My experience with hyperacusis- a hearing disorder

[femoralis]

I wanted to share what happened to me, in the hopes that none of you will have to go through what I did. And if you do get this condition, you will know what to do to treat it.

In January of 2012, the day after going shooting, I started experiencing excruciating ear pains in both ears and faint tinnitus in one ear. I was went to see an ear doctor, was treated for a fungal infection in my ear. The tinnitus went away and I thought I was getting better.

Over a few weeks, the ear pains and tinnitus returned. I started experiencing pain in my ears when hearing noises.

I gradually developed full-blown hyperacusis- a collapsed tolerance for sound. Every day sounds, especially high pitched ones became excruciatingly painful to hear. Hearing silverware clinking, or my children’s voices became agony.

No one knows exactly what causes this condition in the brain, but the most common thing that brings it on is noise exposure. Even though I wore hearing protection when shooting, I still got it. I can’t say 100% for sure that shooting caused it; I also developed TMJ disorder in 2012, which is a suspected cause also, but I think it is most likely. Hyperacusis not really associated with measureable hearing loss (mine is pretty much normal) but it is highly associated with tinnitus- I got both.

I went to different ear doctors, who generally knew absolutely nothing about hyperacusis, and put forth no effort at all to treat me. One told me I should go to a shrink, and “learn to deal with it” because he didn’t know that it would ever improve.

Finally, I went to an audiologist in another state who treated me with sound therapy (called Tinnitus Retraining Therapy). I wore miniature sound generators in my ears all day that generated white noise, which gradually retrained my brain to accept sound again. In about six months of treatment, my sound tolerance went from 60 decibels to 105 decibels (90-100 is normal). I still can’t tolerate very noisy things like parades, but it does not pain me in my ordinary life. I will never shoot a gun again though. The tinnitus has never gone away.

I recommend that you:

1) Shoot recreationally only with silencers and muffs + plugs. Conventionally hearing protection didn’t stop me from getting this.

2) If you get this, immediately see an audiologist trained in Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. It is expensive, but worth it. I would have been saved a lot of agony if I had done that first.

Feel free to ask me any questions you want.

 

[r1derbike]

I hear ya'!

I've developed that issue along with defeaning multi-tone tinnitus and low-frequency rumbling in my left ear, caused by treatment of a vestibular schwannoma (acoustic neuroma) by fractionated radiation. Balance was also affected. Of course hearing is nearly shot in that ear.

I feel your pain, literally.

I had heard of several cases such as yours resulting from noise exposure.

You may want to have a CT/MRI scan, if you haven't already, to rule-out tumor involvement.

I wad-up a bit of cotton or put a plug in that ear when I'm around noisy environs, but it's a double edged sword as that allows me to hear the tinnitus/rumbling much better. No escape.

 

[alfon99]

I wanted to share what happened to me, in the hopes that none of you will have to go through what I did. And if you do get this condition, you will know what to do to treat it.

In January of 2012, the day after going shooting, I started experiencing excruciating ear pains in both ears and faint tinnitus in one ear. I was went to see an ear doctor, was treated for a fungal infection in my ear. The tinnitus went away and I thought I was getting better.

Over a few weeks, the ear pains and tinnitus returned. I started experiencing pain in my ears when hearing noises.

I gradually developed full-blown hyperacusis- a collapsed tolerance for sound. Every day sounds, especially high pitched ones became excruciatingly painful to hear. Hearing silverware clinking, or my children’s voices became agony.

No one knows exactly what causes this condition in the brain, but the most common thing that brings it on is noise exposure. Even though I wore hearing protection when shooting, I still got it. I can’t say 100% for sure that shooting caused it; I also developed TMJ disorder in 2012, which is a suspected cause also, but I think it is most likely. Hyperacusis not really associated with measureable hearing loss (mine is pretty much normal) but it is highly associated with tinnitus- I got both.

I went to different ear doctors, who generally knew absolutely nothing about hyperacusis, and put forth no effort at all to treat me. One told me I should go to a shrink, and “learn to deal with it” because he didn’t know that it would ever improve.

Finally, I went to an audiologist in another state who treated me with sound therapy (called Tinnitus Retraining Therapy). I wore miniature sound generators in my ears all day that generated white noise, which gradually retrained my brain to accept sound again. In about six months of treatment, my sound tolerance went from 60 decibels to 105 decibels (90-100 is normal). I still can’t tolerate very noisy things like parades, but it does not pain me in my ordinary life. I will never shoot a gun again though. The tinnitus has never gone away.

I recommend that you:

1) Shoot recreationally only with silencers and muffs + plugs. Conventionally hearing protection didn’t stop me from getting this.

2) If you get this, immediately see an audiologist trained in Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. It is expensive, but worth it. I would have been saved a lot of agony if I had done that first.

Feel free to ask me any questions you want.

I'm 13 years old and I've been shooting without hearing protection since I started shooting at 3 years old. I frequently shoot an SR9 my father has, a 16 gauge shotgun and a .22lr revolver. Luckly not much time ago I had the idea to buy a pair of earmuffs, shooting without hearing protection started to be disgusting. Now I use them even for the .22's.

 

[r1derbike]

I'm 13 years old and I've been shooting without hearing protection since I started shooting at 3 years old. I frequently shoot an SR9 my father has, a 16 gauge shotgun and a .22lr revolver. Luckly not much time ago I had the idea to buy a pair of earmuffs, shooting without hearing protection started to be disgusting. Now I use them even for the .22's.

Well done!

 

[Ehtereon11B]

I lost a 1/3 of the hearing in my left ear when my ear plug fell out during a course of fire for the military. It rang for 3 days and has been muffled ever since for about 4 years. It is okay though, that is the side my wife sits on most of the time. Wear earplugs, clean them or throw them away after every use. and make sure they stay in.

 

[Trent]

I will never shoot a gun again though.

I recommend that you:

1) Shoot recreationally only with silencers and muffs + plugs. Conventionally hearing protection didn’t stop me from getting this.

2) If you get this, immediately see an audiologist trained in Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. It is expensive, but worth it. I would have been saved a lot of agony if I had done that first.

Feel free to ask me any questions you want.

OK... your post is leaving me all SORTS of mixed signals.

I see you post all the time in Legal and the NFA forum about evil features on guns, but here you are talking about never shooting a gun again?

I understand you are concerned about your hearing. This is what hearing protection is for.

I think you're taking things a little to the extreme, and I'll tell you why.

One of my friends is a frequent flier - his job calls for him to fly all over the country, every day. However, his ears were very pressure sensitive and he couldn't fly without excruciating pain. The doctors inserted tubes in to his ears, so that pressure would equalize.

The only problem is, one of those tubes they put in punctured his eardrum, and now loud noises physically hurt him.

Muffs? Plugs? Either way, he has absolutely no problem. He doesn't need to wear both to avoid pain, even when we're shooting 308 rifles indoors out a window.

So I think you are taking things a LOT too far here, on the extreme end of knee jerk reactions.

Just my .02.

 

[hso]

While the condition BTR has experienced is exceptionally rare it is critically important for everyone to always use high NRR plugs WITH muffs for any shooting.

 

[femoralis]

I've developed that issue along with defeaning multi-tone tinnitus and low-frequency rumbling in my left ear, caused by treatment of a vestibular schwannoma (acoustic neuroma) by fractionated radiation. Balance was also affected. Of course hearing is nearly shot in that ear.

I feel your pain, literally.

I had heard of several cases such as yours resulting from noise exposure.

You may want to have a CT/MRI scan, if you haven't already, to rule-out tumor involvement.

I wad-up a bit of cotton or put a plug in that ear when I'm around noisy environs, but it's a double edged sword as that allows me to hear the tinnitus/rumbling much better. No escape.

r1derbike, I did have an MRI, of my brain and ears which showed nothing... the pain started the day after I went shooting, that's why I think it was the most likely cause. Could be something else though (I had some jaw problems) but the it doesn't seem like a coincidence to me...

I would recommend that you go to an audiologist that offers TRT and begin treatment for hyperacusis, the treatment I got saved my life- metaphorically if not literally.

 

[CJW]

I have hearing loss in both ears from the military and from (stupidly) shooting without protection when I was younger. I got my first pair of hearing aids at the ripe old age of 28, and I also have tinnitus in both ears. I've learned to live with it, but I still enjoy shooting. Life goes on and you have to adjust, but I'm not about to quit one of my favorite activities. I just do it smarter these days, with plugs and muffs!

Heck, I won't even clean my guns without earplugs

 

[Double_J]

I try to wear ear protection at all times when working/playing around high noise environments. I worked in a plant where we were required to wear ear plugs at all times when on the floor, and take an yearly hearing test. I also have a history of bad hearing loss from chronic ear infections. I have not insignificant hearing loss in both ears, and take great pains not to loose any more. I am also thankful that my ENT is good at fixing real difficult problems, and I was one of his "favorite" cases. Please for the love of all things good, wear hearing protection when around loud noises.

 

[femoralis]

OK... your post is leaving me all SORTS of mixed signals.

I see you post all the time in Legal and the NFA forum about evil features on guns, but here you are talking about never shooting a gun again?

I understand you are concerned about your hearing. This is what hearing protection is for.

I think you're taking things a little to the extreme, and I'll tell you why.

One of my friends is a frequent flier - his job calls for him to fly all over the country, every day. However, his ears were very pressure sensitive and he couldn't fly without excruciating pain. The doctors inserted tubes in to his ears, so that pressure would equalize.

The only problem is, one of those tubes they put in punctured his eardrum, and now loud noises physically hurt him.

Muffs? Plugs? Either way, he has absolutely no problem. He doesn't need to wear both to avoid pain, even when we're shooting 308 rifles indoors out a window.

So I think you are taking things a LOT too far here, on the extreme end of knee jerk reactions.

Just my .02.

I used to be a gun fanatic / collector, and then this happened to me. I believe just as much in the legal / protection side of owning guns as I ever did. All I am saying is that people should use suppressors plus conventional hearing protection for RECREATIONAL shooting.

Conventional hearing protection is NOT enough to prevent this. The first ENT I visited confirmed that supressors are the only way to lower the DB of gunfire enough to avoid damage, and I have read several journal articles backing this up. Plugs and muffs alone will not do it. I don't know what happened to my ears, but it happened while I was wearing hearing protection!

I am glad your friend can shoot guns with hearing protection. I'm not going to. Hearing very loud things still hurts. I had to leave a mardi gras parade recently, and my ears hurt the rest of the day. I'm pretty sure gunfire would be intolerable, and I'm terrified of relapse. Now my ears rarely hurt, and I would just as soon have the bullet go through my head as start this nightmare again.

I still love guns, and am a gun rights fanatic, but I've got a $%^& good medical reason to avoid the noise. I'm going to get a suppressed .22 for my kids to learn on with another relative when they get older, but I'm done.

 

[Ryanxia]

I think this is an excellent example of why suppressors should be unregulated and just sold in stores like a tube of toothpaste. Imagine the reduction in noise pollution. This is something that would actually make folks safer (unlike the 23 executive orders BHO signed).

 

[Trent]

I used to be a gun fanatic / collector, and then this happened to me. I believe just as much in the legal / protection side of owning guns as I ever did. All I am saying is that people should use suppressors plus conventional hearing protection for RECREATIONAL shooting.

Conventional hearing protection is NOT enough to prevent this. The first ENT I visited confirmed that supressors are the only way to lower the DB of gunfire enough to avoid damage, and I have read several journal articles backing this up. Plugs and muffs alone will not do it. I don't know what happened to my ears, but it happened while I was wearing hearing protection!

I am glad your friend can shoot guns with hearing protection. I'm not going to. Hearing very loud things still hurts. I had to leave a mardi gras parade recently, and my ears hurt the rest of the day. I'm pretty sure gunfire would be intolerable, and I'm terrified of relapse. Now my ears rarely hurt, and I would just as soon have the bullet go through my head as start this nightmare again.

I still love guns, and am a gun rights fanatic, but I've got a $%^& good medical reason to avoid the noise. I'm going to get a suppressed .22 for my kids to learn on with another relative when they get older, but I'm done.

Wow, man, I'm truly sorry about this.

The plugs + muffs thing is something I do when shooting indoors. When I'm outdoors and the noise isn't constrained, it's typically just one or the other. With the exception of the 50 BMG. THAT gets plugs and muffs. I blame my tennitis (sic) on large quantities of muffs-only 50 BMG shooting.

I am NOT a fan of "electronic" ear protection. I've seen a lot of shooters have been switching to those, and I don't see any advantage to them, except perhaps hunting (but only because it heightens your normal hearing while still cutting out some of the noise).

I use a set of cheap muffs that had a high dB reduction, some of the more expensive ones don't block nearly the amount of sound the $10 set I bought at Knob Creek does, and NONE of the electronic muffs I've found do so. (Yeah, I once went to a machinegun shoot and forgot my ear muffs at home 6 hours away...)

Your argument for suppressors is a good one, and I agree we should be allowed to own them and not have to pay a steep tax and wait months to do so. But, I live in a state where they are illegal, period. So for me, it's a moot point.

I wish you the best, and hope some day you are able to return to the hobby.

 

[barnbwt]

Conventional hearing protection is NOT enough to prevent this.

With the exception of extremely high power rounds (and possibly obnoxiously braked ARs ) I have been under the impression proper protection (i.e. muffs and plugs) drop gunfire sound for the shooter below the "safe" threshold--which is why we bother to wear it. If the sound is below that scientifically tested threshold, damage does not occur. However, guns are not the only source of hearing damage. Car stereos, machines, car horns, rock concerts are all above the threshold of what can cause tinnitus. Decibels is Decibels (given a given frequency).

If the sound under plugs and muffs was enough to cause this, it was going to happen anyway next time you visited a sports bar or turned on a garbage disposal. It's kind of like the detached-retinas associated with hyper-recoiling guns; it accelerates and exacerbates the issue, but its occurance is supposedly not much higher than the general population (just happens to the same people earlier).

Wear protection, and don't talk when people are using big boomers; A particularly obnoxious braked AR fired while I had mouth open to say something, and the shockwave shot right in underneath my earmuffs/plugs and rang my ears for a few hours. Not to mention my fillings.

TCB

 

[r1derbike]

I can attest to .50 cal. Armalite rounds. They make my nose run. The ladies around us weren't affected that way, however. Very strange. We all had double ear protection too.

 

[MrCleanOK]

I'm 13 years old and I've been shooting without hearing protection since I started shooting at 3 years old. I frequently shoot an SR9 my father has, a 16 gauge shotgun and a .22lr revolver. Luckly not much time ago I had the idea to buy a pair of earmuffs, shooting without hearing protection started to be disgusting. Now I use them even for the .22's.

I wish I had had this revelation at age 13. Would have saved me a lot of trouble later in life.

 

[monotonous_iterancy]

I'm 13 years old and I've been shooting without hearing protection since I started shooting at 3 years old. I frequently shoot an SR9 my father has, a 16 gauge shotgun and a .22lr revolver. Luckly not much time ago I had the idea to buy a pair of earmuffs, shooting without hearing protection started to be disgusting. Now I use them even for the .22's.

That's great. Protect your hearing. If you don't, you might not notice it now, but it will catch up with you later.

I would highly recommend that if you shoot anything louder than a .22, wear plugs under your muffs. Plugs and muffs each block out different frequencies. Plugs usually block out higher pitch frequencies. The muffs also protect the bones around your ear from transmitting sound that could be harmful. If you use plugs, get the best you can find (33 NRR).

 

[SunnySlopes]

HSO said,

While the condition BTR has experienced is exceptionally rare it is critically important for everyone to always use high NRR plugs WITH muffs for any shooting

What about hunting? I started another thread about using Howard Leight Impact Sports muffs for hunting. The hunter generally must be able to hear movement in the forest, right? With plugs, I can't hear much of anything.

 

[hso]

My electronic muff + plug combination lets me hear leaves rustling so I don't know why your combo won't.

 

[femoralis]

Ok, I found the references I was telling you about.

Earmuff and plugs alone do NOT provide adeqate protection against noise injury when shooting guns.

Suppressors are the most effective protection.
http://oto.sagepub.com/content/144/6/950.abstract

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1199823_Hearing_Protection__the_case_for_suppressors__Article_discussion_.html

 

[holdencm9]

How much roise reduction do people get when wearing ear plugs improperly? I spend a good five minutes before the range warming my plugs in my hand (so they are softer) and then rolling them up, before pulling back on my ear and inserting them deep inside. As they expand you can hear the ambient noises around you disappear.

I have a buddy, and I see all the time, people at the range with their plugs sticking 3/4 of the way out of their ear! I think a rule of thumb would be, if I can flick your plug out of your ear with my thumb, it isn't deep enough.

This thread has given me more incentive to double up on ears though, with muffs. I just usually haven't because my plugs are NRR 32db and I thought that was enough.

 

[SunnySlopes]

I just usually haven't because my plugs are NRR 32db and I thought that was enough.

The loudest commercial cartridge that I can find specs for (not counting the 50 BMG round) is the 30-06 fired out of an 18 inch barrel. The noise level is right at 163.2 dB. Anything at 140 dB or above will likely damage your hearing.

If your plugs are truly eliminating 32 dB of noise, then with a 30-06 out of an 18 inch barrel, you're getting 131.2 dB of noise which would be a safe level according to the math.

Other calibers would be even quieter. A 223 out of an 18 inch barrel is 155.5 dB, less your 32 dB, which means the actual noise level is 123 dB.

However, I've read on this forum (in addition to the above) that there are two levels/pitches of noise produced by a firearm. Plugs filter one level and muffs the other.

And to further complicate the matter, there is such a thing as bone conduction. Vibration such as riding in heavy construction equipment or the vibration from the recoil of a heavy recoiling long gun can also damage your hearing.

So, let's say you wear your plugs and some really cheap muffs. Your plugs have the highest sound absorption figure. The muffs are rated for, say, 15 dB. You take your plugs at 32 dB and add five. The combo gives you sound reduction at 37 dB and you're covered throughout the freqency range.

 

[femoralis]

Take a look at the studies I posted above.

Plugs and muffs do NOT deliever all the protection they are supposed to, as the studies indicate.

When my ears got damaged, I WAS wearing ear protection. If it had delievered what is was supposed to, my ears should have been OK.

Instead, I got hyperacusis and tinnitus.

You may think you are taking care of your ears- I sure did- and them pull the trigger and ruin them in a fraction of a second. While wearing ear plugs!!!

Buy some suppressors.

 

[SunnySlopes]

With all due respect, three times in the two paragraphs they confine it to "certain types of firearms."

unable to reduce the impulse pressure below 140 dB for certain common firearms..........................making certain sporting arms....................... with certain common firearms

I'd have to know exactly what they're referencing. What types of firearms?

 

[holdencm9]

Unfortunately suppressors aren't legal in my state, and the study only really discusses the decibel level reduction of muffs/plugs versus a suppressor, not how exposure to those levels can lead to ear damage. Also, I really doubt that I am only getting 5-10% NRR out of my plugs (which are worn properly) like the chart suggests. If that were the case I think I'd be ringing in my ears after every range trip. I understand that laboratories and real-world results will differ, but I think when worn properly, the plugs can approach the stated NRR, if not meet the value. I think muffs are worse for me because they never seem to fit perfectly and get that tight seal, hence I prefer plugs.

However, all grains of salt aside, I am heeding the warning anyway and will begin doubling up on ear pro. Maybe it gets me from the 25-30 db NRR into the 35-40 range, it can't hurt.

And I do think suppressors should be legal....for our health!