciate your comments. Thank you
Hi Routh:
Yes, one of my rules of thumb is that the greater the hearing loss, the less chance there is of it coming back, and if it does come back, the greater the loss, the less that comes back. Remember, this is a rule of thumb. It s not written in stone.
Only time will tell how much will come back. But another of my rules of thumb is that the sooner hearing begins to come back, the better the chances of most/all of it coming back. And the third rule of thumb in this regard is the amount of hearing you have at the end of 30 days is what you are going to have in the future.
If you have obstructive sleep apnea, there are a number of factors at play. In order to answer you question more completely, I have just written an article on sleep apnea for you. You can read it at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/obstructive-sleep-apnea-cpap-devices-and-hearing-loss/ . If you still have questions, let me know.
Cordially,
Neil
I’ve been searching for appropriate answer to this question of mine, “Can disbalance of calcium and phosphorus blood levela can cause ssnhl?” Or specifically hypercalcemic episodes.
Hi Vice:
Sorry, I do not know the answer to your specific question. However, any thing that causes calcium to build up in your arteries which could break off and cause a mini blockage in the tiny arteries in your inner ears would cause a massive and sudden sensorineural hearing loss.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi,
I am a 44 year old female who underwent VSG (vertical sleeve gastrectomy) surgery 12/6/16. I developed superficial thrombophlebitis with cellulitis in my R arm a week later and was put on Augmentin and a warm and elevate your arm regime. The weeks following, my arm got worse and U/S showed DVT into midaxillary region. I started on Coumadin Dec 24th. I had abrupt onset hearing loss starting Jan 13th and had an audiologist test that following Monday which showed 80-95% loss with terrible ringing. I started a risky Prednisone taper (d/t my staple line) 80mg X4 days then 60mg X4 ect. My ENT wants to do another audio test next week (2 weeks after prednisone). I feel the Prednisone helped about 10% but the ringing is still there. I can whooshes of wind now whereas before there was nothing. I had all my vitamin levels checked as routine, everything OK esp B, B12 and vit D. What little I feel I hear sounds robotic. Should we r/o clot in my brain since I have DVT? ENT did not think that was a possibility. Also, if my hearing is only 15% but I have this loud ringing all the time, can I have surgery to remove all aspects of hearing like a mastectomy of the ear?
Hi Kim:
It is possible that the Augmentin (Amoxicillin) caused your massive hearing loss. I’ve heard from others with the same experience. I’ve no information to indicate that Warfarin (Coumadin) causes hearing loss, so it’s probably not that drug.
When you have a massive sudden hearing loss, one of my rules of thumb says that there is not a high probability of much hearing coming back–with or without taking Prednisone. So if you got about 10 dB back, that would be about par for the course. Mind you, this is only my rule of thumb. You may have better results, but don’t pin your hopes on it.
The tinnitus you are experiencing almost always accompanies sudden hearing loss. So as long as you have the hearing loss, you could expect to have the tinnitus as well.
If I were you, I’d not even consider having the surgery to try to eliminate your tinnitus, because tinnitus does NOT originate in your ears, but in your brain. If you had the surgery, you have even odds that your tinnitus will stay the same or get worse. And the nasty thing is if your auditory nerve is cut, there is no way to try to mask your tinnitus in the future, so that is not a good strategy.
You are far better off to learn how to deal with your tinnitus so it will not bother you even though it may still be there. In my book, “Take Control of Your Tinnitus” I show you a number of ways to successfully deal with your tinnitus. You can get it at http://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/take-control-of-your-tinnitus-heres-how/ .
It will take work on your part, but you CAN successfully deal with your tinnitus. I have had tinnitus for more than 65 years now–but I do not let my tinnitus bother me even though it is there 24/7. You can do the same.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil,
I woke up on the 5th of January 2017 , with severe dizziness , spewing, unsteadiness and lost hearing from my right ear. Was diagnosed with vestibular neuronitis . Was prescribed prochlorperazine 5mg and Prednisolone 25mg for 5 days. Taken as required and still no clearing of my right ear. So got a referral to RBWH ENT and been on 15 days on Panafcortelone (Prednisolone ) completed tablets and nothing has changed much. Currently awaiting my MRI results just worried as how long this going to take as its going to be a month soon. Will I get my hearing back?
Hi Pauline:
You’ve taken the steroids in a timely manner. Since no (or little) hearing has come back and its now almost a month, I rather doubt more hearing will return, or if it does, only a minimal amount. How is your balance now–good, poor or ?
Did you have an active virus in your body anywhere in the week or two before the hearing loss occurred?
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil
Over the past 22 years i have had 5 attacks where i had some hearing loss. In the previous 4 the low frequency (250 and 500) reduction (20 and 30DB) that i lost, came back to 10 and 20. During this time the high frequencies were also knock out. Typical ski slope. They never came back. In the first 4 evenys the lows come back anywhere from 1 week to 4 months. This time i am 2 months into it and the lows fluctuate from being almost back to back to where I started. This cycle repeats itself over and over. At one point at 1 week and 2 weeks after the sudden loss, they were back to normal. This only lasts for a day. It seems as though certain frequency sounds will trigger the drop. I went on Prednisone and an AV in week 4 and 5, but didn’t seem to help. In any case, any thoughts as to what is going on or what i should do?
Hi Tom:
When I hear of cyclical episodes of hearing loss–especially in the low frequencies–the first thing that comes to mind is that you have some version of Meniere’s disease. Since you do not mention balance problems at the same time, rather than full-blown Meniere’s, you could have a version called cochlear hydrops. It is likely that the C2 vertebra in your upper neck is out of proper alignment.
If I were you, the first thing I’d do is go at a special kind of chiropractor called an upper cervical spine chiropractor and have him check out both your C1 and C2 vertebrae. Once they are in proper alignment, your symptoms should go away (if this is the cause).
To learn more about all this and where to find a upper cervical chiropractor, read my comprehensive article on is at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/atlas-adjustments-alleviate-menieres-disease/ .
If this doesn’t fix the problem, let me know and we’ll take the next step.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil
Thanks for the quick response. I have booked an appointment with one of the ones listed on the Website that you suggested. It is on March 13. I will update you after that.
Well I seen the chiro and my c1 and c2 are definitely out of alignment, along with other parts of my spine. I am going to have 12 Blair sessions over the next 6 weeks. The Dr. said that if the neck is responsible for my hearing condition it could take anywhere from a few weeks to 6 months before I notice any difference. Specifically with the Tinnitus as the hearing loss probably cannot be reversed.
Hi Neil
I have had 4 adjustments and the C1 and C2 apparently are now aligned. How long should I wait for results before i take the next as you referred to it in me original email? I am still schedule for at least 8 more sessions.
Hi Tom:
Some results show up quite fast–even after just one treatment, but others take longer. I’d wait until you finish all 12 sessions and see how you feel then.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil
I have had 6 sessions and the high frequencyTinnitus which was only in my right ear is now appearing in my left but not as loud. Further more when I yawn, swallow, or tilt my head back another High frequency tinnitus sound briefly appears. I am not sure if this is part of the healing process or if we are creating another problem. I will be checking with the chiro on Tuesday. What do you think? Have you heard of the tinnitus getting worse from C1/C2 adjustments?
I should also mention, i have had some days where the tinnitus has gone from an 8 to a 4 but it only lasts for a day or so at most.
Thanks
Hi Tom:
Hard to say if your changing tinnitus is part of the healing process or not. Or whether your chiropractor hasn’t gone far enough in the treatments. When you get brief tinnitus when you tilt your neck back, or sideways, or yawn, that indicates that your neck/face muscles are still stressed–meaning you are not yet in proper alignment–as I see it.
When your tinnitus is bouncing around all over the place, I’d say that is probably part of the healing process. It’s normal to have good days and bad days, but slowly the good days should be more common than the bad days and your neck and muscles become properly aligned (and hold their alignment).
Cordially,
Neil
Hi doc,
I got the dizziness and full hearing loss in my left ear around 8 days ago. I started the 60mg steroid tablets within 5 days after initial wrong diagnosis.
I haven’t been given the injections as well, is this something you recommend at the same time and during early treatment? I can deal with the tinnitus but i’m not sure i can live with the hearing loss. I used to be very sociable and enjoy sports but now all I just want to stay indoors on my own. The first few days have given me no change to hearing.
Also when I blow my nose i get severe vertigo attack and sharp loud tinnitus which eventually subsides. Any hope for me?
Also will my balance ever subside? I’m freaking out and don’t think i can live like this.
Please help me.
Thanks for your help.
Hi AkSal:
Sorry to be so long in getting back to you. How are your ears doing now? Did any hearing come back? The fact that you get severe vertigo when you blow your nose makes me wonder whether you have superior canal dehiscence syndrome. You might want your ear specialist to check you out for that unless your balance problems have all resolved themselves in the meantime.
If your hearing hasn’t come back, you should get properly-fitted hearing aids. They should help you here a lot better.
Typically balance problems improve as your brain learns how to ignore faulty balance signals and rely on the good signals you still have. However if you have superior canal dehiscence, you will need surgery to fix that if that is possible.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello,
I get left shoulder pain after using hearing aid in my left ear. I’m not sure why, my shoulders are fine otherwise but only during use or after use of hearing aid. I also experience pain on side of head where i use aid.
Hi Victor:
That’s a new one on me, but I suspect that the earmold or shell (depending whether you wear a behind the ear or in the ear aid.
To be sure it is a physical problem and not a sound problem, wear the hearing aid turned off for as long as it would normally take to get this pain if you had it turned on. If the pain appears when it is turned off, then you know the pain has nothing to do with sound levels (too high), but the earmold/shell is most likely pressing (either directly or indirectly) on a nerve that feeds your head and neck–probably the trigeminal nerve (5th cranial nerve). The solution may be to get a different earmold that better fits your ear canal–soft domes come to mind–if you are not already using them.
If the pain only appears when the hearing aid is turned on, then let me know and we can troubleshoot that cause. But lets rule out the other major possibility first.
Cordially,
Neil
Receiver in the canal is causing this problem, I tried other for an hour or so – behind the ear and didn’t get shoulder pain however i can’t use behind the ear due to it’s large size. RIC is pretty much hidden.
Hello Dr Bauman I think you are wonderful for offering this type of support.
I am in day 14 SSHL right ear. Profound loss. No improvemtns yet with PO steroids or 2 IT shots. I’m also on 2 weeks of valtrex anti viral. I did experience numbness in my entire right side of my face and significant vertigo and tinnitus from the start. My numbness instantly went away with my first IT shot and my vertigo has improved with my second IT shot, like the pressure has decreased however no hearing improvements. My scans are all negative do you recommend I see a rheumatologist to work up auto immune disorders and take any Additional supplements or therapy that ENT has not thought up yet? I notice a similar person before was taking steroid drops directly into ear. I want to bathe in it at this point for a Hail Mary.
Hi Kent:
If you suddenly (within an hour or so) lost your hearing and experienced the balance issues, I do not believe that it was an autoimmune problem. Those usually happen over weeks or a month or more, not just “instantly”. So I’m not sure that a rheumatologist would find anything significant.
Did you doctors consider that it might have been a tiny blood clot in your right ear? That could also be a likely cause. It’s probably way to late to do anything about this now as any cells that were deprived of oxygen are long since dead.
You seem to have done all the conventional “right things”. Since no hearing is coming back, I am doubtful that any will in the future, but wait until a month has passed before you give up hope.
If no hearing has come back after a month, then it is time to think about getting a hearing aid it that will help. (It depends on your degree of hearing loss and your discrimination percentage.)
Cordially,
Neil
I experienced fullness, but no hearing loss in my left ear since October 2106. Doctor suggested nasal spray, decongestants, and then tried anti-biotics in November with no relief. In January 2017, I had a horrible virus with vertigo, vomiting, fever, & sore throat. Vomiting and sore throat lasted about 2 weeks with the vertigo going on for almost 2 months, but no hearing loss. Then, in mid-April, I suddenly lost most of my hearing in the left ear. I’ve been taking oral steroids and just started injections last week, with very minor improvement. Any thoughts about anti-viral or other treatments?
Hi Hope:
You could try an antiviral and see if it works. Are you thinking that the virus is still in your body and still active after all these months? If so, then maybe an antiviral will help. If not, then probably that’s not the problem.
Prettily,
Neil
Hello Doc,
I am 23 and had sudden hearing loss in my left ear with a very loud ringing. I think the problem stemmed from using my earbuds 24/7, at least thats what i assume. Thankfully it was a temporary threshold shift but i still hear ringing. Even though it came back I was still given Prednisone 40mg as a precaution. Can this still work ? And i was given it for only 3 days, is this effective or do i need more days added to my therapy? Also, is there a chance if it coming back or sadly becoming permanent even if i protect my ears from now on?
Hi Rac:
I think you are right. You were wearing your earbuds for too long with the volume to high. The result was a temporary threshold shift and tinnitus. Quite often the temporary threshold shift goes away, but because you have abused her ears with loud sound the tinnitus may remain and proved to be permanent.
There is nothing wrong with wearing your earbuds for longer periods, but you have to keep the volume down to the same level that you hear people talking at–in other words, somewhere around 55 to 60 dB. That’s a safe level that you could listen to music for hours if you wanted to and presumably not damage your ears.
Since your hearing came back, there’s probably no point in taking Prednisone any longer.
It’s hard to say if your tinnitus is going to be permanent or not. However, in any case, you need to protect your ears some louder sounds from now on or your tinnitus could get worse.
Even if your tinnitus does prove to be permanent, you can learn to ignore it so it never bothers you.
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you doc for your response. I have one last question though, is it safe to still attend parties even with noise protection plugs since i have already experienced some damage? The one’s I have claim to reduce noise by 30 decibels.
Ps: I’m from the Caribbean and our parties are generally loud
Hi Rac:
Definitely wear ear protectors in noisy places like parties. You want to keep the noise level your ears hear to below 80 dB. And don’t stand right in front of loudspeakers, and other sources of loud noise–keep back from them. The goal is to protect your ears while still having a good time.
Cordially,
Neil
I totally lost hearing in my right year after sneezing. Both my ears closed up, the left ear is muffled a bit but hearing normal in left. Was hospitalized due to vertigo and vomiting. Had oral prednisone four times and 1 inner ear injection. Have you ever heard of a sneeze causing Total hearing loss? Both ent doctors I’ve seen have never heard of this. This happened 2months ago. Do you think I can do anything else to restore my hearing? Thanks for any help.
Hi Jan:
I think what happened in your case is that when you sneezed, your Eustachian tubes momentarily opened, or were forced open, and mucus was forced into your Eustachian tubes. This mucus filled your middle ear with gunk so the tiny bones could not vibrate freely like they do in air. The result is that you had an instant conductive hearing loss. This hearing loss remains until the gunk drains out and your middle ear is filled with air again so the bones can vibrate freely.
At the same time, I suspect that the cold virus got into your inner ear and caused a sensorineural hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing losses tend to be permanent and since more than two months this past, if this is the case, it is highly unlikely that there’s anything you can do to get your hearing back.
If you go to an audiologist and have a complete audiological evaluation, your audiologist can tell you whether you have any conduct of loss or not. If you have some degree of conduct of loss, that may mean you still have congestion in your middle ears and when this drains out you could regain some hearing. However, if your audiogram shows that you only have sensorineural hearing loss, then as I said before, your hearing loss is almost certainly permanent.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi, Doctor,
I am so glad to see your site after nearly 2.5 months into sudden hearing loss (SHL) in my left year. After I woke up early in the morning of 11 April 2017, I experienced severe nausea and vertigo, lost hearing in the left year and was admitted in the emergency department of a local hospital. I was then injected some drip to ease the dizziness and was given some steroid tablets to take in the next 2 weeks. I was seen by two ENT and both told me there is nothing they can do about my SHL. I should also mention that the hearing test they performed on me after 10 days into the attack concluded I had profound hearing loss in my left ear (while my right ear is good and normal). I also went through the CT and MRI scans which didn’t show any issues in the head and neck area. I should also tell you that I have never had this happened to me before and wasn’t sick in anyway before the attack occurred, only had just lost big temper with my partner two nights in a row prior to the attack.
In the first 4 weeks after the incident, I was totally deaf in my left year and the sense of fullness in the left side of the head also made me extremely uncomfortable to the extent I felt I was seriously depressed. In week 5, I started to regain some hearing to the extent now (after 2.5 months) I can speak over the mobile phone with family using my left ear. The feeling of fullness has also decreased a lot to the point I felt much better in a noisy environment such as restaurant and shopping mall.
What is annoying is the tinnitus that I can hear in the left ear seems more obvious with the hearing that gradually came back. I tried acupuncture once a week and that seems to work to lower the tinnitus generally. The tinnitus I have is more of a low frequency humming sound which is the loudest in early morning just after I wake up from sleep. I guess it’s because of the extreme quietness in the environment at that time. Other than that, the tinnitus does not affect my daily routine as it is masked by other noise at work or in public.
Thank you for reading my story so far but I really want to hear from your professional opinion whether you think my hearing will continue to improve from here and whether the tinnitus will go away some day. Also, anything I should do to help myself towards full recovery?
Kind regards,
Catherine
Hi Catherine:
What did your doctors think caused your sudden hearing loss? Since you said that you weren’t sick in any way, I wonder whether you had a virus in your body that was not showing any symptoms, but at the time you had the big temper tantrums, this temporarily shot your immune system down, and as a result, whenever virus resided in your body took that opportunity to successfully attack your inner ear.
This resulted not only in hearing loss but also in vertigo and other balance problems you experienced.
One of my rules of thumb is that whatever hearing you have at the end of 30 days is what you will be left with.the fact that you started to regain hearing after five weeks makes you unusual. Therefore, you may continue to have some improvement in your hearing over time, although I think the chances of much more hearing coming back our slim.
Typically tinnitus accompanies hearing loss, so as long as you have significant hearing loss you will probably have the tinnitus. If, by some miracle, your hearing returns to normal, I would expect your tinnitus to fade away.
However, I suspect you will always have a significant hearing loss in your one ear, and thus your tinnitus will remain. The best way to treat your tinnitus is learn to ignore it. Furthermore, realize that it is not a threat to your well-being in any way. When you do this, it will tend to fade into the background and will not bother you even though sometimes you will be aware of it.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi, Dr Bauman,
Thank you so much for replying to my questions.
All the doctors I saw in April couldn’t conclude what caused my sudden hearing loss. One of them even said I had BPPV which was disagreed by another doctor. Good thing is no one thinks I had Miener’s disease. One of the doctor also said I was a mysterious case….!
Since your reply, I kept a diary of my conditions. Now what is bothering me is the residual ringing in my left ear. I had some mornings waking up with almost no tinnitus, with minor ringing gradually developed during the day which can be barely noticeable while I was at work. It is obviously more noticeable when I get home as everything gets a lot quieter there. It’s like every 3-5 good days I have one bad day, which means the ringing is louder coupled with 2-3 different sound/pitches which may go on and off several times during the day. During the ‘bad day’, I also felt my left ear is more pressured with a sense of fullness. Also during the bad day, I feel very anxious and frustrated of the situation of two steps forward and one step back.
Hearing wise, although I did not have a second hearing test done, I continue to monitor how well I can hear from listening to the phone. I think my hearing might be slightly better, certainly not getting worse. I can speak over the mobile phone using my left ear so long as I turn the volume higher.
What do you think:
– Is the good/bad days situation normal? Is it a sign of getting better/worse?
– Do you recommend me to try hearing aid/tinnitus masker? I am hoping I don’t have to as I can hear well with my right ear but some say I should wear hearing aid for the left ear so the hearing ability won’t go backwards?
– I heard anti-depressant meds lower tinnitus. Do you recommend if I take small dosage during those bad days so I can mentally feel better? Any side effects?
Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you again.
Regards
Catherine
Hi Catherine:
To answer your questions:
I always think the good days/bad days is a good sign. You are doing well in that you have more good days than bad days. Hopefully over time, you will continue to get even more good days and fewer bad days. This is one pattern people experience. Another is a gradual improvement day by day.
The good day/bad day pattern may closely relate to your emotional status. When you are “down” you tend to experience bad tinnitus days, and when you are “up” you tend to experience good tinnitus days. If this is the case, then you need to work on your emotional status and do things that help keep you “up”.
You can try a hearing aid in your left ear and see whether it significantly helps you hear and understand people better. If so, continue to wear it. If not, then return it in the 30 day period trial period you have to return hearing aids and get your money back.
You may find that getting a hearing aid with a tinnitus masker helps you. Or you may find that the tinnitus masking sounds bother you. Since your tinnitus is not really bothering you all that much, you may decide to just ignore your tinnitus and let it fade into the background with time.
I wouldn’t worry about your hearing going “backwards” if you don’t wear a hearing aid. Your brain is plastic and has already changed itself by now. If you choose to wear a hearing aid, your brain will again change itself.
Personally, I’m against taking antidepressants as overall, their negative side effects are greater than their positive ones. There are much better ways to deal with your tinnitus that take drugs. I deal with many of them in my latest tinnitus book–Take Control of Your Tinnitus. You can get a copy at http://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/take-control-of-your-tinnitus-heres-how/
Cordially,
Neil
Dear Dr Bauman,
Thank you so much for your encouraging words to me. They are better than gold!! Always being healthy and recovered quick from whatever illness/injuries I had before, this sudden hearing loss I had in April this year changed my life. To be honest, I still couldn’t believe I fell victim to it, especially after being told by my many medical professionals that there’s no cure and I just have to live with it, including tinnitus. It’s just not fair, I told myself millions of times each day. But, thank you so much for your advice, I will work on my conditions with more “up” like you suggested. It’s great to have people like you out there who save lives!!
Hi Catherine:
Life doesn’t seem fair, does it? But we each have our own problems to deal with that often no one else around us knows about. But these problems/chalenges build character if you use them as a learning experience in order to be a better person.
Focusing on the “unfairneses” of life is a good way to become discontented and make your life worse. Focusing on the things you can still do (and do well) allows you to overcome.
Do you really think I’d be able to help all the people I do if I weren’t one of them myself? I’m functionally deaf and have to struggle with hearing issues every single day–just like you do, but to a much greater extent. Yet my poor hearing didn’t stop me from becoming an “expert” in helping people with hearing loss. Just because you have a hearing loss doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy life and succeed. It’s just that you life may be different, but not worse.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi, Doctor,
I hope you are well! I finally got another hearing test done last week. I went from 90-100 in April to an average of 66 in August on my left year. I suppose now instead of having profound hearing loss, my hearing loss is considered ‘severe’? While I am glad with this level of improvement, I also want to further improve my hearing by trying out a hearing aid. I ordered the latest Oticon Opn for a 45 day trial. Can I ask you by fitting with a hearing aid, can I expect my current hearing of my left ear to stay as it is (or better, but not worse) over time provided I do all I can to protect it? My thinking is that since the hearing aid is actually a sound amplifier, would the extra level of sound damage my remaining hair cell over time? My audiologist told me so long as I turn the volume down, it should be fine. I also want to know the chances of the hearing aid reduce or remove my tinnitus? I tried the hearing aid on at the clinic for a minute or so, and I couldn’t hearing my ear ringing at all which was great (note the clinic was quiet, so I don’t think it was the masking effect that makes the difference). How many hours of wearing the hearing aid in a day do you recommend note that my right ear is with normal hearing. Kind regards and thank you in advance, Catherine
Dr, Bauman,
Hi, I experienced sudden hearing loss on my right ear saturaday morning when I woke up. I thought it would go away but it didn’t so I went to the ER and the doctor who saw me called the ENT doctor on call and he prescribed prednisone and something for my vertigo and referred me to se an ENT doctor Wednesday since it is the 4th of July Weekend. I have been taking acutane for the past 2 1/2 months to treat cystic acne in my back. I believe the hearing loss is due to this medication. I stopped taking it same day I lost hearing. Have you seen this happened before? What are my chances that I will recover my hearing? I hear like a waterfall in my right ear. I can’t wait to go see the ENT doctor Wednesday.
Hi Danny:
Isotretinoin (Accutane) cam indeed cause hearing loss. The hearing loss can either be temporary or permanent. If this drug was cussing your hearing loss, you are wise to quit taking it immediately. Hopefully, your hearing will prove to be temporary, but only time will tell whether it will be temporary or permanent.
The waterfall sounds you hear is one of the many tinnitus sounds. Very often, tinnitus accompanies hearing loss. If your hearing returns, there’s a good chance that your tinnitus would fade away.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello! My ISSNHL on my left ear started 24th of July 2017. I started Predenisone from the date of onset for two weeks incl. tapering. I started Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Therapy from the 3rd day of onset. It is 2 hours session with 1hr 2.8 ATA and 1hr 2 ATA successively. I also started high density intravenous vitamin-C injection of 0.2g/Kg which is 15g for me per day. Now I took 21 times of HBOT session and 13 time of HDIV-C injection. In the mean time I took intratympanic Dexamethasone 5mg 4 days successively from 11th day of onset. I also took N-Acetyl-L-Cystein 600mg 2 times per day. from 1 week of onset. Now 23rd days after onset, my hearing is improved as follows:
125HZ—- 50db——35
250HZ—- 60———25
500HZ—- 65———25
750HZ—- 65———20
1000HZ–70———-30
1500HZ–70———-25
2000HZ–75———-25
3000HZ–65———-30
4000HZ–60———-35
6000HZ–60———-40
8000HZ–65———-40
10000HZ-75———50
I hope to have more improvement in 1-2 months
Hi Yun-Sang:
I sure hope you mean June 24th as July 24th hasn’t yet come.
It’s great that your hearing is showing this improvement. Unfortunately, by doing so many different treatments at once you can’t tell which treatment is most effective. On the other hand, you are doing all the things you know to do that might cause improvement. So that is good. If you did them sequentially, only the first one would have a good chance of helping you. By the time you got to the second as succeeding ones, too much time would have gone by for them to be effective.
I wish you well in continued improvement in your hearing in the coming weeks. However, don’t get your hopes up too high as my rule of thumb says that the hearing you have after 30 days is what you will be left with–unless your hearing is still improving day by day at the end of the 30 days–then it may continue to improve.
You have had considerable hearing returning and now just have a mild hearing loss–up from a severe loss. This is great.
Cordially,
Neil
Dr. Bauman,
I was diagnosed with SSHL seven days after onset of hearing loss and tinnitus (which worsened within three days) and started Prednisone treatment promptly. My right ear has the severe hearing loss and loud tinitus. My left ear tested above average on the hearing test. I have completed three days of treatment thusfar and as I am settling in bed, just tonight, my left ear starts ringing and it feels a bit plugged up, just as what had originally occurred with my right ear. Should I be concerned? It has been 45 minutes and it doesn’t feel like it has popped open. I am scheduled for a follow up hearing exam in eight days. Tomorrow will be day four of my steroid regiment. Please advise.
Also, I did read that you believe, outside of a miracle (which do happen) that the hearing that will be restored will be done usually within thirty days of onset. Does this include the tinnitus disappearing?
Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
Jodie
Hi Jodie:
If you left ear follows your right ear, then I’d be concerned. Do you have any active virus in your body–cold, flu, herpes, etc.? Or have you had any viral symptoms in the past week or more? If so, you could be having a viral attack on your inner ears. Some doctors will put you on an anti-viral such as Methotrexate to see if this helps. If your left ear is still blocked when you get up this morning, I’d see if a doctor if you can and see what he thinks.
Yes, one of my rules of thumb is that the hearing that you are left with at the end of 30 days is probably what you will have in the future. The sooner hearing begins coming back, the better your chances of a full or near full recovery.
Tinnitus very often accompanies hearing loss. If this is the case, if your hearing mostly returns, then you can expect your tinnitus to go away or greatly lessen in volume. Otherwise, you may also have permanent tinnitus. But take heart, there are ways to deal with it so it won’t bother you, even if it is still there to whatever degree.
Cordially,
Neil
On Wednesday June 28th, 2017, my dog was running into the street so I had to yell as loud as I could (in a booming voice) to get him to stop. It worked, but I immediately noticed some “ringing” in my ears. Later that day, I started developing symptoms of a head cold.
By Saturday, July 1st My right ear was ~80% muffled, and my left ~10%.
On Monday, July 3rd I called the doctor and the soonest they could get me in was July 5th. I figured it was a head cold/ear infection. I had some throbbing and terrible tinnitus in my right ear.
On July 5th the general practitioner doctor said my right eardrum was “bulging” and swollen, but there was no liquid; also, my left was a little swollen, but not bad; and my nasal cavity was also inflamed. She prescribed 60mg of Prednisone for 3 days.
By Friday, July 7th, there was no improvement at all. The doctor then prescribed Antibiotics (500mg AMOX/CLAV twice a day). The following Monday, the 10th, there was no change at all. I was also taking antihistamines (Sudafed, etc). I was referred to the ENT doctor but couldn’t get in until July 14th.
They did an “official” hearing test and it showed I suffered substantial hearing loss in my right ear (~60%), and possibly a “little” in my left (perhaps 5%). They said my eardrums looked normal and I had all the patterns of nerve damage caused by a virus. The doctor injected steroids into my right inner-ear and scheduled me to come back in a week. Here’s a link to my hearing test results: https://hearingtest.online/myAudiogram.php?s=nL_250_20nL_500_15nL_1000_10nL_2000_10nL_4000_20nL_8000_20nR_250_20nR_500_20nR_1000_30nR_2000_40nR_4000_60nR_8000_70&d=21+Jul+2017
Another week went by (July 21st) and during this time, I felt crappy; I wouldn’t say flu-like symptoms, but weak, under the weather, etc. Also, no changes in hearing. I received another injection on the 21st. The ENT doctor said if there was no change after 2 injections that I should get a MRI.
The only good change that took place during this entire time was the feeling of “having a numb hole” in the right side of my head has slowly disappeared and it’s close to feeling “normal” again, even though there has been no change in hearing loss.
I find it very hard to believe I suddenly caught a virus and all of this happened; especially since the trigger was “yelling at the dog”. But my symptoms do seem to fit the profile; it took around 72 hours for the condition to develop – but as I mentioned, I just thought it was a head cold or an ear infection. I didn’t have any dizziness or vertigo. Just felt “crappy” (like I was fighting a bug) for a good month or so.
I wish I knew about the hum test when all of this happened.
I don’t think there’s much more to do at this point; I’ve already had the 2 injections. I guess the real question is do I even really need a MRI? I’d have to pay cash out of pocket (which I can), but don’t want to throw away money on something when the symptoms don’t support anything other than a viral infection. AFAIK the MRI would only show the nerve tumors or “something more serious” but I have no symptoms of continued degradation (which I think would point to something more serious). Additionally, I had bloodwork done and everything came back normal.
So, should I get the MRI? Also, does this sound like the “normal” case of viral infection gone wrong causing SHL?
Hi David:
First, there are two possibilities. Your yelling at your dog and the viral attack on your ears were coincidental and were not related. Or, your yelling at your dog strained your voice box and caused tiny tears and a cold virus entered your body ad proceeded to cause the cold symptoms and invaded your right inner ear and caused the hearing loss.
Taking Prednisone only supposedly reduces inflammation, it doesn’t affect a cold virus. The same goes for taking the Amoxicillin/Clavanulate–that is a bacterial anti-biotic, not an anti-viral. I’m sure your doctor gave you that because he thought you had a MIDDLE ear infection, but it wouldn’t do anything for an INNER ear viral attack.
You may find it hard to believe, but that’s the way viral attacks go. You often have no warning. Numbers of people just wake up with their hearing gone, but they had normal hearing when they went to bed.
I’m with you on the MRI. Doctors like to rule out acoustic neuromas when you have sudden hearing loss on only one side like you have. But like you, I don’t think it will show up anything as you almost certainly had a cold viral attack on your right ear. Hearing loss from acoustic neuromas, in my experience, develop much more slowly–not overnight–like viral attacks can.
You have to make up your own mind regarding the MRI, but if I were in your shoes, I probably wouldn’t have it, because all the symptoms point to another cause.
Cordially,
Neil
Dr. Bauman, thank you so much for your time and response.
A few additional questions:
1. Is there a way to determine if my hearing loss is due to nerve damage vs. inner ear hair damage? (e.g. frequency of tinnitus, “twang” sound of louder sounds in bad ear)
2. Are my hearing test chart layout results fairly standard for viral hearing loss?
3. Am I a candidate for a hearing aid? If so, which kind?
4. When should somebody with a condition similar to what I’ve experienced consider a MRI? (e.g. what symptoms to look out for)
Thank you again, I look forward to your thoughts on the above.
Hi David:
1. Normally your nerve as such is not the problem, it is the hair cells at the end of the nerve that are the problem. But doctors still call it nerve deafness as the hair cells are the ends of the auditory nerve. The real problem is the hair cells or the underlying support cells (spiral ganglion).
2. Your audiogram is consistent with a viral attack, or other kinds of hearing loss factors. There is no “standard” viral attack pattern of which I know.
3. Yes, you could benefit from a hearing aid in your right ear. There is no “special” kind of hearing aid for this kind of loss. Any should work reasonably well. It’s not the hearing aid so much as the skill of the person programming it to fit your hearing loss that is more important.
3. Doctors typically consider an MRI when you have hearing loss in only one ear. So you meet their criterion. But viral attacks and ototoxic drug hearing loss can affect just one ear too. Thus they use the MRI to rule out causes such as an acoustic neuroma.
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you very much for your feedback Dr. Bauman. I’ve been adjusting to the loss and have a new Rexton hearing aid from Costco. There is one strange new issue though; I just went in today to get my hearing aid adjusted, and they found what appears to be “blood” on my eardrum. Here’s a picture: http://i.imgur.com/6LBgo2q.jpg
Sadly I’m on vacation in a different part of the US for the next few weeks. What I’m thinking is that’s the last injection hole from my steroid (roughly a month ago) that never healed because I use a CPAP and every night I put saline solution in my nose and blow it (not hard). Curious as to what you think this could be? Do you agree it could be the injection hole not healing due to nightly Saline/blowing use?
Hi David:
You could be right. If you are worried about it, I’d see an ear specialist wherever you are and get it checked out.
It may not be anything to worry about, but I can’t really say.
Cordially,
Neil
Good morning Neil; I saw a new ENT and he had some very interesting information I was unaware of before. First, the mark on my eardrum was the injection point still healing (and aggravated more than likely by pressure).
But what he did was point me to some materials from his colleagues supporting my condition not coming from a viral source. Here’s a link to one of the doctor’s publications – I just wanted to share it with you to get your opinion.
https://content.karger.com/Article/Pdf/111048
This supports what happened to me; my hearing loss began almost immediately after yelling at the dog as it ran into the street. A virus wouldn’t move that quickly…
Hi David:
Thanks for the link to this article. It certainly provides food for thought. Obviously, there is lots more to learn about SSHL and its causes. If stress is the underlying cause in some cases–perhaps yours–then it seems to me that treating with anti-inflammatory drugs like this article suggests could be part of the answer. But so could taking high doses of NAC (N-acetyl-cysteine) which your body uses to produce glutathione–a powerful anti-oxidant, since such stress processes result in reactive oxygen species (ROS) being produced. The NAC (glutathione) could neutralize these ROS before they could damage the inner ear, but this would need to take place right away.
Hopefully, this article gets researchers looking at other possibilities. The fact that hearing comes back without treatment in 2/3 of the cases indicates that the body is shot down momentarily, but can recover itself. This needs to be looked at more closely and see why it recovers in some cases, but not in others, and why recovery is complete in some cases and only partial in others.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr Bauman, My name is Daren – I’m 50 years old. On August 3 I woke up and noticed ringing in my ear and then loss of hearing. After searching online I wasted no time and went to the ENT and prescribed prednisone 60 mg and taper down. He did say it was sudden hearing loss and I do have tinnitus. In your experience should I be seeing any results now or does it take some time.
Hi Daren:
If you have seen no improvement in your hearing, and its now been well over a month, I doubt that the Prednisone is going to help you. Unfortunately, Prednisone doesn’t work for everyone.
I think that the hearing you have now is what you will have in the future, barring a miracle. One of my rules of thumb is that the hearing you have at the end of 30 days is all you will have in the future.
Cordially,
Neil
Dr. Bauman,
22 days ago I suffered hearing loss as the result of inadequate hearing protection while doing some recreational shooting. I saw an ENT 6 days after as a concern with mild tinnitus in both ears (only audible in quite environments) and had very minor hearing loss and still was above average. I was put on 60 MG of prednisone for 5 days followed by 10 days of taper in addition to taking various supplements 2 days after the incident (NAC, Magnesium, Vitamin E, Niacin and COQ10). After the first dose of Prednisone, my tinnitus seemed to disappear in the right ear and the left ear has a low level “hiss”, again, only in quite environments and quite frankly if I listen for it although the right ear seems to now fluctuate with a mild high frequency form of tinnitus in quite environments. I have a follow up appointment with the ENT in a few days and at the first appointment they suggested IT Steroid shots as a follow up if the Prednisone hasn’t been effective. I realize I am extremely lucky to only suffered minimal hearing loss but would like to do everything I can within the 30 day window to maximize recovery and eliminate what little bit of tinnitus I have.
Is the IT shot worth pursuing as far as risk vs. reward? I would hate to do anything to cause further hearing loss or increase my tinnitus. I have had good recovery so far and would hate to have a set back by receiving the IT shots.
Is there a chance the mild tinnitus could disappear on its own without the IT shot over time?
Best Regards,
Jacob
Hi Jacob:
I’m not a big fan of intratympanic shots. If I were in your shoes, I’d probably forego the pleasure since your tinnitus is so faint.
But it sure wouldn’t hurt to maintain taking the NAC, magnesium, Vitamin E, etc. To this you might want to add zinc. Do this for another month. Hopefully your tinnitus will have faded away.
However, don’t listen for it, because every time to “strain” to hear it, you are sending a message to your limbic system that this is an important sound and your limbic system will lock onto it and make it louder.
So much better to just take your vitamins and totally and completely ignore your tinnitus and it won’t bother you–if you even hear it. You may hear it when it is very quiet (or not), but treat it as an unimportant sound and let it fade into the background.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello, Dr. Bauman,
I am experiencing Sudden Severe Hearing Loss since August 4th.
– 8/3 (Thursday evening) – I went to a work event on the 39th floor and felt both of my ears clogged just like you feel it when traveling on an airplane; however, it was all back to normal in a couple of minutes. When I got home, my ears were blocked/full again, went to bed and didn’t think much of it…
8/4/17 Friday
– Woke up with a strong pressure in the right side of the head and couldn’t hear anything from my right ear. Half of my head was numb (The ear and behind the ear, more like the area of the back of the head behind the ear and a little above that )
– I went to the urgent care and I was sent to an ENT doctor after doing some examination.
– Went to to see an audiologist right after who performed hearing tests and it was then when I was diagnosed with Sudden Severe Hearing Loss on my right ear (about 100%gone). I also noticed mild tinnitus in addition to the numbness and some mild pain around the ear area.
– I was prescribed with steroids: Prednisome 30mgs daily. (Took them for only 4 days– too many side effects like itching in the skin, anxiety, and face skin would be flushed, so I discontinued them)
8/7/17 (Monday)
– First Tympanic Steroid Shot @ ENT
+ Audiology Test: Word Recognition at 16%, hearing “volume” 0%
8/8/17 (Tuesday)
– MRI of the Brain with and without contrast which came back normal,
8/11/17 (Friday)
– Extreme pain in the head (like it was going to explode at any moment). Went to the ER, but was discharged fast as they didn’t know what else to do with me besides sending me back to the ENT. They gave me 1 pill of 25 mg of Mezacline for the vertigo.
– 3rd Appt. with ENT: 2nd Tympanic Steroid Shot (no changes)
8/14 – ANCA (normal) / LUPUS (normal) tests
8/15 – Balance Test ENT (normal)
8/16 – New doctor: Otoneurologist: 3rd shot (no changes)
8/21 Otoneurologist: 4th shot + Audiology Test:
Word Recognition at 36%, hearing “volume” still at 0%
8/25 Otoneurologist: 5th shot + Audiology.
Word Recognition is at 60%, hearing “volume went up a bit… not sure how much, but some sounds are muffled and distant, but if I cover my good ear I can still understand everything)
8/25 – (2nd) Neurologist: Did an ultrasound of the neck/head and told me that on the side of the ear affected the blood was flowing at 65 (instead of 30/35 like the left ear) and wanted me to get an MRA. Not sure of what that means…
8/28 – Otoneurologist: 6th shot (I feel I can hear better now, but still a bit distant, going for my 7th shot on Friday and a new Audio test)
Even though the head numbness (never felt tingling) has been reduced significantly (80%) since the first 2 weeks, there are some things that seem to trigger it: Heat, stress, when I shower (humidity??) etc. Just when I feel the numbness has dissapeared completely, I get little reminders throughout the day.
MY QUESTIONS:
1. Could the numbness be a sign of a be a pinched nerve or something else completely unrelated to my SHL? Or if it is in fact related, why can’t I find info on this as a common symptom of patients with SHL?
2. How many steroid injections are too many, even if I continue to see improvements after my 7th one this Friday? I don’t know what’s the maximum recommended. This Sunday it will be a month since my hearing loss happened.
I thank you in advance for your response.
Hi Nicolle:
You’ve gone through quite the experience, haven’t you?
To answer your questions.
1. Numbness is a sign of something not working right–whether a pinched nerve or lack of blood flow to the area. Numbness is not a common symptom of SSHL. I don’t know what is causing it. It may or may not be related to your hearing loss. The only think I can think of that might be a possibility is that your C1 and C2 vertebrae are “out” and that could be causing your problems. The easy way to see is to go to a special kind of chiropractor called an upper cervical chiropractor and have him access whether this might be your problem. Conventional chiropractors aren’t trained to do this.
2. I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone having 7 of them in a row. There are two ways to look at this. If they continue to help, then you may choose to continue to have them. If not, I’d stop. And if they are not causing other side effects, you may choose to continue, but if other side effects crop up, you may decide that these other side effects outweigh the benefits to your ears.
As you know, I’m not a medical doctor so don’t get into all the nitty-gritty of dosages and how often, etc.
However, you have aggressively attacked your hearing loss in a timely fashion which is good. My rule of thumb is that the hearing you are left with at the end of 30 days is what you’ll have in the future. So unless it is still continuing to improve (which seems to be the case), about now is the time to decide whether you should stop treating the hearing loss, and move on to addressing living with a hearing loss.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr:
I was feeling a little sick the night of 30-Aug. When I woke up in the morning I noticed that I lost the hearing in my left ear.
I came to work normally, but at noon I decided to go to see a doctor.
He immediately sent me for audiological tests, and gave me a prescription for Prednisone. I started it 1-September. So far (day 5), I don’t see any change at all.
My audiogram shows:
250Hz – 45dB, 500Hz – 60dB, 1Khz – 70dB, 2Khz – 55dB, 4Khz – 40dB, 6Khz – 30dB, 8Khz – 20dB (meaning higher frequencies are ok). Soon I will do an MRI.
Since 5 days have passed and I see no change, I am aware of the statistic.
Is there any chance by now (assuming no change till now) – that things can improve by what you seen all over your years of experience?
Also the tinnitus is killing me, I bought noise cancellation headphones QC-35 which helps a little also on my left ear (because it cancels high frequencies).
Is it true that by my audiogram of left ear – probably this is not tumor?
What do you suggest I do at this time?
Thanks,
R
Hi Roee:
When you say you felt sick, what did you mean? That you felt dizziness and off balance? or something else? To me, if your balance was affected, that indicated that your inner ear was being attacked by a virus or something that affected both your vestibular (balance) system and your cochlear (hearing) system.
The hearing in your left ear went overnight while you slept. This is one typical way that sudden hearing loss occurs.
You’ve done the standard treatment–starting the Prednisone in a timely fashion. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Unfortunately, so far, you haven’t been seeing any improvement.
Your resulting hearing loss is a severe cookie-bite loss. You hear better in the low and high frequencies, but worst right where speech occurs around 1,000 to 2,000 Hz.
There is still time for the Prednisone to work, but as days pass with no improvement, the chances of getting much/any hearing back is getting less and less likely.
Tinnitus very often accompanies sudden hearing loss. The best thing to do is learn to ignore your tinnitus and certainly don’t dwell on it. You may find relief by listening to other sounds that tend to mask it.
I don’t believe that you have a tumor. This is just my gut feeling based on the fact that your hearing loss developed overnight. Tumors typically slowly reduce your hearing. Therefore, I’ll bet the MRI doesn’t show anything bad.
Cordially,
Neil
Thanks Dr. Neil
You are certainly right! – no I did not fell dizziness at all
My MRI was done on 6-Sep, was found all OK go this decoding by Hospital Doctor who checked it on 7-sep (one day later)
While I was driving back home from hospital I have started to hear ringing with low music volume on my left ear.
I did stop the car and started to cry understanding that something is going on in the “right way”
I went to sleep, and wake up on 7-sep, while again staring to hear low volume noises.
I have downloaded before application called “Tone Generator” on my cell phone, and connected it with earphones, this way I can select “pure sine wave” with the frequencies from 250Hz to 8Khz as done in Audio testing, using headphones to isolate Right and Left ear (avoiding Cross-talk between them)
With this application I could see that I can suddenly hear 1Khz and above (which I couldn’t just day before)
I did Audio tests on 7-Sep that approved that my hearing is changing, I could understand words much better and it is now likes this:
250Hz – 40dB, 500Hz – 25dB, 1Khz-20dB, 2Khz-10dB, 4Khz-25dB, 8Khz-10dB !!
Each day I can hear a little more, today on 9-Sep I could start to hear 400Hz with the phone application
I still have Tinnitus today on the 9-Sep, each day I fill improvement dramatically – Although till the 6 day there was no change
It feels like getting your life back, since I suddenly can recognize the direction of voices (which I couldn’t before)
My questions for now are:
1. Today is the 8 day – I know that typically after 30 days what you have is usually what you will be with the rest of your life, but I have read that most of the time after 14 days what you have is the case, is this true?
2. How long – if my recover is good so far, till the Tinnitus noise should be off, or not? (although I am thankful for my improvement so far)
3. My Dr. told me to Avoid being in loud places for at list 60 Days, ha also gave me perception to continue the Steroids till 19-Sep (totally time 20 days) – is this ok (last days the mg. is going till 5mG in the last 2 days) ?
4. He told me that by my recovery He is almost sure I will be nearly 100% ok, do you think the same?
I also want to tell all other – to be with a lot of patience I did Mediation, I bought Noise Cancellation Headphones (Bose QC-35) – which Dramatically helped my nights, since It could cancel the High frequencies with my case that I still hear
Be note that I can almost can’t sleep (guess because of the Steroids) – Now taking most of the Perception at morning (this helps to sleep few hours in the night)
Thank you Dr.
Roee
Hi Roee:
It looks like good things are happening and your hearing is returning.
1. It may be true that MOST of the time hearing returns (if it returns) within 14 days, but hearing can (and does) come back, albeit not as often, up to 30 days. So, I am being conservative and saying 30 days. The way I say it is in my “rules of thumb” is that the sooner hearing begins to return, the better the chances that most of your hearing will come back. Conversely, the longer it takes for hearing to begin to return, the less likely you’ll get all or even much hearing back.
2. As I previously said, tinnitus typically accompanies hearing loss, so when your hearing returns to normal, your tinnitus should fade away. But there are no guarantees. If you worry about your tinnitus, it may never fade away. So you need to treat your tinnitus as a common everyday unimportant sound like the sounds your fridge makes, and completely ignore them.
3. It is a good idea to protect your ears from loud sounds while your ears recover. Just don’t overprotect them. I don’t like the idea of taking another course of steroids, but if they are helping, then continue. If they are not helping, then I’d say not to continue taking them. But I wouldn’t take a third prescription. You don’t want the steroids to affect the rest of your body.
4. I don’t know whether your hearing will come back 100%, but I do expect you to have close to normal hearing when this is all over. Only time will tell.
Cordially,
Neil
I’ve been reading this thread and I see that whatever you’re left with at your 30 days, is what youll have forever.
My question, have there been any cases where people actually recover, say after a year or two?
Hi Jorge:
Yes, there are rare cases where hearing suddenly comes back a year or two or a decade or two later. But those cases are very rare. That is why I say 30 days–barring a miracle. It all depends on the exact cause of your sudden hearing loss. If cell death occurs, then the hearing loss is permanent. If the hearing loss is caused by factors apart from cell death, then it is possible that hearing may return when those factors change or go away.
Cordially,
Neil
Dr. Bauman. I recently received Chemo and Cisplantin. After final treatment. I loss hearing. I had a ear test said I loss high frequency hearing. I’m 30 days out from treatment. Is there any chance my hearing will come back?
Hi Doug:
Cisplatin is probably the most ototoxic drug known. Unfortunately, hearing loss from taking Cisplatin tends to be permanent. It is also progressive and can continue for up to 6 months after you have completed your course of Cisplatin.
In order to reduce your risk of hearing loss from this drug, you have to take anti-oxidants concurrently with the Cisplatin. Since you are a month after treatment completed, it is probably too late for any antioxidants to help much to regain any lost hearing, but taking antioxidants can help prevent the progressive hearing loss from continuing.
Here are some excerpts from my book “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed” regarding Cisplatin that you may find useful.
“Hearing loss often begins three to four days into treatment, or it might not appear until several weeks or months after you have taken your last dose. This is because Cisplatin irreversibly binds to plasma proteins and can still be detected up to six months after you complete drug therapy. . Cisplatin damages both the auditory neurons and the auditory hair cells. The damage begins in the outer hair cells and may progress to the inner hair cells.”
“New research indicates that taking a combination of D-methionine and Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) may protect both your hair cells and your neurons from the ototoxic effects of Cisplatin therapy (Med).
Another new discovery is that N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), a form of the amino acid cysteine and produced by the body, can help prevent ototoxicity caused by Cisplatin. NAC is a powerful anti-oxidant.
Researchers believe that NAC prevents ototoxicity by binding to the Cisplatin platinum molecules and rendering them inactive. NAC is a free-radical scavenger. It also boosts levels of a powerful intracellular antioxidant called glutathione.”
You could take Glutathione, but unless given by injection, it breaks down in your stomach so is basically mostly rendered useless. If you can’t have glutathione injections, a better way is to take the N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) which your body then uses to manufacture more glutathione since NAC is one of the main building blocks of glutathione.
If you are interested, you can find more details about N-acetyl-cysteine and D-methionine near the end of my article at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/loud-music-and-hearing-loss/.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr. Neil. I started getting some hearing loss on Saturday. It got progressively worse on Wednesday got up and could not hear out of left ear with ringing and air noise. Got into the ENT that afternoon. After hearing test I was diagnosed with (SD). This is my third day on 60 mg of prednisone. I’m starting to hear better. Can hear out of bad ear on the phone enough to understand, but still have air noise. I’m on a 21 day regiment of prednisone. Do you think I will improve over the next couple of weeks? Thank You
Hi Mike:
The fact that you are hearing better by your third day is an excellent sign. In my experience, you have a good chance of recovering all/most of your lost hearing since it is starting to come back so fast. Hopefully, by the end of 30 days your hearing will be almost normal. But of course, that is my best guess. There are no guarantees.
Cordially,
Neil
Nearly 30 years ago I suddenly lost about 90% hearing in one ear and got tinnitus, all due to a minor cold virus. At that time I was told a hearing aid would not help. I recently had a hearing test at Costco and tried a hearing aid. I did hear much better with the one hearing aid, but speech was fuzzy, and I still could not hear a phone conversation in my bad ear. I was told that my brain had to relearn how to hear and that it could take 5-6 months to do that. Is that really likely?
Hi Judy:
I’m not surprised that your doctor said a hearing aid wouldn’t help. That was a common misconception among doctors–and often still is. The person to help you determine whether a hearing aid would help you is an audiologist.
As you found out recently, the doctor was wrong–a hearing aid does help–to some degree. It is not perfect by any means–but every bit helps.
It is true that it takes your brain at least 90 days to adapt to a new hearing aid so you’ll find things improve with time as your brain relearns to hear again.
However, you weren’t told the whole truth. The above is limited to working auditory circuits. Part of the fuzziness and unclearness of speech has nothing to do with your brain relearning to hear again, but due to dead parts in the auditory system–hair cells, missing synapses in the spriral ganglion, etc. Since there are no longer there, they can’t perform their jobs. The result is unclear speech.
So expect that you will hear better as your brain relearns speech, but do not expect that you will ever hear normally or even near normally with that ear. Just be thankful that you can hear better.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr Neil,
Nearly eleven years back i had an SHL in my right year. I have visited an ENT and he mentioned as a virus infection in the year. Started treatments with steroids and antibiotics and as per audiology reports it shown gained little hearing but i was not able to speak on phone and all. After that my doctor conveyed that he is suspecting that the tiny bones are not working properly and insisted an MRI scanning but it was not properly readable through scanning.
I used to adjust to the same and started living with one ear. Recently i had visited another ENT and he insisted for another audio gram and found that i lost hearing completely in that ear and its now profound hearing loss.
Is there any possibility that my first ENT is correct and need a surgery. Since passed this time am not expecting a complete recovery.
But still want to know your opinion. Will hearing aids or Cochlear implant will work
Thanks
Anoop
Hi Anoop:
If your doctor had done a complete audiological evaluation, he would instantly have known whether your hearing loss was sensorineural (inner ear) or conductive (middle ear including the 3 tiny bones there) because of the presence of an air-bone gap reading on the audiogram.
If it was virus-related, then you’d have a sensorineural hearing loss. A bit came back. The rest became a permanent loss. That makes sense for this kind of hearing loss.
Why he then changed his mind and said it was a conductive loss is a mystery to me. As I said, the audiogram would have shown whether it was conductive or not. I sincerely doubt that you had a conductive loss.
Your second audiogram obviously shows that you have a sensorineural hearing loss and not a conductive loss.
I don’t believe your first doctor is right about your having a conductive loss. If you had, then your second audiogram shouldn’t have read basically nothing. It should have shown a large air-bone gap. But there was no gap and no conductive hearing. Therefore, surgery won’t help you.
You can try out a powerful hearing aid, but it may not give you any useful sound. It depends on your discrimination scores. If you discrimination is too poor, all you’ll hear is noise, not clear speech. In that case, it is probably better not to wear a hearing aid as the sounds from the hearing aid can interfere with your hearing from your other ear.
A cochlear implant has a good chance of working, but if you have reasonable hearing in your other ear, then you are not eligible for one.
If you need help hearing from your bad side, then a special kind of hearing aid called a CROS aid will pipe the sounds from your bad side to your good side so you can better hear people talking on your deaf side.
Anyway, that’s how I see it.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr. Neil,
I am a 36 y/o male who got a sudden case of a “muffled” right ear Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning I woke up nauseated, and every time I moved the room would begin to spin and I got physically sick. My wife called an ambulance and I spent the night in the ER, CT scan and Chest X-Ray clear. They believed it was BPPV, and did a PT session in the hostpital, prescribed me another and and scheduled me with the ENT.
Visited the ENT yesterday and was caught off guard with the results: That there was some hearing loss in the right ear and that if it doesn’t come back in two weeks it’s likely gone. He started me on prednisone and I’m getting ear steroid shots as well, the first one tomorrow (Friday after the Saturday onset). This has been incredibly difficult to absorb, since it’s early is there anything else I can be doing that might improve my chances of hearing recovery? I still have some diziness and unbalanceness, but that has slowly been improving.
Also, in the ER the dr thought my blockage could be some ear wax deep inside. The ENT brushed that off but he also did very quick looks into my ear opposed to the ER doc. I’m more inclined to listen to the ENT dr on this one but giving the differing opinions does that warrant a second look?
Thanks for all you do on here!
Hi Rob:
When you get sudden muffled hearing (which indicates hearing loss) AND balance issues, that sounds like the results of a viral attack. BPPV would not affect your hearing–just cause vertigo and resulting nausea.
Did you have any active virus in your body–cold, flu, herpes, etc., etc. in the two weeks before this began?
Taking Prednisone is the standard treatment doctors give.
If you wanted to help your ears, you might want to take N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), d-Methionine, Magnesium and zinc.
Even though it is written for noise-induced hearing loss, I think the same principles apply regarding free-radicals building up in your inner ear. So the things I recommend in this article at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/vitamins-a-c-e-combined-with-magnesium-help-prevent-noise-induced-hearing-loss/ likely also apply to your ears.
There is more about NAC and how much to take near the end of this article at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/loud-music-and-hearing-loss/ . None of these things should hurt your ears and may help you. So if you want to try “more” than just the prednisone your doctor prescribed, this is what I’d take if I was in your shoes.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil:
Thank you for your response! I learned today with my first shot that the ENT agrees with your assessment, that it’s not BPPV, I think the ER wanted something to call it. The ENT says I have several things that I fit the bill maybe 75% for, but something here or there is off enough to prevent labeling it precisely.
I’m not aware of any active virus, the first of August I did have a cold that was treated with a steroid shot, but since then nothing too bad, a little bit of stuffiness the last couple of weeks.
Thank you kindly for the advice on additional things to take, my wife is already off to the store, I will start taking tonight!
One last question, in your experience, is there a certain amount of time that people tend to respond to the steroids if they are going to respond or is everyone a bit different? If hearing returns is it typically a gradual return?
I want to thank you for this board and your advice, this has been a terrifying couple of days so I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am to hear your expertise on this.
Cordially,
Rob
Hi Rob:
People respond to steroids the best in the first few days, then it starts to drop off and by 30 days it is largely a waste of time trying steroids. But it seems you got the steroids quickly enough.
Yes, hearing returns gradually–over a period of days or several weeks. It is not instantaneous. My rule of thumb is that the hearing you have at the end of 30 days is what you will have for the future. The sooner you notice hearing returning, the better the results are.
Cordially,
Neil
Dear Dr. Neil,
first of all, thank you for your website and dedicated work in informing all in need, regarding hearing loss! I found your blog extremely useful and full of information I could never look up anywhere else in one place. As I can see that you answer questions regularly, I would love to share my story with you, because your thoughts may shed some light on my case:
My name is Zsofia and I am a 34 years old architect from Budapest, Hungary. I am married, raising two boys (aged 3 and 5), and working as a freelance interior designer so that I can balance between the working and stay-at-home mother status. I live a healthy life, I do not drink or smoke, eat clean food most of the time and maintain a pretty good health. Although I have a history of autoimmune diseases: my vitiligo is present since I was a child, and spread a lot after my two pregnancies, and in 2011 they discovered hypothyroidism during a normal check-up (I did not have any symptoms, I am skinny, sleep well, focus well) so I take L-Thyroxin ever since.
Last year, the 28th of May 2016, a usual Saturday evening after I put my boys to bed and also my husband was asleep already, I finished cleaning up the kitchen when my right ear got blocked. Did not think of much then, tried to drink/swallow/yawn a lot but it did not help, and after a while a low frequency buzz started to occur. As it was past 11 pm, I decided to go to bed and sleep it off but as the buzzing got stronger, I could not fall asleep. Started reading to keep my mind busy but after 2 hours the feeling got so disturbing that I got out of bed to try to clean my ear. That was when I basically landed on the floor right away, as a sudden vertigo made me unable to walk. After a while I even started getting sick when moving my head. It was a horrible panic, my husband called ambulance and I got taken to a clinic where the next 2 days they ruled out most of the neurological reasons and transferred me to the ENT part of the clinic where they started the steroid treatment. Here they give you Medrol either by pills or through IV, I got the latter as my symptoms were so bad, and also Nootropil to help the blood flow. After about 24 hours my vertigo got better and a few more days into the treatment the hearing in my ear went from zero to some muffled noises that I could already hear. Happy about the small improvement we went on but unfortunately that was the furthest I got. After 10 days in the hospital (they did all tests in the meantime, CT, MR, everything came back negative) I got dismissed and was told that this was all they could do for me. I still took the steroid pills for some time, halven the dose every other day, but nothing happened. I remained hopeful but weeks and months passed, I’ve seen more doctors in different clinics and eventually I’ve had enough, I decided that I needed to focus on something else and tried to come to terms with my hearing loss. My audiogram shows a mild hearing loss in the low frequencies (20-40 dB) and a severe to profound hearing loss in the mid- and high frequencies (80-90 dB). I went to check again and again the past year but it remained all the same. And although about my dizziness, everybody agreed that it would go away in a few weeks as the other side takes its task, that also stayed with me ever since. I don’t say I totally accepted it but I learned to live with it and as my left ear works perfectly, I could find some peace. Up until 3 weeks ago, when I started to have mild vertigo again that would not go away for hours and the next morning I woke up to this very loud, high pitched tinnitus that I did not have before. I got worried but did not see a doctor for a week or so, when all the testing and trying started all over again. Still all my tests came back normal (although I am still waiting for my MR appointment), and this time, as it was a different clinic, and I did not want to stay in the hospital, they decided they try the intratympanic steroid injection this time. I got 5 of them in 10 days, the last one yesterday, but nothing has happened. I am confused and sad, as I already accepted a lot about this but this tinnitus now makes me tired and unable to focus. Also as I tried to read all information on SSNHL, I could not find a reason for it to come back with symptoms after more than a year. I found a lot of interesting read though on this website, and it made me think if there is anything I can do to improve my condition.
First of all you said that most likely the cause of such symptoms in the first place is a virus attack. I can accept that, though I was totally healthy at the time when this happened. I really had a bad virus (my older son started preschool that year, and we all were sick a lot) but it ended about two months prior to the incident. So as you explained here many times, this virus attack could most likely cause the hair cells of the inner ear damage or even die if the condition is ongoing for more than 30 days. But then what I do not understand is: why the present dizziness? The other thing that struck my mind is when you explained here to someone how hearing aids would not bring a full solution as the damaged hair cells would also cause the understanding of speech disabled or just more difficult. With this symptom I am confident that I do very well, because despite the 80-90 dB loss on my right ear, in a silent room, I can maintain a conversation through phone with it, so IF I hear it, I understand it perfectly. Could this mean that the remaining hair cells are still doing their job just damaged? Could anything like the supplements you mentioned in your article like NAC and GsH help them regenerate? Or there is absolutely no hope after so long time? You said one can not rule out miracle and that such thing happen, that after many years of SSNHL one can regain at least part of the hearing. It may only be me, but I already find my medical history related to this pretty unusual, and also doctors around me could not provide me with answers about some things.
I would love to hear your opinion and sorry that it got so long, but I did not want to miss any information that may help you.
Thank you so much for your attention, and looking forward to your answer!
Kindest regards,
Zsofia
Hi Zsofia:
As you probably already know, people with vitiligo also can have other conditions such as thyroid problems and ear problems which you now have. All three of these may be autoimmune related. So I wouldn’t be surprised if you have Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease (AIED) and that AIED is the root of your ear problems rather than a virus. Did your doctors specifically rule out your having AIED?
Have you read my article on AIED? If not you can read it at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/autoimmune-inner-ear-disease-aied-2/ . You’ll notice that you fit the profile quite closely for people that have AIED–e.g. female, have other autoimmune conditions, hearing loss, balance problems–dizziness & vertigo, etc.
The kind of hearing loss you have (a ski slope loss) lets you hear fairly well in quiet situations, but you have a lot more difficulty in noisier situations.
You might also want to read my comprehensive article on Meniere’s Disease at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/atlas-adjustments-alleviate-menieres-disease/ and think about whether you have any neck problems that might also contribute to your balance problems. Particularly if you have had neck trauma or whiplash in the past.
See if anything in these two articles pops out at you in regards to your situation. Let me know what you discover.
Cordially,
Neil
Dr,
First off, wow what a community here so many questions and feedback from you. Last Wed night (Oct 18th, 2017) my wife experienced SSHL. She was actually born hearing impaired (she’s now 33) but was always able to hear well in her left ear with the use of an aid. Last Wed night she was with a friend when she all the sudden felt lightheaded and began to hear ringing (tinnitus) and like that, she couldn’t hear with any clarity. When wearing the aid she could hear sounds but nothing clearly other than the tinnitus. I took her to the ER that night – they did blood, urine, CT scan, x rays… all negative. She started prednisone pills the next morning and Friday even had her first steroid shot direct to the ear. She’s still taking the prednisone, 60mg a day. We are only at 6 days now but she has had no improvement. She hasn’t worn her aid since all she hears is ringing. An audiogram taken the day after (Thursday) showed significant hearing loss in her left ear. I am hoping that she regains the hearing she had prior to last week although I am not confident in it. I know in the worst case she would be a candidate for a cochlear implant which long term could be great for her, but in the interim its just so hard for her and it kills me there’s nothing I or anyone can do. Do you have any insight, thoughts or other recommendations? Will at least the tinnitus go away?She’s had that before and its gone away within a few days with some drops in the ear… Thanks in advance and for the sake of others who come after me, please keep this Q&A board alive.
Best,
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan:
You didn’t mention whether your wife was deaf in her right ear or not. I’d like to know whether this sudden hearing loss was just in the one ear because the other ear had no hearing to lose or not.
I’d also like to know whether your wife had a cold or not in the past two weeks or so or any other active virus in her body that might have attacked her inner ear and cause the sudden hearing loss. With the lightheaded feeling, that almost sounds like the results of a viral attack.
Also, I’d like to know how much hearing she lost. What degree of hearing loss did she have before this happened, and what does her audiogram show now?
Since the Prednisone has not resulted in any improvement in her hearing, and the number of days have gone by without any improvement in her hearing, the prognosis doesn’t look all that great, especially if she had a more severe hearing loss.
Her tinnitus, or increased tinnitus, is almost certainly a byproduct of the sudden hearing loss. You see, tinnitus almost always accompanies sudden hearing loss. And just as typically, the tinnitus lasts as long as the hearing loss. Thus, her tinnitus may prove to be permanent.
That’s not to say that she had will always be bothered by her tinnitus. A lot of that depends on her emotional makeup. If she understands that the tinnitus is not a threat to her well-being, and thus totally ignores it, there is a good chance that it will become less intrusive and fade into the background in the coming months. In fact, there will be periods of time when she won’t even hear her tinnitus, even though it is still there. This is known as becoming habituated to your tinnitus.
Cordially,
Neil
Her right ear has had minimal hearing ability since birth – as in can hear bass and some sounds but nothing distinct or clear just that sound ‘exists’. She didn’t have a cold per say in the week or 2 prior to the hearing loss but she was complaining about some minor aches & feeling a bit tired / lethargic. If this is more of a viral attack, are there any other recommendations to fight this? Are there other medicines that are safe to take while she is taking the prednisone? I agree that the prognosis gets dimmer with each passing day of no improvement but I have to keep holding on to hope for the best while expecting the worst. The audiogram she took last summer had her left ear at 84% and the day after the SSHL at 36%. Forgive me but I’m very unfamiliar with audiogram results and those are the only stats I remember.
Thanks again
Hi Jonathan:
Too much time has gone by to do anything about a virus if it was a virus that attacked her ears.
She had quite a drop in her hearing. Thus the chances of much hearing returning is unfortunately pretty slim.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Doctor, I am 28 and I had severe SSHL in 15 months back. Hearing drop to NIL and fortunately I got all of it back within 3 weeks of Prednisone. Since then, I dont have any hearing problem but that trauma caused by that sudden activity always makes me paranoid whenever I cant hear the ‘tick’ while swallowing!.. Its my assumption that the inflamation caused in auditory canals in the cause and everytime I dont hear tick or feel full, I get really worried. Could you help me know what are the chances of return of SSHL? And how to prevent?
Hi Solomon:
As far as I know, idiopathic (from unknown causes) sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) typically does not strike the same person twice.
However, it often depends on the exact cause of your SSHL. For example, if you have autoimmune inner ear disease (AIED), then you may have SSHL every time your immune system attacks your ears. If you have large vestibular aqueduct syndrome (LVAS), you might have a sudden drop in hearing every time there is some sort of trauma to your ears. If you are prone to viral attacks such as colds, flu, herpes or any other virus in your body, you may have SSHL if the virus attacks your inner ears.
What did your doctor say was the cause of your sudden sensorineural hearing loss? If he put it down to idiopathic causes, you may never have another SSHL attack. And even if you did, because no one knows what caused it, there’s no real way to prevent it.
Cordially,
Neil
I have complete sudden hearing loss in one ear. My ear just popped then complete hearing loss. Did all the emergency procedures, steroids 15 days, injection steroid, three hearing test. Nothing. It has been 26 days and I am still very dizzy when moving about. I can not make any sudden moves or the whole world spins about. I have to go very slow and concentrate. My doctor says no options for me. Has no idea why i had sshl. Will I ever stop being dizzy?
Hi Sheryl:
You just heard a “Pop” and then nothing more and your hearing was gone and you began to have balance issues, correct?
In my experience, that often indicates a rupture in an inner ear membrane–either an endolymphatic or perilymphatic fistula.
Did your doctor rule those out? If it is a perilymphatic fistula, sometimes the ear specialist can fix it.
These ruptures may heal on their own and often some hearing comes back, and the balance issues should go away. In any case, with time your brain learns to ignore the false balance signals from your damaged ear, and the vertigo goes away, but you may still be left with so dizziness and a weakened balance system. Often balance physiotherapy helps a lot to make this happen.
Cordially,
Neil
He just told me nothing else we can do. It is now 44 days and still can not make it through a full day with out having to lay down and take a nap. Always still dizzy off balance and concentrate so hard exhaust me. Most days i can only get up for a couple minutes then lay back down. Some days I can go for three to four hours with out having to lay down. I am so tired of being dizzy. When will I physically feel well again?
Hi Sheryl:
Have you seen an otologist, not just an ENT or regular doctor? If not, that is the ear specialist you need to see.
Cordially,
Neil
My 41 y.o. daughter was diagnosed with right ISSHL Treatment was initiated within 48 hours with oral steroids followed by intratympanic steroids MRI was negative. She is on day 18 post onset of hearing loss with no appreciable improvement. Hearing test is scheduled this week. My question is this: 5 mos ago she was a belted backseat passenger in a car that was broadsided at high speed. She had no LOC , but the right side of her head and ear smashed into her husband’s head rendering him unconscious. She was discharged from the hospital with a diagnosis of head trauma. Two ENTs have stated that the accident occurred too long ago to be related to her hearing loss. What is your opinion about this? Based on your blog responses to others, I will suggest that she go to an upper spine chiro, but do you think it’s too late to improve hearing?
Hi Peg:
I’m not going to say that your daughters sudden hearing loss is not related to the accident, however, I’m not going to say that it is either. It may be related or it may not. I don’t have enough information at this point to hazard a guess.
It would be a great idea for her to go to an upper cervical spine specialist and make sure her head and neck are all in proper alignment in any case because with head trauma from an accident like that, it’s almost certain that she is not in proper alignment anymore.
I don’t know whether this will bring back any hearing or not because I don’t know what damage was done to her inner ear that caused the hearing loss. If the hair cells in her inner ear died, or the underlying support cells died, then the hearing loss will be permanent.
My gut feeling is that her hearing loss will prove to be permanent since no hearing has come back so far and it is now 18 days later. As you probably know, my first rule of thumb is that the hearing you have at the end of 30 days is what you will probably have for the rest of your life.
Sorry that I can’t be the bearer of better news. I tell it the way I see it. But don’t give up hope yet. Have her see the upper cervical spine chiropractor, and see how her hearing is that the end of the 30 days. Then you will have a good idea what to expect in the future.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi, Doctor Neil,
3 months ago when I was listening to music I felt my hearing was unbalanced, the right ear became less clear as there were some missing middle tones. I did audiometry check and the result of my right ear is better than my left ear. no problem with hearing test result. I consulted with a ent doctor and concluded that there was a problem with my cochlear. the cause is unclear and I was given corticosteroids for 5 days. my hearing has no significant improvement. I have also done hyperbaric therapy and consumed ginkgobiloba but no improvement. is this damage in hair cell or in auditory nerves? whether this problem can still be treated because the doctor has given up.
Hi Mario:
You left out one critical piece of information, and that was how loud the music was you were listening to when you noticed this hearing problem. Loud sounds damage your inner ears. They can damage the hair cells which results in their death, or they can damage the underlying structures in the spiral ganglion which “breaks” the synapses. The result is that sound signals are not transmitted from your hair cells to your auditory nerves. In either case, you don’t hear anymore. Sometimes the synapses in the spiral ganglion heal themselves and your hearing returns at least to some degree, and sometimes this doesn’t happen and you are left with a permanent hearing loss.
If the hair cells die, you are left with a permanent hearing loss also.
Since this happened three months ago and you have had no improvement in spite the Prednisone (and the other) treatments, it appears that your hearing loss is permanent.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Doctor Neil
On the 4 th October 2017 I slept well and woke up not hearing at all and with loud ringing noise in my right ear and a feeling of fullness. Gp gave me Actifed and 5 days solupred (steroids) 20 mg x2 daily. I was congested and had pain in my neck.
I was prescribed betaserc to increase circulation but felt dizzy and my problems with imbalance started. hearing test after nearly 2 months marked that I had like a cookie bite graph hearing loss with some frequencies 30 % loss and the middle of the graph 60% loss. I will be having an MRI soon. In the meantime I had started acupuncture for hearing loss and tinnitus once a week which I still go. I was started again with Solupred steroids for 4 weeks 2 months later : 1 st week 20mg x 2, 2 nd week 20 mg, 3 rd week 10mg and 4 th week 5 mg. My tinnitus seems to be quieter or else I got used to ignore it. If the tinnitus remains there will the hearing aid help or will I be hearing the tinnitus ringing loudly as well?
thanks for your help
Yvonne from Malta
Hi Yvonne:
Very often, when wearing a hearing aid, which amplifies other sounds, you will not notice your tinnitus as much, or even at all. However, when you take your hearing aids off at night, then often the tinnitus comes back.
Incidentally, I expect your tinnitus to always be there since you have a significant hearing loss and tinnitus very often accompanies a hearing loss. However, it can drop to a low level as you become habituated to it so it won’t bother you–and hours may go by without your even being aware you hear it.
Cordially,
Neil
Doctor Neil,
I was diagnosed with SSHL the 20th of December.
The day before I lost my hearing. It started with a strange pressure in my head and that went from left to right and vice versa. The same evening my hearing in my left ear rapidly dropped.
On Wednesday the 20th I went to the ENT and he instantly put a cure of Prednison 30mg a day.
Sometimes I can hear electronical pulses in my deaf ear. Don’t know if this is the healing process or something else.
There also is a constant pressure on my deaf ear, but no signs of tinnitus.
Is there any chance of recovery??
Regards,
Marto (from the Netherlands)
Hi Marto:
The sensation of pressure in your deaf ear is a psychological feeling caused by your ear not hearing sounds as before. Your brain reasons that surely it would hear more sound unless your ear is blocked/plugged so you get this feeling. Some describe it as a blocked feeling, some as pressure, etc.
Whether your hearing comes back or not is out of your control. You did the right thing by getting the Prednisone quickly. If you notice your hearing beginning to come back in the first week, you have a good chance of it coming back.
If no hearing is coming back and it is now about 2 weeks later, the chances of it coming back are getting slimmer all the time. By the end of 30 days my rule of thumb says that what you have then is all that is coming back. Of course, there are exceptions to any rule, but that gives you a good guideline on what’s likely to happen.
Cordially,
Neil
Doctor Neil,
As I am continuous thinking what could have caused my SSHL, I want to know your opinion about a theory based on the article of ´the kiss of death´.
I know my SSHL couldn´t be caused by taken medicines or something like that.
I also didn´t had a virus or something like that.
What I do know, is that my youngest son was playing little games with my left ear prior the days/weeks before I got deaf.
He would lay one hand on my ear and would hit/slap it with the other hand (a couple of times).
Is it possible this could create a vacuum and damage the middle or inner ear and could be the cause of the SSHL??
If yes or no, will this show up on an MRI. I recently made an MRI on the 12th and will get the results on the 18th.
Regards,
Marto
Hi Marto:
It’s not that he made a suction that hurt your ear. Just the opposite. If he covered your ear with one hand which sealed the air in your ear canal, then pounded on that hand with his other hand, that would compress the air and make it hit your eardrum with considerable force–the same as if he had yelled in your ear.
You should have noticed that your ear was ringing right after that if he was doing it hard enough to cause damage.
In that case, nothing will show up on an MRI, because nothing is out of place. If he had dislocated the bones in your middle ear, that could show up, but that would be a conductive loss, not a sensorineural hearing loss.
Cordially,
Neil
Doctor Neil,
Maybe I was a little bit off with the diagnose, it was Sudden Deafness and I think there’s a difference with SSHL.
On the day it happened the hearing wasn’t lost in an instance. It took aprox 24 hours to loose. According to the ENT I am able to hear some sounds in very low frequencies. Is there a way I can email you the audiograms so you can have a look at them and give me your opinion. My ENT wasn’t completely open at our last appointment (4th Jan) and told me it’s a waiting game now and we also have to wait for the results of the MRI.
Can we also speak of conductive hearing loss, if you loose in a time lapse of 24 hours or is this perceptive hearing loss??
Regards,
Marto
Hi Marto:
Sudden deafness is a more general term and doesn’t specify whether the hearing loss was sensorineural (inner ear) or conductive (middle ear) or both.
Either one can occur suddenly, or over a period of hours or days.
You can send your audiograms attached to an email to me. My email address is at the bottom of every page on the Center’s website so it is easy to find. If they are filled out properly, it should be easy to see whether you have conductive, sensorineural or mixed (both conductive and sensorineural) hearing loss.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Doctor Neil,
in 2005,My right ear got problem with sudden stroke and i lost 90 percent of hearing .in that time doctors prescribe common drugs but it wasnt helpful.
now after 13 years is there any hope by implanting cochlear or sth like that for recovery?
i’m 32 years old now
Hi Mehrzad:
Yes, there’s hope. You need to go to a cochlear implant center and have them evaluate you for a cochlear implant. They should be able to tell you whether it will work for you or not. Note: if you have normal hearing in your other ear, you are not eligible for a cochlear implant (at least that is the situation in the USA).
If this is your case and you want to be able to hear from your deaf side, then wearing a CROS hearing aid is a good solution.
Cordially,
Neil
hello again dr.
i have question about
the Cros hearing aid you said.
this device is helpfull for treatment or its a temporary device like acousticon that just help when you wear it?
Hi Mehrzad:
The CROS hearing aid is just like a regular hearing aid–it only works when you wear it–actually them–because there are two pieces. You wear what looks like a BTE aid on both ears. The one of the deaf side is a microphone and transmitter. The one on the good side is a receiver and an amplifier. The sounds collected from the deaf side are transmitted to the good side. You have a sound tube from the amplifier to your good ear canal so it can hear the sounds from the bad side PLUS since it fits so loose, you hear all the normal sounds from your good side.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello
I have the same problem.the doctors in Iran said cochlear implant is not work. what shoud i do doctor Bauman?
Hi Mohsen:
I think the first thing to do is get a second opinion. If a cochlear implant truly won’t work, then you have to do other things to communicate. You don’t say whether both of your ears are deaf, or just one. If just one, then you should consider a CROS aid like I mentioned elsewhere.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr Bauman,
I am a 39 yr old female diagnosed with left-sided SSNHL on 10/7/17 (85dB loss with no voice/sound recognition). Onset occurred 10 days prior. I started a regimen of prednisone 80mg a day for 2 weeks. On the 6th day, I realized I had gained 20 pounds with 3+ pitting edema in all extremities, and a resting HR of 110. Oral steroid treatment was d/c. Alternate treatment consisted of a series of 2 intratympanic injections of dexamethasone exactly 7 days apart. As of 01/19/18, my hearing has improved to 55dB, but I still have no sound/voice recognition. I am in nursing school and have 3 children under the age of 11. My question for you is, given my circumstances, would you recommend investing in the CROS hearing aids? I am currently using Bose “hearphones”, which are helpful but I am still struggling to understand people.
Thank you in advance!!
Amanda
Hi Amanda:
I have some questions about your condition.
First, you have normal hearing in your right ear–correct?
Second, do you have any ideas why you had this sudden hearing loss? Are/were you taking any drugs?
Third, you say you have no “voice/sound recognition”. Are you saying that they tested you for word recognition (discrimination) and the results on your audiogram as 0%? That is an awfully low score, especially since your hearing loss is only 55 dB! That doesn’t seem right to me.
If that is true, then if you need help hearing from your bad side, a CROS aid would be a great idea. You should still be able to have directionality using your residual hearing so you know where the sound is coming from, but the CROS aid will give you more clarity.
I would take a CROS aid for a test drive for 29 days before deciding whether you want to buy it or not. Typically you have 30 days in which to try hearing aids out. If it works for you–great. If not, return it and get your money back.
Cordially,
Neil
HI Dr. Bauman,
I got the flu on Dec 27th and it was so bad that I did not get to the doctor until Jan 2nd. It was too late for Tamiflu, so I went without. They failed to send in my cough syrup, so I continued to cough my brains out until Friday Jan 5th which was the first day of severe ear ache pain which I went into the doctor for who put my on Antibiotics (Amox) for 10 days. That cleared up my cough, and pain in the ear, but the ear has been muffled since that Jan5th. I went to an ENT who put me on Predisone for 6 days. Today was my last pill. Still have tinnitus and muffled hearing. I have hearing test in 2 weeks to see where we are. The ENT mentioned benign tumors. What is the likeliness of that since the Flu virus seemed to have triggered all of this? Also, I know it’s hard to diagnose via email or doctor on demand, but I’m guessing every body is different and whether it clears on its own is individualized? Also- Are you saying that the remaining hearing is usually that which exists at 30 days AFTER the predisone is finished or the day the ear went down? I think I’m just looking for some comfort on a possibility that there could be some opening up on its own, even though it was been this way for 24 days. Thanks in advance for any information. Diana
Hi Diana:
As far as I’m concerned, the chances of you having tumors is almost nil. Like you, I believe that your hearing loss is the result of the flu virus and/or the Amoxicillin antibiotic you took. Amoxicillin is known to cause hearing loss in numbers of people.
Once you have an audiogram, you’ll be able to tell whether your hearing loss is all sensorineural (caused by the Amoxicillin or flu virus) or is a conductive loss (caused by your middle ear/Eustachian tube being clogged up) or even some of both.
The tinnitus could be the result of either scenario that resulted in the hearing loss.
When I talk about the 30 day period, that is only for sensorineural hearing loss and starts from the day of the hearing loss. Conductive hearing losses can clear in a few days to 3 months or so.
I guess you’ll just have to be patient until you have the hearing test. Then you’ll know more what to expect.
Cordially,
Neil
I am 28 years old and was diagnosed with SSHL on Tuesday. The hearing loss and the tinnitus started 4 days ago. Although it is still early, as of now the symptoms have not seen any improvement.
I was prescribed Prednisone at
40mg/day for 3 days and then halved every 3 days for a 9 day treatment period.
From what i have read on this site as well as several others, 60mg/day is the standard dosage.
I also had a family member half my size receive the 60/mg 14 day treatment not more than a few months ago.
Question:
Should i be concerned that my dosage is lower than what seems everyone else is getting?
Hi Nick:
I really don’t know. Remember, I’m not a medical doctor. Doctor’s are free to prescribe what they think is right. I agree that many start off at 60 mg and taper over 2 weeks. But others taper over 9 days like you are doing. And some have smaller doses. Do these make a difference? Who knows. This is because sometimes Prednisone helps hearing come back. Sometimes hearing comes back without taking Prednisone. And sometimes no hearing comes back in spite of taking Prednisone.
Personally, I think that because you started Prednisone in a timely fashion and are on a significant dose even though it’s not 60 mg. if it will work, it’ll work. And if not, it won’t. So I wouldn’t worry about it.
If you want to do something yourself, you might want to consider taking N-acetyl-cysteine to help your body produce more of the natural anti-oxidant glutathione to mitigate damage in your inner ear. Read more about glutathione and N-acetyl-cysteine in the second half of my article at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/loud-music-and-hearing-loss/ .
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you for your timely response. This helps to puts my mind at ease.
I will look into N-acetyl-cysteine in the article you posted.
Thanks again for your help. It is much appreciated,
Nick
Hi,
I was wondering whether a cochlear implant would likely work for someone who potentially suffered from reactivation of varicella zoster virus? I have someone close to me who lost their hearing about 1 year ago (profound bilateral SSNHL). Although bilateral, one ear lost hearing about 2 months before the other. Treatment with steroids did not improve the condition. Blood tests taken in the following month showed very high levels of VZV IgG.
I have read a lot online about VZV potentially attacking the retrocochlear as well as inner ear hair cells and thus making a CI a non-option. I would be grateful if you could give your thoughts on this. Do you think it’s likely that the virus will have killed the auditory nerve entirely?
Many thanks
Hi Tim:
The best solution is for your friend to go to be evaluated for a CI. They will test to be sure the auditory nerve is function properly. So rather than wonder, your friend will know what the score is.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello,
I hope all is well! Thank you very much for answering questions here. I’m 22 years old and I was recently diagnosed with moderate, borderline severe SSNHL. My hearing in my right ear became muffled on Sunday 1/21 and then I woke up on Wednesday 1/24 barely able to hear out of my right ear. I went to an ENT and started prednisone on Friday 1/26 but haven’t noticed much improvement. I want to start taking vitamins e, c, a, and magnesium, but I’m concerned about potential drug interactions with the prednisone. Is it okay to take all of that together? And would constraint induced sound therapy work at this point? Should I even try these or is it a little too late for recovery? Thank you.
Hi Morgan:
As far as I know, taking the vitamins and minerals won’t interfere with the Prednisone. Also, if you want to try the constraint induced sound therapy try it out and see whether it will work for you. That’s the only way you’ll know. I don’t think it is too late yet.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil my name is Sherry and I was Misdiagnosed by PCP on 1/22 and given flonase and then anitbiotic Cefdinire for middle ear had swelling of both front and back of exterior of ear and hot and hurt to touch. Went to ENT 1/28 diagnosed with SSHL ; 10 days AFTER initial loss of hearing on 1/21, began prednisone on day 12; yesterday. My test results showed mild to severe 70db loss in left ear..
Do I have a chance of regaining hearing? Please help I am trying to be optimistic.
Hi Sherry:
How were you misdiagnosed? If your ear was hot and inflamed, you had an infection and Cefdinir could be an appropriate antibiotic. That seems to be a sensible diagnosis and treatment. A few people get hearing loss from this drug.
Fluticasone (Flonase) is more ototoxic and numbers of people report hearing loss and tinnitus from taking this drug.
So the question is, “Did you get the hearing loss from the virus causing the infection, or from one of the drugs treating the infection.
You haven’t given me enough information to make a good guess as to your prognosis. However, my rule of thumb is that the hearing you have at the end of 30 days is likely what you’ll have going forward. Another rule of thumb is that the sooner hearing begins returning (if it does), the more hearing you’ll regain.
If no hearing has come back by now, it would seem unlikely that all/most of your lost hearing will return, but you still have time for some hearing to return, so don’t give up hope yet.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil, Woke up on 1/21 with left ear blocked, went to PCP 1/22 showed just eustachian swollen and red, advised PCP that I had balance problems existing and Vertigo in early fall but symptoms gone except balance, he showed no infection, or fluid, sent home with Flonase.
Blockage felt worse so called PCP office on Wed and did not see doctor but rather they called in Cefdinir prescription. Back to PCP on Thur because Wed 1/24 outer ear swelled, hot and pain to touch. Only saw Physician Asst who said still no infection seen but told to continue flonase and Cefdinir and Ibuprofen for swelling. Thurs 1/25 pm Developed rash behind ear and ear swollen front and back. Called PCP again on Friday and told to keep using same medicines, I asked if I could use eardrops I had at home “Ciprodex” and told yes to use until Monday or Tuesday. Ciprodex worked for the outer ear swelling etc gone Sat am however ear still blocked. I called again Monday 1/29 to ask for immediate referral to go to an ENT. Saw ENT on 1/31 begain Prednisone on 2/1.
I am so confused, I don’t know if I had an inner ear problem or Middle ear infection, what I have read in your blogs if i understand is from day 1 my only symptom was the Sudden blocked ear and then the outer (middle ear infection) symptoms came Thursday. My hearing loss test showed 70db at 8000 and treatment began on day 12, do I stand a chance of regaining some of my hearing in your opinion.
Hi Sherry:
I’m curious as to whether you think the rash and really inflamed ear was due to an allergic reaction to the drugs or not.
When they did the hearing test, did they do both the air conduction test and the bone conduction test? If so, was there any “air-bone” gap showing on the audiogram? Also did they do a tympanogram to see the functioning in your middle ear/Eustachian tube? If so, did it show a type A tympanogram or a B or C?
Has any hearing come back at any frequency that you can tell? It’s almost 3 weeks since your sudden hearing loss. If no hearing has come back in this period, then I don’t hold out much hope for much hearing coming back.
You never took any Prednisone did you?
Cordially,
Neil
Neil is there a way to email you the test result page I have I do not know who to read it? I did have all those test and written notes states: Mild to severe sensorinueral loss from 2000 to 8000 hz in the left ear. Tympanometry is noted as within normal limits or WNL. And yes started prednisone on 12th day from 1/21 when sudden hearing loss or what I thought was blocked in so I am currently on day 5 of the 14 days of the prednisone and cant really tell if any change yet. If I can send the test that may help me better understand it.
Had accident beginning of November rear ended. Over last months had neck and upper shoulder pain effecting sleep. Forgot about accident. 3 weeks ago woke up with SSHL. Suddon Sensorineural Hearring loss. I am ending 2 weeks of prednisone treatment with no hearing return suffered severe high frequency loss. Just this morning remembered the accident and that it could be whiplash related?? I go back to my ENT doctor 2/14 and will discuss this revelation as maybe what led to this hearing loss. Can you please advise if this could be the cause?
Hi Sherry:
It’s always possible as whiplash can displace the top two vertebrae and thereby pinch the 8th cranial (vestibulocochlear) nerve. The result can be any kind of ear or balance problems.
It sure wouldn’t hurt to go to an upper cervical chiropractor and make sure your C1 and C2 vertebrae are properly aligned. That may be all that it is.
Unfortunately, even if that is the problem, if the hair cells have died in the meantime, then no hearing will come back, or maybe only a limited amount of hearing will come back–but at least you won’t continue doing more harm to the nerve–so it is worthwhile in any case to be checked out. And you will likely get rid of your neck and shoulder pain in the process.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr. Bauman,
On 11/22/17, I had a perimesencephalic nonanerysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. I am 40 years old.
I can’t remember much of the first few weeks of my hospital stay, but at some point, I started to complain of ringing in my right ear (early on).
I was hospitalized until 12/8. Even though I told the doctors/nurses about the ringing, they were obviously more concerned about angiograms and making sure they diagnosed me correctly. They did not put much emphasis on my ear, and made an appointment for me in January for an ENT. By that time, the ENT said that it was too late for steroids. He looked at my MRI and/or CT and said there was no damage to the nerve. He did send me for a hearing test, and it showed significant hearing loss in my right ear. He told me with this type of hearing loss (significant), he doesn’t expect a full recovery, only minimal, if any. He told me to give it 6-9 months, and scheduled another hearing test in April. I was concerned, so I saw another ENT. He said that we can try steroids, because, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” I have not, because I was scared of possible side effects. I’m confused as to the actual cause of the hearing loss. Perhaps just blood on my brain killed something? Should I try the steroids this late in the game? I’ve also read countless times that you believe after 30 days, that’s usually what your stuck with…so why the 6-9 months? Thanks for the help.
Hi Kelly:
I believe that at this late date, trying steroids is going to prove futile and a waste of time and money. There may be a small chance they will help, so feel free to try them–but I don’t hold out much hope at all.
And regarding the 6 – 9 months, you should ask that doctor why he said that. I don’t think you’ll find anything significantly different then from what hearing you have now. The only thing you’ll know then is that what you have then is almost certainly permanent.
Cordially,
Neil
Keep the faith. I suffered mild hearing loss in July and had the same story as you. I got a hearing aid in November and it was working great. I went back this week because it didn’t seem to be working for me and I wasn’t hearing as well. Turns out, my hearing had returned! The hearing aid was interfering with my returned hearing!!!!
Hi Dr. Bauman,
I was diagnosed with SSNHL two weeks ago. Went on 20mg Prednisone for 5 days the day it came on. Day 7 I saw and ENT and had a hearing test diagnosed with high frequency hearing loss in left ear, inflamed eustation tubes, and tinnitus. I have completed 7 days of 60mg Prednisone and still have two weeks of 40mg and 20mg each. I am still early on to determine if there will be recovery (in my opinion), so my question revolves around the tinnitus. Sometimes I can ignore it. Sometimes it is just singing away. So my questions are: (1) how long should I wait to determine if hearing loss is permanent? (2) If it is permanent, will a hearing add adjusted to frequency loss cover tinnitus (without a specific masker? (3) Can I use a hearing aid or amplifier during the will it/won’t it get better recovery phase? The hearing issue is causing problems at work and I would like to find a solution if possible during the “what will happen” phase. I just don’t know how long I should give it. Thanks in advance for your help!
KS
Hi Kerry:
One of my rules of thumb is that after 30 days–unless at that point your hearing is still returning–that what hearing you have then is what you’ll have in the future. If most of your hearing comes back, you may find your tinnitus fades away.
So to answer your questions.
1. I’d wait a minimum of 30 days, but you’d be more certain after 60 days or even 90 days.
2. Hearing aids often make tinnitus less noticeable because they increase the sounds you now hear–and this reduces the contrast between your tinnitus and total silence. For some people, just wearing hearing aids controls their tinnitus while they are wearing them. But when you take your hearing aids off at night, your tinnitus often comes back. Thus, having a sound source in your bedroom can help. For some people, all it takes is to have a fan running, or other soft (but hearable) background sound.
3. Yes, you can wear a hearing aid at any time, but while your hearing is stabilizing or returning, if you wear a hearing aid, you’ll have to keep having it adjusted as your hearing changes. That is why they often don’t advise wearing a hearing aid then–but to wait 60 or 90 days as I previously mentioned.
One rather inexpensive way to have amplification to help you during this time is to get a PockeTalker 2.0 and use it in place of a hearing aid. In essence, it really is much like an old body-worn hearing aid common in the 1940s and 1950s. I often use my PockeTalker in place of my hearing aids–it is that good and useful.
You can see it/purchase it at http://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/pocketalker-2-0/
Cordially,
Neil
Hello Dr. Neil!
As I’ve read through your article and the answers you patiently gave those who asked questions, I became more aware and have a better understanding of my situation.
Unfortunately, I had a moderately severe SSNHL in my right ear which started the day after my bilateral ovarian cystectomy last Janaury 29, 2018. So it’s almost 2months since then. During the time I experienced that, the ENT who checked didn’t advise me that it was an emergency situation. From the impression that I got from him, it could go back on its own after several days. The reason why I became complacent. After reading all the stuff here, I finally went to another ENT after a month. But since the 30-day window lapsed without any further medication, he also mentioned that it was a bit too late when I came to him although we still tried to take Prednisone for 14days. After a hearing a test and no improvement at all, we stopped it. So he said if I’m really having a difficult time hearing and communicating specially at work, I could try a hearing aid and see how it could work for me. He suggested that I try a cross hearing aid. But when I tried it, it just doesn’t feel right — everthing’s the same since all sounds are being processed in my left ear. Plus the fact that it would cost me double. I am hoping that I could use one hearing aid for my impaired ear. But the audiologist said it would be useless because my right ear couldn’t understand speech. Because during the fitting session, I could hear sounds but speech is robotic and I couldn’t catch some words. My question is, could my ear still be trained to understand speech after some time of using a hearing aid? I want to believe that somehow, my brain would still be working and adapt with the sounds and properly identify them again as time goes by…
Thank you so much for listening!
Hi Renee:
Do you think your sudden hearing loss was related to any of the drugs you received during/after your surgery? It seems so coincidental, so that may be the cause.
You don’t mention your discrimination (word recognition) score for you bad ear. If it is poor (<40%) then a hearing aid will make sounds louder--but it will be mostly louder garble. If that is the case, wearing a hearing aid actually makes things worse because your brain has to try to filter out all the garble so it can hear speech properly from your good ear.
You can try a hearing aid and see what you think. If it helps, go for it. If it just makes sounds more difficult to decipher, then dump it.
It takes your brain about 90 days to get used to new hearing aids--so you may find things sound better as times goes on. However, don't expect your brain to greatly improve your discrimination just because you are wearing a hearing aid. The hearing mechanism has been damaged and thus it won't ever work normally--maybe a bit better--but never normally.
Think of it this way in relation to visual problems. Say you are looking through a dirty window. It's dirty on both sides. You can polish the outside all you want (think wear hearing aids, etc), but you do not have access to the inside (hearing mechanism) to clean it. So you will never see (hear) clearly like before. All you can do is keep your side of the window clean so you can see (hear) as well as that will allow you to.
So if you try a hearing aid for 90 days or so and if you like what the result is, wear it. Otherwise, your brain isn't likely going to be able to improve your discrimination and you will have to learn how to successfully live with one poor ear.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil:
I am hoping you can shed some of your perspective on my situation. I had allergies, then a cold that started March 5, I am in the northeast and we had been having hit the winter weather. When this happens I usually have build up of fluids in my ear and have temporary hearing loss. It takes a while but usually goes away and my hearing comes back. A little history: I got mumps as a child when I was 4 and my left ear got damaged from it. My right ear suffered some loss but I have enough hearing there that I can live life at 95%. I use hearing aids typically as needed. After I fought my cold March 5, around that week I started feeling somewhat better but around the 9th but still had the feeling of liquid behind my ear drum. But could still hear the phone and somewhat makeout what someone was saying. I had to go to the emergency room as I had found out I was pregnant that week but that day I was cramping and bleeding. At the ER I was given two shots of methotrexate after they found out after ultrasound that my pregnancy was ectopic and given tramadol for home use (which I did not take since I could deal with the cramps at this time. .) Following that, Monday morning I fainted with severe stomach pains and rushed to the Er where after some tests they found I was ok with no rupture but given Zofran for nausea and Toradol through IV for pain. Later that week I could still hear on the phone but was gradually having difficulty hearing and Increasing thick mucus coming out and hearing squishing sounds in my ear. I went to cvs and got Sudafed And Benadryl as well as Flonase to combat my allergies. So I would just keep hacking up thick phlegm and clearing my throat. But gradually I couldn’t hear as the mucus got thicker. At this point I could still hear music and people on the phone. Until Last week Friday March 16, I woke up and couldn’t really hear people talking in person but could still hear the phone and music. I continued with my otc meds and by Saturday was hearing better but hearing squishy noises pop and by Sunday could make out what someone was saying. Monday I woke up not being able to hear well at all. I kept up with my meds and hacking up thick mucus and hearing squishy popping and at times, I would get a pop and could very temporarily hear on phone Tuesday. That went away again the next day and because I started a new job in 2 weeks, I was motivated to get this fixed sooner than later as this problem usually resolved for me in the past with time. I went to the first ENT on march the 21st who decided to give me a hearing test (which I told him I never pass and it would definitely be worse than usual this time since my hearing is impacted with mucus) but he said it was important and it would give him an idea of how bad things were. Well of course, I failed like I knew I would and he diagnosed me with Shhl. Since he didn’t see any fluid in my ear. I was very upset and disagreed and told him I have mucus and keep hearing squishy noises, ear fullness and ringing (but because of my hearing loss ringing has usually always been there), no dizziness, etc. he said I have nothing to lose and started me on prednisone that day. 6/day for 7 days, 5 for 3 etc. I went for a second opinion yesterday March 23 and thatsoctor looked deeper in my ear by laying me down and looking with a different instrument with a brighter light and he told me he did she fluid in my eustacian tubes directly behind my eardrum. He did however, diagnose with with idiopathic hearing loss and also ordered a hearing test and told me to continue the prednisone since I had already started. I could somewhat hear on the phone yesterday but still have this need to cough and hack thick mucus and feel this feelings of fullness and still hear squishy sounds. Also when I try to squeeze my nose and blow.. I feel like air can’t blow through my Right ear like there is a blockage but left ear (my very bad ear )has no issue. Also, I in my bad ear I can’t hear a thing, never have been able to, just vibrations but I cannot make out sound unless it is at a very high volume and even then i can’t Decipher anything.. just know I heard something. My right ear is significantly better but still considered moderate hearing loss, so most ents are surprised I can actually hear as much as I do. As for now, my bad ear feels clearer and I can hear as I normally do but my right ear feels full and like something is in it and I still hear squishy noises but can’t make out words or hear too well on the phone. Sounds on the phone sound crackly. However, if I snap my fingers I can hear it, I can hear water running, dishes clacking, doors closing, the buzz of my work phone when I pick it up. Just not voices. Please let me know what you think Neil. I would greatly appreciate your help. Thank you and I apologize in advance for this long message.
Hi Anne:
You’ve told me a lot, yet in other respects you’ve told me nothing. Obviously you have some degree of conductive hearing loss from the congestion in your middle ear and Eustachian tube. However, you also appear to have some degree of sensorineural hearing loss. This should show up on your audiogram as an air-bone gap– that is, the distance between the air conduction line and the bone conduction line as shown on your audiogram.
Your tympanogram should also show that you have backlogged middle ear if that is the case. If you tympanogram shows normal (Type A), then the clogged feeling you are experiencing may really be a psychological feeling of your ear being blocked because of your sensorineural hearing loss. I suspect you have a fair amount of high-frequency hearing loss that makes it difficult for you to understand speech, yet you can hear lower frequency kinds of sounds.
if you sent me a copy of your audiogram, I could better help you understand what it shows. You can attach it to an email and send it to me. My email address is at the bottom of every page on this website.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil:
This past month has been filled with worry and lots of confusion. I apologize for the long email. A lot had happened and I was not sure what information was valuable to share. Update: In addition to the prednisone i had started taking magnesium glycinate, vit. b12, iron, and b-complex. I went to an otologist about a week ago after i competed my 3 week course of prednisone with taper. His assessment was that I had an ototoxic hearing loss due to my 2 month stint in the hospital last year between july-september and the antibiotics i was given, tobramycin and vancomycin to name a few caused my sudden hearing loss In addition to the methotrexate i was given this year March ..that is what tipped me over the edge and i lost my hearing within a week of the 2 methotrexate shots. Turns out, methotrexate is ototoxic as well.
This week marks my 5th week since I woke up deaf and I would say if giving percentages, my hearing loss was 5% before as all i could hear was my fingers snapping. Now, I can hear about 88%.. people’s voice(though with certain people i have to really concentrate), music on my car radio at a fairly normal volume, cars passing by, etc.. My tinnitus is also going down. I am still having slight mucus issues, but not as much and I don’t hear the clicking sounds in my ears anymore. My baseline hearing is severe to profound hearing loss in one ear and my other “good” ear has mild to moderate hearing loss. With it, i could hear as low as 40db, so my ability to discern speech was very good although i was working with just one ear. So my bi cros hearing aids helped with “hearing” on my bad ear. Over the years, I had just learned to cope and live with my hearing loss and mild tinnitus. So with this past month being the way it was, i was so distraught, and afraid to have to relearn so many things and how to adapt with a new hearing loss level. I have been scheduled to take an MRI this week to make sure there is no other issues or growths in my ear. I will send you my audiogram.
Hi Anne:
Tobramycin and other aminoglycoside antibiotics can persist in your inner ears for up to a year after you stop taking them–and that means they can continue doing their dastardly deeds to you hearing during that time. Vancomycin is not easy on the ears either. But then, neither is Methotrexate.
So your otologist could be correct that the combination caused your recent hearing loss. It’s good that some hearing has returned. I doubt that the MRI will show anything significant.
Sure, send me your audiograms when you are ready.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil,
I was diagnosed with SSNHL three months ago: moderate loss of low frequencies in my left ear (sounds are muffled / distorted) and mild loss of high frequencies in my right ear. I also suffer from tinnitus and recruitment.
The good news is I have adapted pretty well to everything; tinnitus no longer bothers me and the recruitment seems to be less noticeable every week. Unfortunately there’s been no change to my hearing loss but I count myself lucky that my hearing loss wasn’t worse.
My question is, what is the long term prognosis for people with SSNHL? In particular, I’d be interested to know the odds of suffering another rapid decline in my hearing due to SSNHL.
Thanks,
Kevin
Hi Kevin:
SSNHL can arise from a number of different causes. And whether it will occur again depends on the cause.
For example, if you got hearing loss from taking an ototoxic drug, if you take that drug in the future, you may have more hearing loss.
If your SSHL was the result of a noise damage to your ear, you could have more damage every time you expose your ears to really loud sounds.
If your sudden hearing loss was caused by a virus, then it could also occur in the future (but I seldom hear of this happening, so maybe it doesn’t occur very often).
If sudden hearing loss was the result of a vascular event (mini-stroke), then if you still have “clots” floating around in your blood stream, it could happen again. But this typically only happens in one ear at a time.
In your case, you have a low frequency loss in one ear–and this is typical of people that get Meniere’s disease. If you have Meniere’s, you can get periodic episodes or attacks. The solution is to see an upper cervical chiropractor as your C1 and C2 vertebrae would be out of proper alignment.
So there is no way I can really answer your question. It all depends on what caused your SSHL in the first place whether it will come again in the future. Having said that, you could experience SSHL from a totally different cause in the future, or you could go the rest of your life without experiencing any further SSHL episodes.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil:
My 13 year old son suffered a sudden sensorineural hearing loss in his right ear on March 26, about 17 days ago. He has profound hearing loss in his right ear and can’t hear anything below 110 db across all frequencies. We started him on 40mg of Prednisone on the 3rd day after his initial loss. The systemics steroids didn’t work and now we are going to start him on the injections, but I’m worried that it’s too late.
I want to try carbogen inhalation therapy since I read some studies about its benefits and I suspect this sudden hearing loss may have been caused by a vascular problem. But I can’t find anywhere in my area that offers carbogen inhalation. Do you have any tips for finding a place that offers carbogen inhalation therapy?
Also, I’m hesitant about hyperbaric oxygen treatments since it could damage my son’s good ear if he doesn’t equalize pressure. This is why I would prefer inhaled carbogen therapy without pressurization. Do you think the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy outweighs the risks and costs?
Hi Ada:
Why do you think your son had a vascular problem that caused his loss of hearing?
Treatment generally needs to follow the cause. Thus, appropriate treatment for a vascular cause, such as a blood clot, would be to immediately administer a clotbusting drug.
It is now more than 17 days later, and any cells in his inner ear that have been deprived of oxygen for the past three weeks are almost certainly dead now. Therefore, clotbusting drugs are too late, if indeed that was his problem.
By the same token, carbogen treatment or hyperbaric oxygen treatment also don’t seem appropriate at this time, if the problem was vascular, for two reasons. First, how is the oxygen going to get past the blood clot if it’s still there? And two, the cells that were deprived of oxygen are almost certainly dead so oxygen is not going to revive them. Thus I think such treatments are too late.
He did have timely steroid treatment and it has not seemed to work in the least. To me that indicates that the chances of his getting any hearing back now are basically nil.
My rules of thumb in the case of sudden sensorineural hearing loss are:
1. The more hearing you lose, the less likely it is that much/any will come back. Since he lost a massive 110 dB of hearing, barring a miracle, I wouldn’t expect more than 20 dB to come back if indeed, even that much.
2. The sooner hearing starts to return, the more likely most lost hearing will come back. It is now about 3 weeks later and no hearing has seemingly come back. Thus, I would not expect any/much to come back at this late date. If his hearing had started returning in a day or two, the prognosis would be much, much better.
3. The hearing you have at the end of 30 days is likely the hearing you will be left with going forward.
I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but it is what I believe to be true, and I believe in telling you the truth, not giving you false hope.
If nothing happens in the next week or so, I think it is time to turn from trying to get hearing back and turn to helping him be the best “one-eared” person he can be. You could try a hearing aid in his deaf side–but if his discrimination is very poor, this would just be counterproductive as his brain would have to filter out all the gibberish he would be hearing from his bad ear from the good sounds he is hearing with his good ear. In this case, rather than a regular hearing aid, a CROS aid may be beneficial so he can hear sounds coming from his bad side with his good ear.
He also needs to learn good hearing loss coping strategies. For example, always sit or walk so people are talking to him from his good side. In class and meetings, sit on the right side of the room so his bad ear is towards the wall and his good ear hears into the room. Little tricks like these can really help.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil:
Thank you for your response. The reason I suspected it may be a vascular problem was because he has known blood circulation issues. But the doctors said it might also have been a virus and they didn’t suggest giving him anti coagulants. At this point, we don’t know for sure what the cause is, and we may never know.
I wanted to try carbogen inhalation or hyperbaric oxygen treatment after reading this study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3369993/ in which the patient underwent HBOT 36 days after onset as salvage therapy. The patient regained a significant portion of their hearing back. This study has also shown some results: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26513946
Do you have any advice on where I could look for carbogen inhalation treatment? Also, do you think the risks of hyperbaric oxygen therapy outweigh the benefits?
At this point I do not expect any hearing to come back, and he also understands that his hearing will probably not come back. If that’s the case, we’ll learn to live with it. But we still want to try all possible treatments for this condition, and are open to anything.
Thank you,
Ada
Hi Ada:
If you want to try hyperbaric oxygen, go for it. If it works, he’s gained more hearing. If it doesn’t, at least you tried. I checked on the negatives of such treatment and as long as his ears are not clogged up–no colds, allergies, sinus problems–it seems to be a pretty safe treatment as long as they don’t go for more than an hour or so. Longer times than 2 hours definitely increase the risk of oxygen poisoning–that is why I gave a large margin of error and suggested staying at 1 hour or less per treatment.
As regarding carbogen, it doesn’t seem to be effective so I’d forego the pleasure. Here is one quote, “A systematic review of the evidence of the use of carbogen gas for treatment of sudden deafness (Hender et al, 2002) concluded that “it is reasonably safe to conclude that carbogen gas inhalation is no more effective than heparin or ‘standard care’ in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss”.”
Cordially,
Neil
I had a pinched nerve in my left shoulder and was being treated by my Dr. all was getting better but I had pain in my spine just below my neck. Out of the blue one day about 6 weeks ago my hearing in my left ear just stopped. I saw an ENT within three days and had antiviral and oral steroids with no improvement. I saw another ENT and they administered Steroids through my eardrum and about 20 % hearing returned. He said that that was all they could do as the last time there was no more improvement. He doesn’t think that anymore hearing will come back. Is it possible this could have something to do with my spine and pinched nerve as it all has to do with my left side? Thank you, Thomas
Hi Tom:
It’s hard to say. I’ve not heard of a pinched nerve in your neck causing instant hearing loss. What was the circumstances surrounding your sudden hearing loss. Was it during the day or at night while you were sleeping? If you were awake, did you have any other symptoms such as dizziness or balance problems or other symptoms? How did you know your hearing went? Did your ear feel “funny” or feel blocked or what?
Were you moving at the time or were you still? I’m trying to determine if there was anything that could have pinched the nerve more and caused the hearing loss, or whether it was coincidental.
And to answer your other question about going to a Blair chiropractor. I don’t know whether it is too late for your ears or not. If the hair cells are dead, then it is too late. But if a nerve is pinched and is thus somehow blocking your ear from sending signals to your brain, then chiropractic might help.
In any case, seeing a Blair chiropractor and getting your neck into proper alignment would be a good idea for the health of your neck. You may have some surprising results–who knows? It is certainly worth a try.
Cordially,
Neil
Should I see a chiropractor that practices Blair Upper Cervical or is it too late? Thanks again, Tom
Thank you Dr. Bauman. When it happened I just finished lunch and stood up and my ear all of a sudden felt blocked no popping or anything like that. I thought it was just plugged and drank water to try and clear it. No pre-symptoms of dizziness or anything it was just a normal day. What do you think of acupuncture? I’ve been trying to get info about single sided Cochlear implants. I know they aren’t covered by insurance but I’ve seen that they do them in Europe. Thanks for your time, it’s more than appreciated.
Hi Thomas:
So it appears it really was out of the blue.
Acupuncture works for some people, but I haven’t heard a lot of success stories. I don’t hold out hope for it to give you back your hearing because of the massive nature of your hearing loss, but you never know.
The will do a cochlear implant in a person with one good ear in certain special cases. One being that the person has bad tinnitus in the deaf ear. Wearing the CI often causes the tinnitus to greatly reduce or go away. But I’m not aware of them doing a CI in the USA when you have a good ear and no other extenuating circumstances.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr,
5 days ago I experienced sudden and profound hearing loss in my right ear occurring over a period of 2 hours. I had an audiogram the following day which I can send to you. It showed 90-120db loss in right ear. I am also 27 weeks pregant and was perfectly healthy 33 yr old female before this. No colds of viruses except the old sniffle here and there. The same day I saw the ENT specialist who started me on high dose prednisone steroid tablets tapering off after 2 weeks. I also received an immediate dexamesathone injection into my ear drum and will have this weekly for 3 weeks. Am currently awaiting MRI results to rule out structural abnormalities. I am so scared that I won’t recover any hearing at all and feel like I would never be able to adapt to this new state. Any advice is appreciated on whether you think this is pregnancy related or just coincidence? Also my chances of any hearing return? Thanks so much, Jane
Hi Jane:
Tell me exactly what you experienced jut before, during and after the sudden hearing loss experience. That may give me a clue as to exactly what happened to you. Once you know the cause, then the treatment and prognosis is much easier to figure out.
From what you have said so far, I don’t really think it is directly related to your pregnancy.
Has any hearing begun coming back since you lost your hearing? The sooner it begins coming back, the better chances of more coming back.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi, thanks for your response. Just before I experienced complete loss, I had some fullness and feeling of blocking in my ear but was more a numbing feeling than anything. This was only 2 hours before total loss. Once it happened, I felt numb in outer ear and had some dizziness and loud ringing in the ear. Since then I haven’t had any change in hearing, it’s been 6 days. I’ve had a minor cough the last few weeks but I attributed this to extreme heartburn due to pregnancy. Last night I though maybe I could start to hear my finger clicking in my bad ear but I can’t tell if I’m just hearing it in my good ear instead. I also seem to have vibration across my head when different tones are played in my bad ear but I can’t hear the tones, just feel a weird vibration. I really hope I’m one of those who gets it back within 2 weeks or so, every day I’m waiting. Thanks again, Jane
Dr. Bauman,
You’ve been a big help and I very much appreciate it. I went and saw my GP and he is suggesting we do embryonic stem cell IV to try and rejuvenate any nerves that haven’t died and I wanted your opinion if you think it would work? It’s not cheap and I can’t afford to just throw $4k out the window. Could you please give my your professional opinion? Is it worth trying? Thanks, Tom
Hi Tom:
Before you do anything like this, ask your doctor how many of these procedures he has done and what the results were. If he’s done a thousand or more of them and the success rate was 99%, then I’d go for it.
However, if he’s not done any/many of them I’d wait. The same holds true for the results. If the results are so-so, I’d forget it.
You also want to know how many complications have resulted.
However, if the success rate is very high (95%+) and the people have much more USEFUL hearing, then it sounds like a good deal.
You also want to know how long the increased hearing has lasted. Was it temporary, or is the increased hearing remaining after several years.
Once you know the answers to these questions, you’ll know whether you have confidence in your doctor that it will work for you–at least the odds are greatly in your favor. Then you may choose to go ahead with it.
Six months ago I had back surgery. I chose the doctor based on someone else’s recommendation. This I went to the doctor and asked him about his experiences with this particular surgery. I discovered he had done more than 2,000 surgeries on the same disc I was having trouble with–and had fewer than 10 complications. I also heard that after the surgery, the pain would immediately go away. This built confidence that he could do the same for me. And my confidence was well-placed. When I woke up and got my bearings, I got off the gurney and walked around pain free! I never even took a single aspirin for pain–either the back pain or the surgery site pain. That’s how good he was!
So, if your investigations give you that level of confidence, go for it. If not, either wait until you find a doctor that has done this procedure numerous times and had the kind of results you want, or just forget about it.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr
I had a bad case of sinusitis 4 days back. I woke up with a muffled ear on my left. I rushed to the ENT. She put me antibiotics and an antihistamine. There was no improvement so she put me on prednisolone for a week. Dose is 10mg per day. I have a buzzing sound plus muffled hearing in the left ear. I’m terrified. Is there hope for me?
Hi Stv:
If you have sinusitis, I’d assume that your middle ear/Eustachian tube is clogged up causing you a temporary conductive hearing loss.
To know whether it is conductive or sensorineural, do the hum test. You can read about it at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/the-hum-test-for-sudden-sensorineural-hearing-loss/ .
That way you’l know whether to be worried about it, or whether you just have to wait and let the gunk in your ear drain out and you hearing returns to normal.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr Neil,
I am 27 year old software engineer working in San Francisco bay area in USA and had a sudden hearing loss for my left ear on friday ( 07/ 21/ 2018) ,
Symptoms :
1. Fullness of ears.
2. Tinnitus of around 6k frequency.
3. No vertigo or balance problems.
4. 60 db loss from 250 hz – 5k hz in left ear.
5. i cannot hear > 6hz in both ears.
How bad is this and in your experience what are the chances for recovery ?
I am on oral steroid course from monday ( 3 days after I noticed the tinnitus ), I actually remember having problems with my left ear a month or so before but never could observe symptoms mentioned above until Friday, am I too late on the oral course ?
I think i have like 5 % improvement after 3 days now, but this could be physiological .
I am also trying constraint induced sound therapy to improve my chances .
I used to smoke < 10 cigarettes a day for 4 years now and cannabis 3 to 4 days a week .
I have already quit smoking, as i have realized whats at stake , I would like to know if
1. Smoking cannabis occasionally also is a problem, cannabis help me reduce stress and hence I am finding it difficult to kick that habit .
2. Should I also ask my doctor to put me on hyperbaric oxygen thearpy and injections from next week or I could wait for 2 weeks and then proceed.
3. I am a music lover and was listening to music almost all day for huge part of my life .
I think above 3 reasons were a perfect combination for a disaster like this.
Please advise and thanks for your time.
Hi Rahul:
What kind of ear problems did you have a month before this happened?
Since this happened in your left ear, why do you say you cannot hear above 6000 Hz in both ears. When did your right ear suffer this high-frequency hearing loss?
This is definitely a significant hearing loss. I wouldn’t expect a complete recovery, but it still could happen.
I don’t think you are too late for steroids to help–if they are going to help. If you want to have intratympanic steroid injections, the sooner the better. The same for the hyperbaric oxygen treatments if you decide to do that. The longer you wait, the less chances you have of getting more hearing back.
Smoking cannabis may affect hearing in some people. But in any case, just the act of smoking isn’t good for your lungs or your health. There are other better non-drug ways to relax.
There is nothing wrong with being a music lover and listening to music a lot. The key is to keep the volume down to about the same level as you hear people talking. Then you won’t damage your hearing from listening to music. But unfortunately, people today seem to be addicted to LOUD music–and that IS damaging to ears.
One thing you didn’t mention is whether you had any active virus in your body in the two weeks before your sudden hearing loss–cold or flu virus, herpes, etc., etc. So often viral attacks can cause sudden hearing loss.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr Niel,
Thanks for your quick response.
I do not remember having cold, cough , flu or any such symptoms before this happened.
This is the first time i ever got a hearing problem and audio gram reveled I could listen to above 6 hz only at 80 to 90 db.
The only problem i noticed before a month in my left ear was that i could not hear as good as I did with my right ear and I neglected it until i started hearing the tinnitus .
My ENT specialist does not approve of hyperbaric oxygen, is there any negative effects I need to be aware of ?
If none , I will look out for other doctors to get the help i need.
Thanks
Hi Rahul:
Are you on any drugs or medications? So many of them can cause hearing loss.
Hearing at 80 dB is still hearing. That’s all I hear in the main speech frequencies like 1000-3000 Hz. I certainly don’t call that no hearing. Maybe you think so since you had normal hearing.
In the US, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is not very popular like it is in Europe. I guess they don’t think it works. There is no guarantee that it will work any better than the Prednisone you are already taking.
Cordially,
Neil
I experience fullness and congestion in right ear. I visited ENT and did audiometry. He told me that there is loss of 40 DB because of Viral Infection and started with Prednisol 24 mg a day. I started the treatment within 10 days of my first experience.
My questions are –
1. Whether audiometry is enough to suggest that Sudden Hearing Loss is because of Virus?
2. Whether 24 mg Prednisol is enough to start with?
3. What are the chances of recovery in case of Loss by 40 DB?
4. How much time I shall continue with the treatment?
5. Are there any other remedies the patient can practice along with medicines, like meditations or exercises etc?
Hi Sumeet:
Here’s the answers to your questions.
1. No. Audiometry just tells the amount of hearing loss by frequency. It cannot tell whether the hearing loss was from a virus or ototoxic drugs or genetics, etc.
2. Different doctors have different ideas of the amount of Prednisone to give at the start, before the taper. Since hearing loss can return spontaneously, or never return in spite of steroid treatment, there is no way to tell what is the effective dose. Some doctors start you off at 40 mg and taper from there and other doctors start at a lesser dose.
3. My rule of thumb is that the greater your sudden hearing loss, the less chances you have of recovery. I’d say a 40 dB loss has a much better chance of recovery than an 80 dB loss, so you can be hopeful that you’ll experience partial or complete recovery.
4. If Prednisone is going to work, you should see rapid recovery in the first two weeks. If there is no recovery in the first two weeks, then Prednisone is unlikely to make much difference if you take it longer. I’d continue taking it as long as your hearing is improving. When it stops improving, I’d dump the Prednisone so it doesn’t cause other problems in your body.
5. Personally, I’d take N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) to help your body make glutathione, a powerful natural antioxidant that can really help if taken within the first 3 or 4 days after the incident. It sure won’t hurt to also boost your intake of zinc and magnesium.
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you so much. It was so helpful. I feel gradual improvement in hearing after taking Prednisone but now experience Tinnitus. Sometimes at low volume and sometimes with moderate volume when there is air pressure in ear.
Can Prednisone help reduce Tinnitus?
Can Tab:Audiovit is helpful in reducing Tinnitus?
Can I expect Tinnitus go away after some months?
Is there any hearing aid which helps reduce Tinnitus?
Regards
Hi Sumeet:
Your tinnitus is likely in response to your hearing loss.
1. Prednisone only helps reduce tinnitus if it helps hearing return which, in turn, is the key to reducing your tinnitus caused by the hearing loss.
2. Audiovit is a combination of magnesium, Ginkgo biloba and melatonin. Magnesium is certainly good for your ears. Ginkgo is too in certain cases. I don’t think melatonin has any effect on tinnitus. But it may help you sleep better if your tinnitus bothers you at bedtime.
The Audiovit website doesn’t tell anything about how much magnesium and Ginkgo are in these tablets so I can’t recommend them. You ALWAYS want to know how much you are getting of the active ingredients. For example, for Ginkgo to be effective, you need to take 480 mg per day with it containing a minimum of 24% flavone glycosides, 6% terpene lactones and 2.6% bilobalide. I doubt the Audiovit formulation comes anywhere near this.
3. Time is not the prime factor in reducing tinnitus–it is what you DO with this time. If you focus on your tinnitus, it will never go away, but if you treat your tinnitus as a totally unimportant sound that you ignore, in time it will fade into the background and will not bother you.
4. Just the fact of wearing hearing aids can help your tinnitus in different ways. For example, when you wear your hearing aids, your brain hears more real sounds and so the neurons that had nothing to do (but make tinnitus) now have their old jobs back again thus do not produce tinnitus much or at all. Also, some hearing aids have tinnitus maskers built in which may produce white or pink noise that hides the tinnitus (but then you hear the white noise instead). This works for some people. Other hearing aids have fractal music built in which sounds much nicer than white noise and also can mask your tinnitus so you don’t focus on it. Still other hearing aids have other kinds of sounds built in to take your mind off your tinnitus. But ultimately, you need to totally forget about your tinnitus and focus on the loves of your life and let it fade away.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil,
I have a quick question, I do not remember feeling dizzy or having severe vertigo on the onset of SSHL, however I can notice I get dizzy and lightheaded, never out of balance completely sometimes now, i have been taking prednisone 60 mg for 7 days .
I have read vertigo with negative effects on recovery, should I consider my dizziness a vertigo or vestibular disorders or is it a side effect of steriods I am on .
Please advise .
Thanks,
Hi Rahul:
It’s hard to know whether your balance issues are related to the sudden hearing loss, or to side effects of taking Prednisone. Multiplied thousands of people have reported balance issues of various kinds from taking Prednisone so that is certainly a possibility.
If you did not have any balance issues until after you began the Prednisone, then I’d tend to think the Prednisone is the culprit.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr Neil,
Today is my 11th day of treatment after episode of SSHL . I can see improvements approximately of around 5 to 10 db of the affected ear and I hope it gets better . I also have a follow up audiogram test and ENT specialist has planned to have intratympanic steroid injection following the results .
I have been reading a lot of research papers on SSHL and something that caught my eye is
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/482477
My blood pressure during 3 day period of SSHL was 110/54 .
This seems to be hypotension, and I think low blood pressure might have cut out the circulation of oxygen to inner ear and thus my SSHL might be a mini stroke .
The paper also talks about this being common among young healthy patients like myself .
Could you please advise if using gingko biloba , zinc , magnesium or any other minerals, vitamins can further cause hypotension and if possible supplements I need to take avoid hypotension in future cases .
I’m very grateful for you to have started this helpful blog .
Thanks,
Hi Rahul:
That was an interesting article. Thanks for the link. It could very well be that your hypotension is the cause of your SSHL.
To simplify it, in layman’s terms it seems that if you have low blood pressure like you have, you can get episodes of sudden hearing loss. If your blood pressure isn’t low for too long, you could have temporary hearing loss and hearing returns as more oxygen reaches your inner ear. In other words, your hair cells (and other structures) are “sick” and can recover as blood pressure (and thus blood flow) increases.
However, if your blood pressure remains too low for too long, then permanent hearing loss results as the “sick” cells ultimately die from lack of oxygen.
Thus, you want to avoid any drugs or herbals that are vasodilators–which will reduce blood pressure. Therefore, Ginkgo is out. So is Vitamin B3 (Niacin) as it also is a good vasodilator. You need all vitamins including Vitamin B3–just don’t take B3 supplements. Get it naturally from your food.
You don’t mention being on any drugs–which is good. But if you are on any drugs that can reduce your blood pressure, I think you’d be wise to get off them.
One trick to raise your blood pressure is to make sure you stay well hydrated. In other words, drink plenty of water to increase your blood volume.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello Niel
On 26th July 18 my wife’s right ear suddenly started ringing mixed with unexplained sounds. By night she experienced severe vertigo .27th morning we were told by an ENT specialist that she had SSNHL profound in right rear and moderate conducting hearing loss in left ear. Initially she was on Defcort 12 mg for 7 days after which an other ENT specialist planned for interatympanic injections on 2/8/18 first and 8/8/18 last (4 injections on alternate days). MRI ,CT scan shows no abnormalities. My question is plz tell me is there any possibility of loosing her left ear also!?…she can still hear with left ear (mild conducting loss).
Hi Jalesh:
From what you describe, it is likely that your wife had a viral attack on her right ear. It is now a month later and it has not attacked the left ear. Thus, I don’t believe that it is likely she will lose hearing in her left ear. It is not impossible, but I think highly unlikely that she will lose hearing in her other ear.
And even if it ever happened, she could get cochlear implants and very likely hear reasonable well again. So you have a Plan B in the background–and that should also give you a measure of peace.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi,
I noticed that my hearing was muffled on the right side then it started ringing very loud and it felt full.
No vertigo, but I did hurt my neck, I think I slept wrong or something on that same side, I also had a sore throat and my lymph node under my ear is slightly swollen on that side too but not the other side.
They said I have asymmetric sensory-neural hearing loss.
It took about two weeks before I started prednisone and an antiviral which I’ve been taking for four days.
The fullness has improved a bit but everything else is about the same.
I have hypothyroidism as well.
I’m mostly worried that it’s a tumor, does that sound like it would be a tumor?
Also, after starting steroids and antivirals how long does it take to see improvement?
Thanks!
Hi Isa:
It sounds like the cold virus got into your right inner ear and caused the sudden hearing loss.
I doubt you have a tumor. In my experience, tumors don’t cause sudden hearing loss that occurs overnight. They take weeks to slowly cause hearing problems.
If you waited 2 weeks before taking an antiviral, I doubt it will help at all as the virus is probably done its dastardly deeds in your ears and has gone.
Prednisone works best if it is given in the day or two after the sudden hearing loss, but it can still help even after two weeks.
There is no guarantee that the prednisone will help at all. It may or it may not. My rule of thumb is that the hearing you have at the end of 30 days is what you will have going forward. So see what happens in the next two weeks (if anything).
Cordially,
Neil
Hi,
About six weeks ago I noticed that when I was in crowded room hearing in both my ears was echoing and I was uncomfortable, hard to hear people close to me. It seemed to progress and then I had dizziness, feeling like I was falling to the right. This was about the same time that there was smoke in the air. I was put on Sudafed even though I was not stuffed up, no cold or anything. That did not help and distorted hearing grew worse as music no longer is beautiful but excruciating. Have hyper hearing and yet also hearing loss. Did a short round of prednisone, then an antibiotic, then another round of higher and longer prednisone. Still no different. Cannot stay focused, distorted hearing…nothing sounds like it should. Had my first round of steroid shot into my ears, as it is both of them. I can live with hearing loss, I cannot take this distortion…I love music it is my balm and I cannot take music right now…..what will help the distortion? I am also a minister and Sunday mornings it is like I’m watching a ‘silent movie’, I can’t hear the people responding, and the music is hard to deal with.
Hi Bethany:
Back when you first noticed this hearing problem, what had gone one in the week before that? Had you exposed your ears to loud sounds, or a sudden loud sound such as an air horn, or gunshot or something equivalent.
What is your hearing loss like as shown on your audiogram? When you have a hearing loss and don’t hear certain frequencies well (or at all) music sounds distorted as there are holes (or weak spots) in it.
What do you mean by having “hyper hearing”? That sounds that are normal to other people are now too loud for you, or what? This is likely hyperacusis. Common causes of hyperacusis are exposing your ears to loud sounds, or taking certain prescription drugs.
Had you started any new drugs or changed the dose on an existing drug in the weeks before this began?
If you have hyperacusis, one of the things that helps is to wear ear protectors when you are around louder sounds, BUT you have to take them off as soon as the sound levels are normal again or you are just asking for trouble because your hyperacusis will get worse instead of better. Typically treating hyperacusis takes a number of months, but you can work through it and hear more normally again.
Cordially,
Neil
There was nothing different such as loud sounds or anything. The only thing is about a month prior I was taking 25 m of Sertraline and quit.
I asked to be put back on Sertraline but that has not helped, although I believe that this Sertraline is by a different maker than the previous one.
This is so difficult. I did try and sing today at Worship services even though the sound is off. My head feels completely plugged (but it’s not)!! I was exhausted after 3 services, came home and slept for 3 hours.
I’m not sure how to read the audiogram mine shows 20, 30, 40 ….75; 45, 50, 60. Speech right 55, left 40.
Thank you,
Bethany
Hi Bethany:
Sertraline could have caused your symptoms while you were taking it, or after you quit taking it. When your balance system is a bit off, it can certainly make you very tired as you have to manually keep your balance and that is exhausting. Messed up hearing is also exhausting as your brain has to work so much harder to try to figure out what is being said.
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you for your information. I have been using two hearing aids for a couple of weeks now and it is frustrating!
Also, one day my head and ears can feel clear and then for the next week they feel ‘full and plugged’ .I have noise in each ear the left ear is the loudest sounding like a car horn has gone off and won’t quit, makes it hard to sleep. What else can I do? How long does it take to rewire the brain or for it to get used to hearing different? What do you recommend for hearing aids? I feel like a took two steps forward and 4 steps back.
Bethany
Hello Doctor
I’m 52 and I had great hearing but on September 20th I went to bed with a severe case of tinnitus, Thinking my nerves were just bad. I wasnt listening to anything loud but had been stressed with work. At 2am that night I woke with total hearing loss in my left ear. I immediately went to the ER and had a CT scan. Dr couldnt find anything wrong. Later on in the day I went to a ENT and had a hearing test. Diagnosis total hearing loss in my left ear. I was given a prescription for oral steroids and acyclovir for the possibility of the issues being a virus. I also had an MRI which came back clear. I finished the 2 weeks of steroids and anti virus med. After another hearing test with the same results of total loss in the left ear . The ENT suggested ear injections. I’m currently on my second shot and about to get the third and final one this week. My question is, what kind of recovery if any should I see? I’ve had 2 shots and with the first shot ear became sensitive to touch but i still couldnt hear. I’m hearing chimes and popping… my ear hurts if a noise is too loud. I know I may never recover my total hearing back but wanted to know how long is the recovery period? And when should I give up hope? Is there anything else I should be doing to help restore my hearing?
Hi Alexander:
If you haven’t had any significant hearing improvement by now, since it is well over the 30 day limit, I fear that your hearing loss as it stands today will be permanent.
I don’t see that any more medical (drug) treatments will prove to be helpful as too much time has now gone by.
From this point on, I’d suggest you change your focus from recovering hearing, to learning how to best live with your hearing loss. I’ve written a number of articles on this aspect of hearing loss too so that will get you started on the right path.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello Doctor Neil,
I had a bad cold about 2 weeks ago. I was completely congested and on an attempt to clear my head, I blew my nose really strongly. I immediately felt a gush of air going through my right ear and sudden pain.
2 days later (10 days ago), the higher pitched sounds became distorted in the right ear. I’m a concert pianist and now the higher pitched notes sound metallic and distorted- like the piano is out of tune. A little robotic sound. You can imagine how debilitation that is for someone who practices many hour a day.
I did see my PCP who did not see an ear infection. I also saw 2 ENTs who did not see fluid in my ear or ruptured eardrum. Did they not see and infection either.
One ENT recommended prednisolone and the other thinks I might have caused a barotrauma and that we should wait and see if it heals itself. No significant hearing loss noticed after the audio test.
Now I’m at a loss. Do I take the steroids? Do I wait? What really happened? Is this short term? What causes the distorted sounds? I do hear all the sounds, just distorted. No dizziness or pain as of now. Just a feeling of fulness in the right ear.
I don’t have any autoimmune disease and I don’t take any medications. Avoid them as much as possible. Worried about unnecessary side effects.
Thank you and any advice will be really appreciated. Melissa
Hi Melissa:
I think that when you blew your nose so forcefully, you forced “gunk” up your Eustachian tube and that forced the air in your Eustachian tube into your middle ear and caused the pain in doing so. If your Eustachian tube is now clear and any “gunk” drained out, then your hearing should return to normal.
When you now yawn or swallow, does your ear pop normally. If not, then your middle ear/Eustachian tube is not free of “gunk” yet–hence the feeling of fullness and distortion of sound.
If your Eustachian tube and middle ear are now clear, it is always possible that the cold virus got into your inner ear and has caused the feeling of fullness and distortion–and likely some degree of hearing loss.
Personally, I wouldn’t take the Prednisolone, but that’s me. I’d just wait a couple of weeks and see what happens. If things don’t change, let me know.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil, I had bilateral endoscopic sinus surgery 1 week ago. 3 days post surgery I woke up with what felt to me like an ear infection (in both ears) and went straight to the hospital fearing any complications from my surgery. They prescribed an antibiotic after looking in my ears and sent me home. It is of note that my ears were somewhat painful at this point. I have now been on the antibiotics for 5 days and while the pain is gone, my hearing remains significantly diminished in both ears. For example when my wife and I are watching tv I can make out some sounds but only barely. This is at a volume we always keep it at. I went back to my GP and upon looking in my ears she said that most if not all of the fluid was gone and that I should start to get some improvement in my hearing however this hasn’t happened. Understanding that my sinuses are still swollen from the surgery and that this might have some impact, I’m still concerned with this prolonged loss of hearing. Any thoughts??
Hi Mike:
How is your hearing now that month or more has gone by? Are you back to normal or near normal?
Cordially,
Neil
I am having a hearing loss due to excess masturbation.it started a few days ago and it seems like my right ear is experencing sudden hearing and it’s getting worse.is there any treatment (drugs or home remedies) for it?
Hi Yonas:
You don’t lose hearing from masturbation. That is an old wive’s tale.
There are many causes of sudden hearing loss–drugs, viral infections, loud noise exposure, etc. that are much more likely. But you haven’t given me any information about your hearing situation so I can’t help you.
Cordially,
Neil
Dr. Nail,
I am having SSHL in right ear for last three months, its started at 22nd December, 2018. I treated with steroids twice in the interval of 30 days. First, in the month of January (01-10) , i had a oral (10 days) and ear injections (5 days). Second, Feb (01-10) only oral medication. During these time i noted with minimal important (90db–> 75db). My MRI looks normal. The day i attempt SSHL, i was drunken and before to that, i got cold twice and treated with antibiotics. My doctors suggest to go for hearing aid, rather depend on steroids treatment. So, what kind of hearing aids i can go for? . Another, think i wanted to know for your experience, how long one can live with SSHL, does it related to mortality ? How could i prevent another ear ? Please give your suggestions
Hello, ive started off hearing muffled hearing on both ears last week in May on and off. On Aug 14 i woke up noticing decrease hearing on left ear with ringing noise. I went to urgent care clinic which refered me to an ENT. Aug 19 i went to ENT and was diagnosed with SSHL 60db. Was started on Prednisone 60mg x7 days then tapering off. Tinnitus was gone same day after starting predinose, hearing came back in 3 days, but once taper at 20mg hearing and ringing was back. Went back to ENT on Aug. 28 for Follow up and now was at 50db. Received ear injection, did not notice any difference. Went to a different ENT on Sep 3 hearing still at 50db he started me on another round predinose this time 60mg× 10 days then taper, again hearing was back in 3 days from taking oral pills but decreased when started taper this time second day of 40mg. MRI was negative. Sept 19 and sept 20 receiced 1st and 2nd dose of ear injection. Have not notice any improvement with ear injections. Will have 3rd dose next week. Why does my hearing come back only while on high of prednisone? Does this mean my inner ear cells are aluve or dead? Do I still have any chance in recuperating my hearing?
Hi Olivia:
That is weird. The only thing that comes to mind is that you have an autoimmune inner ear disease (AIED) that responds to higher doses of Prednisone.
Do you have any immune system disease of any kind? Quite often, if you have AIED, you’ll also have another immune system disease.
Since hearing comes back, the inner ear hair cells are obviously alive, but not working when the Prednisone level drops for whatever reason. As long as the hair cells (and underlying support cells) remain alive, there is hope that your hearing can/will come back. The trick is to find out what is causing them to quit working and thus the resulting hearing loss.
Cordially,
Neil
I am 32 years old. Yesterday, 09/26/2019, around 2-3 PM EST, I suddenly lost hearing in my left ear. As I was thinking of the best way to put into words, what sound is like in my left ear, all I could think of is that probably 95% of my hearing is gone in my left ear. When I do hear sound in my left ear, it’s usually been music turned up really loud. I can very faintly hear the sound but can’t make out the words. The sound that I hear from left ear, sounds like a VERY low volume, with the treble turned up to the max and bass reduced to nothing (completely gone)- like very faint squeaking almost. My right ear, hears normally, the bass is present, etc.
On my MacBook Pro, I listen to music through Amazon Music, using earbuds. That music application has a total of 16 volume notches, where notch 1 is the lowest volume and notch 16 is the highest. In my right ear, of course, I can hear the music at any level. In my left ear, I hear nothing between notches 1-8. At notch 9, if I sit in pure silence, I can very faintly hear sound, after about 10 seconds (the type of sound explained in the first paragraph). When I turn the volume to the max (16 notches), I can start to make out the (kind of squeaky) words in the sound that I hear but I feel like it’s mostly my right ear picking up the sound from music turned up the max volume in my earbuds. During that sound test, my right ear was plugged. I was using standard earbuds that come included with my cell phone. I covered the right earbud with a napkin and wrapped in tape, to try and block out as much sound from the right earbud as possible, as to only have sound coming from the left earbud that was plugged into my left ear. To clarify the right earbud was not plugged into my right ear.
Current health conditions:
– High Blood Pressure- daily medicating w/ (1) pill per day: Atenolol-Chlorthalidone 50-25 @ 4 PM EST. My mother and her father both had HB and none of my other siblings suffer from HBP.
– Sever Heartburn- prescribed and also taking (1) pill per day: Omeprazole DR 40 MG. I know this should be a temporary heartburn solution but when I stop taking Omeprazole, my heartburn returns within 48 hours- very severely.
– Take (1) Smoke deterrent pill per day: buPROPion HCL XL 300 MG.
I’ve been medicating with these prescriptions for over a year and have never had a hearing loss like this.
I am in no pain, no noticeable wax build-up from normal Q-Tip cleaning. There was no loud pop or anything similar before my hearing drastically reduced about 95% (in my non-medical opinion). No “leaking” or anything similar coming from my left ear. I do not suffer from allergies/sinuses. I do not have any food allergies.
When I yawn, I can hear better but still not as good as it was or as good as my right ear.
Any advice?
Hi Antonio:
The first thing you need to do is determine whether your hearing loss is conductive or sensorineural. To do this try the hum test. You can read my article on this at http://hearinglosshelp.com/blog/the-hum-test-for-sudden-sensorineural-hearing-loss/ .
Here’s all you need to do. Hum out loud. If you hear your voice louder in your bad ear, the problem is conductive (middle ear)–congestion (fluid in your middle ear) and is probably temporary until congestion goes away and your ear clears. It could also be wax blocking your ear canal.
However, if you hear your voice louder in your good ear, your hearing loss is sensorineural (inner ear). If this is your case, seek treatment immediately. This is a true medical emergency and needs to be treated now if you want a chance of getting your hearing back. Your chances of getting your hearing back with immediate treatment are greater than 50%. Typical treatment would be a 10 day or so course of Prednisone.
You are taking three drugs that separately cause hearing loss in hundreds upon hundreds of people. There is no data on how taking all three together can affect your ears.
I’ve received several reports from people taking Bupropion that out of the blue one ear suddenly goes deaf–just like yours did. So Bupropion could be the culprit. And the people who had the sudden hearing loss had been on the drug for periods ranging from 6 days to 2 years. So you can be on a drug for quite a while before the hearing loss kicks in as it was in your case.
Another cause of sudden hearing loss could be a viral attack on your inner ears. If you had a cold, virus, flu etc. in the two weeks preceding this, a virus could be responsible. It could have also been caused by a mini-stroke in your inner ear.
But from what you have said, to me the most likely culprit is the drugs you are on–and most likely from the Bupropion.
See if your doctor will let you stop that drug, or choose to stop taking it pending seeing your doctor.
To get off Omeprazole, you have to taper off it slowly or your get the rebound reflux as you have found. So slowly does it.
Atenolol has had reports of people getting hearing loss after several years too. So you want to evaluate whether you need these drugs, or whether you’d be better off without them or reducing the dose, or switching to a different drug in the same class of drugs.
You want to act asap. Try the hum test first.
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you, Dr.Bauman. I tried the humming test and honestly, I can’t tell if I can hear it more in my good ear than my bad ear. The sound is in my head so I don’t know if the sound I’m hearing if from what’s being picked up from my right ear. If I say something out loud or hear something (not in my head), it’s definitely more obvious that I hear better from my right ear. Over the weekend, I tried an Ear Wax kit, that came with ear drops and a rubber bulb-like syringe. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I used 10 drops, twice daily and let the drops sit in my ear for a minimum of 10 mins- one of the two treatments on Saturday, I let sit for 20 mins and one of the two treatments on Sunday for 15 mins. After each treatment and letting the drops sit in my ear for several minutes, I flushed that ear with warm water using the bulb-like syringe. I did 2 of these warm-water flushes after each treatment… The end result is unfortunately the same as before the at-home treatments. There was no debris or colorful discharge that came out with the flush. I used white towels to catch the water being flushed, just to see if there was any debris or anything discharging with color.
Would you recommend my PCP or that I go direct to an ENT specialist/doctor?
Hi Antonio:
To answer your question, it depends on what you are trying to do. If you want to get off the drugs you are on in case they are messing up your hearing, then your PCP is the obvious choice.
I’m not sure what an ENT would do apart from odering a hearing test and maybe prescribing Prednisone. Maybe you should see both.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil,
Thank you so much for keeping up this blog.
I am a 32 year old (healthy) male, 14 days deep into sudden senoneurial hearing loss with very aggravating tinnitus and wondering if I’m doing everything I can to improve my odds of healing during this critical time. It began september 21st after exposure to loud banging near my left ear.
In medical terms the loss was ‘minor’ (15-20dcbls) and thusly my ENT did not move swiftly to impliment upfront salvage techniques. I was administered 60mg of predisone on dqy 4 for 10 days with no change. Day 13 I had an inter-ear injection (another scheduled for day 17) and have just began hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the next 10 days (after pressing my ENT).
I worry that these measures have now been implemented too late after the initial trauma to have any effect beyond placebo. I have yet to notice any improvement.
If you have any insights/advice from your years of experience that might help during this very stressful period, I would very much appreciate it.
Hi Shaheen:
It sounds like you are doing what you can at this point. You received treatment within two weeks, which should still be efficacious. Since there is no change in hearing so far, it is not looking good at this point.
What I would have done right away is take N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) in high doses of around 1800 to 2000 mg a day, as well as zinc and magnesium supplements. I suspect it is too late for the NAC to be effective, but zinc and magnesium may still help.
And, of course, you want to protect your ears from louder sounds while your ears heal, just don’t overprotect them as that can cause hyperacusis.
Since tinnitus typically accompanies hearing loss, I’m not surprised you have tinnitus. Just treat your tinnitus as fridge noise–in other words don’t focus on it and accept it as a normal background sound that it is safe to ignore like you do the sounds your fridge makes. When you do that, you will find that you habituate to your tinnitus so it does not bother you and it fades into the background.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi neil
I am a 34 year old male. I was slapped hard on my left ear 2 days back and I lost my hearing completely in that ear. Went to the ENT. He confirmed that the ear drum has not ruptured and is intact. But he couldn’t conduct a audiometry test because my jaw bone received an impact and I cant bear the pain. He conducted an xray vut there is no fracture. So he prescribed me anti inflammatory drugs and painkillers and advised that the test be conducted on coming wednesady after the pain reduces. Can n u shed some light on what could be the possible problem fr the hearing loss.
If you have any insights/advice from your years of experience that might help during this very stressful period, I would very much appreciate it.
Hi Nimish:
Did this slap also cause you any other symptoms such as tinnitus in that ear, ear pain or a blocked feeling in that ear?
Did it put your jaw out of alignment, and thus cause the pain? If this is the cause, then seeing a chiropractor to get your jaw properly aligned should fix the pain. (Taking drugs isn’t going to do this.)
If it’s not your jaw out of proper alignment, then I’d say you are experiencing acoustic shock because whacking your ear can be the same as experiencing a sudden loud sound like an explosion. The result can be hearing loss, tinnitus, ear pain, and other symptoms.
Cordially,
Neil
Thank u sir for the immediate reply
No there is no tinnitus in the ear or blocked feeling. I have a pain radiating from my head to the shoulder on that side of the ear and the jawline as well. But the xray shows that the jawbone is fine. My outer ear Is paining though. My worry is that will my hearing be restored? what are the chances or can there be a sshl or conductive hearing loss
Hi Nimish:
From the little you have told me, I doubt you have a conductive loss, but obviously you have suffered some degree of hearing loss, so you do have sudden sensorineural hearing loss.
The normal treatment doctors give is Prednisone. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
If I were you, I’d take N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) for a week or so, as well as zinc and magnesium supplements to help your ear heal.
You can get NAC at almost any drugstore, health food store or online. Note, if you choose to take NAC, you need to start it ASAP as the most damage is done in the first 3 days and 2 are already gone. If I were in your shoes, I’d take around 1,800 mg per day (but no more than 2,000 my/day).
There is no guarantee these supplements will help, but there is a good chance they will.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr,
I need some advice. Around May 12th, I noticed some rash around my mouth. (Later I found out I had a a couple of shingles on my ear but not in my ear canal.) I wrote it off as just a rash or a cold sore. By May 17th, I developed an ear ache on in my right ear, so I called teledoc who diagnosed me with shingles. He then put me on anti viral (valacyclovir) which I took for 10 days. On Tuesday, May 12th, I went to a urgent care because I still had earache and that’s when I was prescribed prednisone 50 MG for one week. Urgent care DR said nerve inflation is causing my earache and partial hearing loss and I should regain my hearing when the nerve inflation goes down. I ran out of Prednisone on May 19th but on the same day I went to my first visit my primary care DR for the first time. He said he wasn’t sure if my partial hearing loss was caused by shingles which was odd to me because of the timing of my hearing loss and shingles development would suggest that shingles caused the hearing loss. He thought my shingles were on a nerve that shouldn’t connect to the nerve in the ear. I think he was examining me for Ramsey Hunt Syndrome by making me smile real big but I don’t have any facial paralysis. He didn’t prescribe me any new medication or refill my prednisone. He said he was going to talk to ENT to see if shingles caused my partial hearing loss and he was going to get back to me. I contacted him one Wednesday and he said he still hasn’t heard from the ENT. My hearing loss appears to be mild based on an online test I took on this website: https://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_hearingtestaudiogram.php. The test shows that I have mostly lost my hearing around the 4KHZ region where I can’t hear 4KHZ below 30 dBHL but I can hear other frequencies around 10 to 10 dBHL. My good ear can hear frequencies at 0 dBHL and that’s what I used to calibrate my headphones. I feel like I am losing precious time by not seeing an ENT sooner but it is hard to see specialist when you need to see them. I keep thinking maybe I can take some medication or shot that would help me restore my hearing partially or fully but If I wait it might become too late. I have option to call teledoc again or go to an urgent clinic to get a second opinion. I can also cold call every ENT in town tomorrow to see if any of them can see me tomorrow. I am kind of lost. I feel like my hearing has gotton a little better from the day that I had the earache but it’s not 100%. My shingles have all scabbed over but my teeth are still sensitive on the right side. Any recommendation would be appreciated. I can provide more info if needed.
Hi John:
Shingles is caused by the herpes virus. Since the infected nerve is near your ear, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the virus got into your inner ear and caused some damage.
It’s interesting that you have a loss at 4 kHz. We call that the “noise notch” and is commonly caused by exposing your ears to loud sounds/music. So that may be the cause of that hearing loss and not the herpes virus. I’m not saying that is no, but it is a possibility.
I’m not sure how seeing an ENT will help. What do you expecthim to do. You took the Valacyclovir to kill the virus so if that was it, you shouldn’t have any further hearing loss. And you are taking Prednisone. It seems to me, you just need to give it time and complete taking your medications. That’s how I see it, but then, I’m not a medical doctor.
Cordially,
Neil
To do a follow up, I went to an ENT that I found myself on the Friday before memorial weekend. He didn’t have the a time slot available for hearing test so I showed him the online test. He said if that test is correct, there isn’t much we would need to do other than a hearing test next week to have a hearing test for my record. The same day, the ENT that my primary care referred me called to schedule an appointment for Tuesday. Like my primary Dr, he wasn’t sure if shingles has caused my hearing loss and if shingles had caused my hearing loss, the prednisone shot to inner ear might not help especially since it was getting a little late since the onset of hearing loss. But he said if it was his ear, he would do the the prednisone shot and try another round of prednisone pill. The next day after the prednisone shot, I took another hearing test online and I could see that I had gained some hearing back. We confirmed with the audiologist this week and got a second shot of prednisone. I seem to have gained some more hearing after the second shot. I will do a third prednisone shot next week. I think my hearing will come close to normal once I have had all three shots but it won’t be as good as my left ear. I just wanted to share my experience. I think the prednisone shots to inner ear should always be given to people with hearing loss, even if it seems like it might be too late. The downside is too low to not try it. It’s a little uncomfortable but it doesn’t hurt too much. I’m glad I saw the second ENT who was younger and more aggressive and was willing to give the prednisone shots a try.
I was diagnosed with Sensorineural Sudden Hearing Loss in left ear last Wednesday. I saw the ENT on the 7th day after my hearing loss(wasted time with primary case physician’s decongestant for the first few days). The doctor injected Steroid in my left ear via the ear drum and also prescribed me oral steroids, which I am taking currently. The loss of hearing in the left ear is profound, across all frequencies. My right ear hearing is good and have no family history of hearing issues. I also don’t smoke or have any other health conditions or have been exposed to loud music or noisy workplace conditions. I did not have a cold or Covid or flu when i had the heating loss. The ENT doctors says the issue is either due to virus or loss of blood supply to the ear and these cant be proven(or disproven).
I have read that spontaneous recovery rarely happens in patients with profound hearing loss in one ear. I also developed Tinnitus in the left ear, which happens after sudden hearing loss. At this point, the Tinnitus is bothering me more than the hearing loss.
I had my first Scalp acupuncture session yesterday and plan to continue that to see if helps.
The questions I have are:
-Is HBOT therapy helpful?
-Has Acupuncture and Ayurveda helped anybody with Sensorineural Sudden Hearing Loss and Tinnitus ? What type of Acupuncture and how many sessions? Any suggestions or recommendations?
-Is Traditional Chinese medicine in conjunction with Acupuncture for the hearing loss/Tinnitus helpful?
Hi Blue Jay:
To answer your questions.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can really help some people. However, to be useful, it has to be started as soon as possible. It’s worth a try if you can get started tomorrow or as soon as possible.
I haven’t heard many success stories of acupuncture for hearing loss and tinnitus–especially a profound loss. Since the tinnitus accompanies the hearing loss, I don’t see that acupuncture will really be effective. You can continue with it, but I’m not too hopeful of much success. (I be pleased to be proven wrong though.)
Exactly what traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda techniques would you be thinking of trying?
Whether anything works largely depends on what caused your hearing loss in the first place. For example, if the hair cells are dead now, nothing is going to bring your hearing back (until they perfect techniques to grow new hair cells and supporting structures). If the damage is such that your auditory system is “blocked” from working, then anything (eastern or western) that frees the blockage has a good chance of working.
Since hearing can come back spontaneously, its hard to know whether eastern or western medicine works or not. A good example is taking steroids such as Prednisone. Sometimes hearing comes back on its own, sometimes hearing never comes back no matter what is tried, and sometimes hearing comes back after taking Prednisone. But what you’ll never know is whether hearing would have come back spontaneously, and thus came back in spite of Prednisone treatment, rather than because of it.
However, as you mentioned, the chances of hearing coming back after a profound loss is slim at best. I wouldn’t expect any treatment to bring back more than 10 dB or thereabouts.
Once things settle down in a month or two, you’ll know what your hearing status will be going forward. Then, if your tinnitus is still a problem, you need to learn how to successfully deal with your tinnitus. My book, “Take Control of Your Tinnitus” will help you.
Cordially,
Neil
Thanks Dr. Bauman. Appreciate your reply greatly. I have Sensorineural hearing loss, which means not a blockage.
The auditory test results said “Test results showed hearing within normal limits in the right ear. Profound sensorineural hearing loss in the left ear. Excellent word recognition scores in the right ear and zero in the left ear. Normal tympanogram bilaterally. Acoustic reflex present in the right ear and absent in the left ear.
My doctor does not believe in HBOT. I am meeting him again in 2 days and also doing an audiology test, so will ask again. Not sure if I want to pursue HBOT if he is against it. Should I seek another ENT doctor’s opinion?
At this point, I would be happy if the tinnitus issue is fixed. I have accepted the hearing loss but cant seem to accept tinnitus – sounds like rubbing salt in the wounds.
Does sensorineural loss means that the hair in the ear are destroyed? I was undergoing naturopathy treatment for moderate hair loss(related to my age – 55 and menopause) and also on hormone therapy for about two months prior to the hearing loss event(progesterone and estrogen) – I keep on questioning myself if these treatments caused ototoxicity and therefore the hearing loss. I stopped all medications as soon as I found out about my hearing loss.
Also, the fear of losing hearing in another ear is bothering me.
Hi Blue Jay:
When I said something could be blocking your ear–I didn’t mean something like your Eustachian tube being clogged. I was talking about what goes on at the molecular level inside your inner ear. For example, if a heavy metal ion is standing in an ion gate and a little potassium ion is trying to get through to send a auditory message to your brain, it is blocked by the heavy metal ion.
If this was the problem you’d have a hearing loss until you detoxify. When the heavy metals are eliminated, then the ion gate wouldn’t be blocked and hearing would return. That’s the kind of “blockage” I was referring to.
Over here, HBOT is not common, so I doubt many ENTs have used it or know much if anything about it.
Has any hearing come back yet? If there is no signs of improvement, I rather doubt any treatment will be successful.
Since the tinnitus is almost certainly caused by the profound hearing loss, it is not likely that your tinnitus will go away. Therefore, you need to learn how to successfully deal with your tinnitus. Then it won’t bother you, even though it is there.
I’m in the same boat as you–except I’ve been in that boat for more than 70 years now. My tinnitus is “ringing away” right now as I write this, but I do not let it bother me. It does not affect my life in any way.
You can learn to do the same. One secret is to treat your tinnitus as a totally unimportant background sound that is safe to ignore, then ignore it. If you do the opposite and treat it as a threat to your well-being in any way, then your limbic system will constantly bring it to your attention.
You can learn much more about you can do this in chapters 16 and 17 of my book, “Take Control of Your Tinnitus–Here’s How” available at https://hearinglosshelp.com/shop/take-control-of-your-tinnitus-heres-how/.
Typically, the hair cells with the tiny cilia on top die when you have a massive sensorineural hearing loss like you experienced. They don’t necessarily die right away so rapid treatment can sometimes prevent this, but by the end of two weeks I’d say it’s too late to prevent them from dying. That is why immediate treatment is so important–especially taking antioxidants such as glutathione IV or taking N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) one of the main building blocks of glutathione so your body can make more of this powerful antioxidant.
I understand your fear of losing hearing in your other ear. I can’t tell you the probability of that happening since I don’t know exactly what caused your hearing loss in the first place.
However, I can tell you this, if you do lose your hearing in your other ear, all is not lost. You could get a pair of cochlear implants and probably do very well with them. I know hundreds of people with CIs and a lot of them now hear much better than I do.
Cordially,
Neil
Hormone changes in women can cause some degree of hearing loss, but I don’t remember anyone having a massive loss like you experienced from hormone treatments.
Thanks Dr. Bauman from the bottom of my heart for all the valuable suggestions. Giving you an update on what I have been through in the last month or so.
I have had 10 acupuncture sessions since mid April. This week, when I tested my hearing with music with Apple in-the-ear headphone at higher volumes in my left ear only – the voice is garbled but I can hear some tone and variations of tone. I can hear beats and sort of understand the rhythm but I do not hear music from the musical instruments in my left ear. When I try to hear podcasts or news at a higher volume, I can hear garbled voice. This improvement serves no practical purpose, but it is an improvement over my situation before, when I could not hear a thing! I still plan to continue another 8 to 12 sessions and see if the hearing improves further.
Note that I came across a paper where they described success with electro acupuncture https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2005290118304023
I wrote to the doctor who wrote this paper, but did not hear back.
I re checked with my ENT doctor if my improvement means that the nerve in the ear is being repaired with acupuncture – he said that it could improve on its own too, so it is hard to tell if acupuncture is helping or if it is improving on its own. My ENT still says No to HBOT because of the side effect – HBOT can result in damage to the tympanic membrane. I want to try , but am afraid to try HBOT because of my fear of damaging my left ear.
Hi Blue Jay:
I’m interested in your results once you finish the acupuncture.
In the article on electrical acupuncture, notice that both people that were successful supposedly had some degree of incipient Meniere’s disease. I think that any hearing loss was due to the excess pressure in the endolymph in the cochlea, but had not killed any hair cells yet. Thus if the acupuncture acted on the inner ear to normalize the endolymphatic fluid, then hearing could return–and the second result was certainly impressive.
However, if the hearing loss was due to dead hair cells, then no treatment would cause hearing to come back.
So in your case, it comes down to whether dead hair cells are causing your hearing loss or some other cause that inhibits hearing–that acupuncture can normalize.
It’s probably much too late for HBOT to be effective now, so best to forget about it. Your ENT is right that there are risks to taking HBOT, especially if you have any Eustachian tube problems or congestion due to allergies, colds, middle ear infections, etc.
Cordially,
Neil
Thanks Dr Bauman for your insight on why electro acupuncture may have helped the 2 patients in the research paper. I do often worry about the money and time I am putting in acupuncture which may not fetch results, but I know I will regret it if I don’t try it. The one thing I forgot to mention to you is that my tinnitus has significantly improved since the acupuncture sessions started. It is very quiet know and becomes slightly louder only on occasions such as when I am doing a lot of exercise which requires thumping actions Or sometimes at night(when I am more tired).
Also wanted to let you know that my first few sessions were acupuncture, but my acupuncturist switched to electro acupuncture when I came across this paper. My acupuncturist was treating the same points so she saw no harm in adding electro to it. Also pl note that my acupuncturist does scalp acupuncture plus the points in the body.
Hi Blue Jay:
Acupuncture can help calm you down and when you calm down, your tinnitus can calm down too. So even if the acupuncture doesn’t directly change your tinnitus, by calming you down, it indirectly can produce the same result.
Cordially,
Neil