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One day in mid or late August 2012 I was a bit careless with my guitar and amp and was playing loud and close to my ears (especially left).
After about 30 minutes I noticed fullness in my left ear (but no tinnitus, pain or problems listening to people, TV etc). I also noticed that I couldn't hear myself swallow in my left ear, or 'pop' my ear. These symptoms mostly subsided after about 2 weeks.
One thing that didn't go back to normal was that my left and right ears feels not the same when I pop them, or if I burp etc. My right ear often seems to 'move more (?)' and sounds louder when I do these things.
In early September I started to notice some tinnitus (high pitched ringing or hissing noise) in my other (right) ear. I went to a small concert and some shows on stage (mostly acoustic music and moderate volumes) around this time, I don't know if it caused this.
The tinnitus became a nuisance so soon after I went to my GP and she said that it might be caused by swelling in my nose, she gave me some nasal spray and used it for a month.
A month later I went back to my GP and she then referred me to an ENT. The ENT did several tests including a hearing test to up to 8kHz and did not find any problems.
At the end of my session she told me that the noise in my ear will go away by Xmas (this was in mid November). If it didn't, she suggested an MRI.
It's now January and I still have this noise in my right ear. One thing I noticed is that I hear a grinding/cracking noise sometimes when I open my mouth on my right side. Could this be causing tinnitus? Do I see a dentist to get this checked out?
Right now I also think that I might have a little bit of tinnitus in my left ear as well, like a high pitch hissing type noise, but the noise in my right ear dominates mostly. I didn't notice this in the early stages. Do you think I did permanent damage to my ears?View Thread


I also saw the ENT again and the hearing test showed slight drop in the high frequency. I am not sure why my hearing got worse over this time because I haven't been around loud noises.View Thread

I'm not really sure what the MRI will reveal, it is done to look for brain tumours?
Another thing I have found is that my high frequency (10kHz ) hearing in my left ear is not good compared to my right. Because the hearing test at the ENT only goes up to 8kHz this could not be shown.View Thread

Do you believe I experienced acoustic trauma? The ENT nor GP didn't say anything about this so I'm having to assume.
Also do yo think that since I didn't seek medical help immediately, I made things worse?View Thread
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