Wh-Questions about Tinnitus
- Nicole Nichols
- Mar 25, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 1, 2020
Do your ears ring? If so, you are not alone. This is a common symptom among musicians and music-lovers alike.
In this post, I will answer all of your wh- questions including:
1) What is tinnitus (or transient ear noise)?
2) Who is at a higher risk?
3) When are your ears put in risk of damage?
4) Why does tinnitus occur?
5) How you can help reduce the chance of this happening to you.
1) What is tinnitus?
Tinnitus is the sound that you hear (high-pitched, buzzing, ringing, whooshing sound, etc.), that occurs in the absence of an external stimulus. What this means is that when it is quiet or there isn't noise occurring in the environment, people hear those high-pitched buzzing sounds. A lot of people notice that their tinnitus is louder when it is quiet, and sometimes is worse in times of high stress. [The next blog post will be about ways to manage tinnitus during stressful times, so stay tuned.]
If you ever notice a high-pitched ringing that lasts less than 5 minutes, you likely have experienced transient ear noise. This differs from tinnitus in that tinnitus generally lasts more than 5 minutes.
2) Who is at a higher risk?
Anyone who exposes their ear to high levels of noise or music put their ears at a higher risk of developing tinnitus symptoms. This includes musicians.
A Danish study performed by Schmidt, Paarup, and Baelum looked at tinnitus severity related to sound exposure of symphony orchestra musicians. Researchers found 35% of all musicians have experienced tinnitus lasting more than 5 minutes and of those musicians, 51% report having tinnitus in both ears. This study found that wind players, specifically brass, are at a significantly higher risk than with other instruments. Importantly, researchers found 19% of the musicians reported having severe tinnitus with severe tinnitus is defined as tinnitus that has a negative impact on daily life.
These data support the statement that musicians, in particular, put their ears at a much higher risk of developing these auditory symptoms.
3) When are your ears put at risk?
According to the National institute for Occupational Safety and Health, your ears are put at risk every time you have exposure to loud sounds exceeding 85 dBA over the course of an 8-hour day.
To put this number into perspective, researchers Emmerich, Rudel and Richter recorded sound level measurements in an orchestra during a 2-hour rehearsal and a 1-hour performance. Over this 3-hour stretch of time, the average level recorded was 92.9 dB(A). There were frequent peaks over 100 dBA that occurred as well as sound peaks that exceeded 109 dB(A) in front of the piccolos.
To relate this back to possible damage to your hearing organ, your ears are only able to withstand 109 dB(A) for 1 minute and 53 seconds before damage occurs. That is not very much time. This is why hearing protection is so important to protect our ears.
4) Why does tinnitus occur?
The mechanism as to what causes tinnitus is still largely unknown by the medical professional. Sometimes there is an underlying medical reason for tinnitus, sometimes it is psychological and sometimes audiological. While the exact cause of tinnitus is unknown, for musicians the tinnitus is likely caused by years of loud music exposure.
Many musicians report experiencing tinnitus.
"I suffer from permanent tinnitus . . . which means I’ve got this constant ringing in my ears, which has also made me somewhat deaf (or ‘conveniently deaf,’ as Sharon calls it). It’s like this ‘whee!’ noise in my head all the time. Should have worn earplugs, I guess." -Ozzy Osbourne
5) How can you help reduce the chance of this happening to you?
Wear hearing protection. Any hearing protection is better than no hearing protection. The sooner that you wear hearing protection, the longer you’ll be able to hear conversations, intricacies in how musicians play, other instruments around you, etc.
As someone who never wore hearing protection, I look back on my time in pep bands and performing in concerts and I 100% wish that I had known. Now when I go to concerts, I always make sure to wear foam earplugs. I have noticed that the music quality does not degrade with the use of earplugs and after the show, I don’t leave with my ears ringing.
This is the whole point of Musicians.Ear. I want more musicians to know about the risks of loud music exposure over time to at least give musicians a choice in using hearing protection.
Take away points:
Any hearing protection is better than no hearing protection.
It is never too late to start wearing hearing protection.
Hearing protection does not lower the sound quality of enjoying concerts.
Hearing protection can reduce the likelihood of early-onset tinnitus or hearing loss from repetitive music exposure.
Stay tuned for the blog post coming next week about ways to manage tinnitus during stressful times.
Citations: Emmerich, E., Rudel, L., & Richter, f. (2008). Is the audiologic status of professional musicians a reflection of the noise exposure in classical orchestral music? European Archives of Otorhinolaryngology, 265(7), p753-758.
Schmidt, J.H., Paarup, H.M., & Baelum, J. (2018). Tinnitus severity is related to the sound exposure of symphony orchestra musicians independently of hearing impairment. Ear & Hearing, 40(1).
** Quote from Ozzy Osbourne retrieved from https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/celebrities-speak-up
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