You just can’t escape from that ringing in your ears. That high pitched ringing in your ear has been nagging you since yesterday morning and it still hasn’t gone away. You’re aware that the buzzing is tinnitus but your starting to worry about how long it will continue.
Tinnitus can be caused by injury to the stereocilia inside of your ears (the air vibrations which your ears convert into sound, are sensed by these little hairs). That damage is most often the result of overly loud sound. That’s why you observe tinnitus most often after, as an example, attending a concert, spending time in a loud restaurant, or being seated near a roaring jet engine while you’re taking a trip.
How Long Does Tinnitus Persist on Average?
There’s no cure for tinnitus. But tinnitus usually doesn’t continue indefinitely. There will be a wide variety of factors that will establish how long your tinnitus will last, like the root cause of your tinnitus and your general hearing health.
But if you find your ears buzzing after a noisy day of traveling, you can normally expect your tinnitus to fade away in a day or two. On average, tinnitus will persist for 16 to 48 hours. But it’s also not unusual for symptoms to linger, often for as long as a couple of weeks. And tinnitus will return if you are exposed to loud noise again.
It’s generally suggested that you see a specialist if your tinnitus persists and especially if your tinnitus is detracting from your quality of life.
Why is Tinnitus Sometimes Irreversible?
Tinnitus is normally temporary. But sometimes it can be irreversible. When the root cause is not mundane that’s particularly true When it comes to degree and origin. Here are a few examples:
- Hearing loss: Typically, tinnitus and hearing loss are joined at the hip. So, no matter what causes your hearing loss, you may also wind up developing (or noticing) irreversible tinnitus along with it.
- Repeated exposure: After one rock show, your ears will ring for a couple of days but continued subjection will lead to far more serious consequences. Continued exposure to loud sounds can result in irreversible hearing damage, tinnitus included.
- Traumatic Brain Trauma (TBI): The majority of the processing of sound happens in the brain. When those processors begin to misfire, due to traumatic brain injury, tinnitus can be the outcome.
Permanent tinnitus is significantly less common than its more short-term counterpart. But there are still millions of Americans every year who are treated for lasting, or chronic, tinnitus symptoms.
How Can You Get Your Tinnitus to Subside?
You will want to find relief sooner rather than later regardless of whether your tinnitus is long term or short term. There isn’t a cure for tinnitus but you can do a few things to decrease the symptoms (though they may last only so long):
- Try to keep calm: Maybe it sounds a little… abstract, but staying calm can really help keep your tinnitus in check, mostly because increases in blood flow can induce tinnitus flare-ups.
- Avoid loud noises. Going to another concert, hopping on another airline, or cranking up the volume on your earpods another notch could extend your symptoms or double down on their severity.
- Use earplugs (or earmuffs): The next step, if you can’t avoid loud situations, is to use ear protection. (And, really, you should be protecting your hearing whether you have tinnitus or not.)
- Find a way to cover up the sound: Sometimes, employing a white noise device (including a fan or humidifier) 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).
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 Goes Away?
In the majority of circumstances, though, your tinnitus will subside without you needing to do anything about it. Your hearing should go back to normal within 16 to 48 hours. However, you will want to seek out a solution if your tinnitus lingers. The sooner you find a treatment that works, the sooner you can experience relief. If you think you have hearing loss (which is frequently associated with tinnitus) you should have your hearing tested.
