You just can’t get away from that ringing in your ears. That high pitched buzz in your ear has been bothering you since yesterday morning and it still hasn’t gone away. you realize that the ringing is tinnitus but your starting to be concerned about how long it will last.
Tinnitus can be brought about by injury to the stereocilia inside of your ears (the air oscillations that your ears convert into sound, are sensed by these tiny hairs). Normally, too much excessively loud sound is the cause. That’s why when you’re sitting near a booming jet engine, eating at a noisy restaurant, or attending a concert, you notice tinnitus the most.
How Long Does Tinnitus Last on Average?
There isn’t any cure for tinnitus. But that doesn’t mean it’ll never go away. There will be a large number of factors that will establish how long your tinnitus will last, such as your overall health and the underlying cause of your tinnitus.
But if you just arrived home from a noisy day of traveling and you find your ears buzzing, a couple of days should be sufficient for you to notice your tinnitus fading away. Typically, tinnitus will last 16 to 48 hours. But it’s also not abnormal for symptoms to linger, often for as much as a couple of weeks. Further exposure to loud noises could also cause tinnitus to flare up again, essentially resetting the clock.
It’s typically suggested that you see a specialist if your tinnitus persists and specifically if your tinnitus is impacting from your quality of life.
Why is Tinnitus Sometimes Permanent?
Tinnitus is usually temporary. But sometimes it can be permanent. When the cause is not mundane that’s particularly true When it comes to severity and origin. Here are a few examples:
- Repeated exposure: If your ears are buzzing after attending one rock concert, think of how they’ll feel after several rock concerts a week or if you’re a musician who performs concerts and practices all day. Continued exposure to loud sounds can cause permanent hearing injury, tinnitus included.
- Hearing loss: Often, tinnitus and hearing loss are joined at the hip. So, whatever the cause of your hearing loss is, you may also find yourself developing (or noticing) irreversible tinnitus alongside it.
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): The brain is where the majority of sound is processed. When those processors start to misfire, because of traumatic brain trauma, tinnitus can be the outcome.
Temporary tinnitus is far more common than permanent tinnitus. But there are still millions of Us citizens each year who are treated for lasting, or chronic, tinnitus symptoms.
How do You Get Your Tinnitus to Subside?
It doesn’t matter if your tinnitus is short lived or long term, you may want to get relief as soon as you can. There is no cure for tinnitus but you can do some things to lessen the symptoms (though they will probably last only so long):
- Try to remain calm: Maybe it sounds a little… abstract, but increased blood pressure can bring about tinnitus episodes so staying calm can help keep your tinnitus under control.
- Find a way to mask the sound: Sometimes, using a white noise device (including a humidifier or fan) can help you drown out the noise of tinnitus and, thus, ignore the symptoms (and, you know, get a good night’s sleep in the process).
- Steer clear of loud noises. Going to another concert, hopping on another plane, or turning the volume on your television up another notch could prolong your symptoms or double down on their severity.
- Use earplugs (or earmuffs): If you can’t avoid loud situations, then safeguarding your hearing is the next best option. (And, really, whether you have tinnitus or not, you should use hearing protection.)
Unfortunately, none of these practices will get rid of long term tinnitus. But it can be just as significant to control and minimize your symptoms.
When Will Your Tinnitus go Away?
In most scenarios, though, your tinnitus will go away without you having to do anything about it. Your hearing should go back to normal within 16 to 48 hours. However, you will want to look for a solution if your tinnitus persists. Discovering a workable treatment is the best way to ultimately get some relief. If you think you have hearing loss (which is frequently associated with tinnitus) you should get your hearing tested.