The ringing just won’t subside. It’s been more than two days and you can still hear that irritating ringing in your ears. You’re aware that the buzzing is tinnitus but your starting to worry about how long it will last.
Tinnitus can be brought about by injury to the stereocilia inside of your ears (the air vibrations which your ears turn into sound, are sensed by these little hairs). That damage is typically the outcome of excessively loud noise. That’s why when you’re sitting next to a booming jet engine, or out at a loud restaurant, or attending a concert, you notice tinnitus the most.
Under Typical Scenarios, How Long Does Tinnitus Persist?
Tinnitus can’t be cured. But tinnitus normally doesn’t continue forever. How long your tinnitus persists will depend on a wide variety of factors, such as the underlying cause of your tinnitus and your general hearing health.
But if you find your ears buzzing after a noisy day of traveling, a day or two should be sufficient for you to observe your tinnitus fading away. On average, tinnitus will last 16 to 48 hours. But often, symptoms can last as long as a couple of weeks. And tinnitus will return if you are exposed to loud sound again.
If tinnitus continues and is affecting your quality of life, you need to consult a specialist.
Why is Tinnitus Sometimes Permanent?
Normally, tinnitus is short-lived. But sometimes it can be permanent. Specifically when the cause of tinnitus is something out of the ordinary When it comes to severity and origin. Here are several examples:
- Traumatic Brain Trauma (TBI): Most of the processing of sound happens in the brain. In some cases, a serious brain injury (like a concussion) might cause tinnitus because those processors begin to misfire.
- Repeated exposure: After one rock concert, your ears will probably ring for a couple of days but frequent exposure will lead to far more serious consequences. Repeated exposure to loud noises can lead to permanent hearing injury, tinnitus included.
- Hearing Impairment: Tinnitus and hearing loss often go hand in hand. So you could end up with permanent tinnitus no matter what the cause of your hearing loss.
Short term tinnitus is a lot more common than lasting tinnitus. But permanent or chronic tinnitus still effects millions of Americans each year.
How Can You Get Your Tinnitus to go Away?
It doesn’t matter if your tinnitus is short term or long lived, you will want to find relief as quickly as possible. There is no cure for tinnitus but you can do certain things to decrease the symptoms (however long they might last):
- Use earplugs (or earmuffs): The next option, if you can’t keep away from loud situations, is to use hearing protection. (And, really, whether you have tinnitus or not, you should wear hearing protection.)
- 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 at bay.
- Find a way to mask the sound: You can sometimes mask the sound and get a good nights sleep by utilizing some source of white noise such as a fan or humidifier.
- Steer clear of loud noises. Your symptoms could be prolonged or might become more severe if you continue to expose yourself to loud noises like a jet engine or rock concerts.
To be certain, if you have long-term tinnitus, none of these techniques will cure your tinnitus. But it can be just as important to manage and reduce your symptoms.
How Long Before Your Tinnitus Subsides?
Your tinnitus, in most circumstances, will recede by itself. Your hearing should return to normal within 16 to 48 hours. However, you will want to seek out a solution if your tinnitus persists. The sooner you discover a treatment that is effective, the sooner you can experience relief. Get your hearing tested if you think you have hearing loss or tinnitus.