Tinnitus from a plane ride?

[zuhl]

Hello, this is my first post here. I have tinnitus in my right ear only and have had it since I was a kid. I am 32 now, so I figure about 25 years. It is annoying, but not devastating. I mostly ignore it but every now and then I think there must be a better way.

When I was a kid I remember blowing my nose and my ear crackling and ringing. My doctor made me do a saline nose rinse, but I dont remember much about it. I do remember it sucked. But over a few weeks it made my ear ringing go away. Then several months later I took a plane ride in an unpressurized Piper Cub and when I landed my ear was popping with terrible pain. Since then it has had a ringing in it.

Otherwise my hearing is near perfect. In fact it is better in the ringing ear than in the other ear. Went to an ENT this week and like I figured, he said there is nothing he can do. Of course, he really did not try anything, I think that was just the standard response.

Does anyone have any ideas? I would even try the nasal rinse again but I cant remember it. But I don't know if it would do any good anyway after all these years. Thanks!

[JimB]

It is highly unlikely that the plane ride caused your T. Small planes seldom fly over 10,000 feet (roughly the altitude that most airliners are pressurized to). If it was really a Piper Cub J3, it would have had a 65 HP engine and you probably didn't get over 5,000 feet. T isn't caused by a single exposure to noise, but rather long term exposure to loud noise, such as concerts, industrial exposure, military service, etc. As far as I know, there are no effective medical treatments for T, as it is an inner ear disorder. Even surgically severing the auditory nerve may not eliminate it. There's lots of info on the Web, so no use repeating here. As I mentioned in my other post, you may want to try Gingko Biloba 120mg. It took over a month for for me to see improvement, so don't give up if it doesn't seem to be working right away.

[zuhl]

I wanted to clarify after re-reading your message that i know it was not due to the noise of the plane. It was most definitely due to the altitude change and my ear pop. And when I mean pop, it was truly popping. Over and over for about 10 minutes after we landed. Very painfully. I had no idea at the time how to do a valsalva to relieve the pressure difference. Anyway that is when the ringing started. I know we are only talking a couple psi difference from the altitude we must have been at, but my ears are very sensitive to altitude changes. I sometimes get problems driving in hills and on elevators. Over the years I have learned to clear my tubes naturally and hardly ever need to valsalva unless I am diving. I work at NASA in space suit engineering and being able to clear your ears during pressurized tests is critical.

I have been exposed to my share of noise over the years, form concerts to chainsaws, but that never had an effect on it. For the last 10 years I wear hearing protection just because it is good advice.

[JimB]

Very interesting. I didn't know pressure changes can cause T. I flew small airplanes for many years in very noisy aircraft, shouting to students, and ear popping. It wasn't until I turned 40 that I wised up and started wearing hearing protection. I also attended my share of rock concerts and love to target shoot. I guess I'm lucky I only have a slight case of T.

[zuhl]

I think it must have had somethign to do with the sinus issues I had months before. Mine use to be very slight too. This that I am getting now just started. It started faint and then got louder. Then it was a little better. And today it is loud again. It warbles. Very annoying. at night when I sleep it calms down. By morning it is back to its benign level. Then when I get up and move about it comes back. I also have a wierd ache that I get kinda in the upper corner of my jaw inside my head. I dont know if that is inner ear or what. It is not all the time, but it is definitiely there.