You just can’t get away from that ringing in your ears. That high pitched ringing in your ear has been nagging you ever since yesterday morning and it still hasn’t gone away. You realize the sound is tinnitus, but you’re beginning to wonder exactly how permanent tinnitus normally is.
Tinnitus can be brought about by damage to the stereocilia inside of your ears (they’re the tiny hairs that pick up air vibrations which your brain then transforms into intelligible sound). That injury is usually the result of excessively loud noise. That’s why you observe tinnitus most often after, for example, attending a concert, eating at a loud restaurant, or being seated near a roaring jet engine while you’re traveling.
How Long Does Tinnitus Last on Average?
There’s no cure for tinnitus. But tinnitus usually doesn’t last indefinitely. There will be a large number of factors that will influence how long your tinnitus will last, such as the root cause of your tinnitus and your overall hearing health.
But if you just arrived home from a noisy day of traveling and you find your ears ringing, you can generally expect your tinnitus to disappear in a day or two. 16 to 48 hours on average is how long tinnitus will persist. But in some cases, symptoms can last as much as a couple of weeks. Additional exposure to loud noises could also trigger tinnitus to flare up again, essentially resetting the clock.
It’s generally suggested that you see a specialist if your tinnitus persists and specifically if your tinnitus is impacting from your quality of life.
What Causes Long Term Tinnitus?
Normally, tinnitus is short-lived. But that means it can be irreversible. When the cause is not mundane that’s particularly true When it comes to severity and origin. Here are some examples:
- Hearing loss: Often, hearing loss and tinnitus are joined at the hip. So you may end up with irreversible tinnitus no matter what the cause of your hearing loss.
- Traumatic Brain Trauma (TBI): The brain is where the majority of sound is processed. When those processors begin to misfire, due to traumatic brain injury, tinnitus can be the outcome.
- Repeated exposure: If your ears are ringing after one rock concert, imagine how they’ll feel after several rock concerts a week or if you’re a musician who plays live shows and practices all day. Repeated exposure to loud noises can result in permanent hearing injury, including tinnitus.
Permanent tinnitus is considerably less common than its more short-term counterpart. But there are still millions of Us citizens each year who are treated for lasting, or chronic, tinnitus symptoms.
How Can You Get Your Tinnitus to go Away?
Whether your tinnitus is short term or long lived, you may want to find relief as quickly as possible. Although there’s no cure for tinnitus, there are a few things you can do to lessen symptoms (however long they may endure):
- Find a way to mask the sound: You can in some cases drown out the sound and get a restful nights sleep by utilizing some source of white noise like a fan or humidifier.
- Try to remain calm: perhaps it sounds somewhat… abstract, but keeping calm can really help keep your tinnitus in check, mostly because increased blood pressure can stimulate tinnitus flare-ups.
- Wear earplugs (or earmuffs): The next step, if you can’t keep away from loud situations, is to wear ear protection. (And, really, you need to be protecting your ears even if you don’t have tinnitus.)
- Steer clear of loud noises. Your symptoms might be extended or might become more severe if you continue to expose yourself to loud noises such as rock concerts or a jet engine.
Unfortunately, none of these tactics will get rid of long term tinnitus. But it can be equally significant to manage and diminish your symptoms.
How Long Before Your Tinnitus Disappears?
In the majority of circumstances, though, your tinnitus will go away without you needing to do anything about it. Your hearing should go back to normal within 16 to 48 hours. However, if your tinnitus lingers, you’ll want to look for a solution. The sooner you discover a treatment that is effective, the sooner you can get relief. Get your hearing examined if you think you have tinnitus or hearing loss.