I have it, it's pretty bad, I therefore want to protect my ears discreetly, what can my fellow forumista's recommend?
If by protecting your ears discreetly you mean earplugs, perhaps check https://www.snorestore.co.uk/index.html snorestore out?
They do a sample pack of anti-snoring earplugs, some of which are pretty near invisible except from directly side on and they may offer even smaller / less outwardly visible plugs in their work section...
Have you tried plugs? I have tinnitus and use them in noisy environments but if you put them in when its quiet I find it actually makes the tinnitus seem much louder. White noise machines help some folk - you can get them that are like hearing aids
I find laser lite plugs the best for my ears
In that context do you want to protect your ears? Where do you think your tinnitus comes from? Is it spontaneous, or as a result of injury or other treatment? What form does it take? High pitched? Continuous? Pulsed?
For high-volume situations (gigs etc) I bought some ACS Pros, which are spendy, but fantastic.
https://www.acscustom.com/uk/products/hearing-protection
Cheaper alternatives are available, but IMO they're not quite as good (block out different frequencies etc).
FWIW I've habituated to my tinnitus to a greater or lesser extent (after several years). Naturally, it's worse when I'm tired!
Good luck! 🙂
Always carry a pack of these with you in case you find yourself in a loud venue :
they cut about 20dB of sound but you can still follow speech and they actually can make a concert with distorting levels of SPL sound a bit better.
For sleeping I find cotton wool best as it doesn't protrude and it doesn't block all sound, which would make your tinnitus seem louder.
Don't use ear-bud type headphones, like the apple ones, as they have quite high SPLs, the IEM headphones are much better as they don't need as much 'juice' to drive your ear-drums. I listen to music all day at work with them and they haven't made my tinnitus worse.
If you have real problems with snorers then get a small mp3 type player and some discrete IEM headphones and listen to some soothing music, if you always use that music to try to sleep to it will become a sort of 'lullaby' !
I use -20dbs on stage and it still takes several days for the tinitus to drop to normal background after standing next to a drummer and in front of a 4x12.
Another intrusive tinnitus sufferer here , I am around noisey diesels , grinders , hammers most days & normaly use Howard leight Max plugs. I usually double up with peltor ear muffs as well , still get a lot of low frequency that cant be blocked.
The thing to remember with tinnitus is it's just a noise , easier said than done as it buckled me for the first year. Relax into it , humans are great at adapting.
As above it depends on what context/environment you're wanting protection within. For power tools and petrol mower etc. I personally prefer the convenience of proper over the ear muffs - I have some aviation grade ones (Peltor black and red) that I just pop on.
For discreet (and effective) protection I don't think you can beat the custom moulded ones. I have some clear ones from days of building tanks and you can't really see them unless specifically looking for them. My neighbour was screaming at me over the fence one day trying to give me some plants and I was none the wiser.. clearly she thought I was being extremely rude as she didn't spot the plugs!
I feel your pain though. I've had chronic tinnitus since age 23 ish (32 now) and it is a right pain in the arse. I was really depressed about it for a couple of years but I'm somehow managed to zone out to it. Try and keep busy and not focus on it (hard I know). It depends on the nature of it too. Mine is quite high pitched and louder in my left ear.
Hope that helps.
Nick
Also - there are more sufferers than you think. In my close circle of family and friends there are at least 5 of us.. lighting designer, builder (x2), heavy manufacturing. etc. Talk to people who also suffer - it really does help.
I've been round the block on this. From the point of view of invisibility, I've yet to beat these...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proguard-Noizezz-Attenuating-musician-earplugs/dp/B006ZWWHBC/
They come in different attenuations, and supplies on amazon seem a bit hit and miss. They come with a number of different size silicon "plugs" so can fine tune to ear canal size.
It's just a shame that the plug in attenuation bit is brightly coloured, if it had clear would have been even more stealthy.
Had it over 40 years since a kid. Can't do much about it.
Mine usually only bothers me when I think about it but having read this thread my ears are howling!
I always have a high pitched hiss, often a mid range whooshing noise as well and occasionally a bass rumble!
TJ has his own dubstep?
Do ear plugs help?
They just make me more aware of it😖
I can’t tell you what helps tinnitus - but I know what makes mine worse: being tired, being stressed ... too much caffeine and too much salt; plus thinking about it!
Ear plugs definitely help.
To a degree I agree with Vongassit, the more you worry about tinnitus the more you notice it. I recently started using Alpine filtered earplugs at gigs and rehearsals to prevent damage, could be kidding myself but I've noticed that my mild tinnitus has diminished, only now appearing if I'm plugged into earphones for hours on end. Guitarist in my band uses custom molded earplugs, which he swears are worth it, but he's moving toward music production/mixing so is more precious about reducing vol evenly across the spectrum.
Wearing plugs seems to help me make out speech in noisey environments, which is the one problem I've experienced hearing-wise.
I like my Peltors with built in radio. Also with a jack for those all important Trainerroad Podcasts.
For zeroing rifles I use foam plugs and Peltors together.
Stress, sugar and caffeine make mine worse and sadly whenever I do have a good spell, I notice it’s not there and it comes back 🤣
Isn't tinnitus purely psychological?
I got custom molds made by these people https://shop.hearology.uk/
Very comfortable and effective - as someone has said above, can make a poorly mixed gig sound OK. Their 3D scan is a lot better than the 'push a lump of wax in your ear' method. The earphones i had done with wax method were never comfortable - Hearology claim because using was results in them being slightly too large.
Tinnitus has a psychological component but it is certainly not completely psychological
Thank you all. It takes the form of a high pitched and continuous squealing. It's been caused by too many clubs, too many gigs and generally many noisy environments.
I think I exacerbate the problem because of my propensity to shout and sing loudly at football matches. It has become substantially worse since the FA Cup final for example.
I need to protect my ears at the football so will invest in some discreet plugs and be a lot quieter.
Thanks again
Mine gets worst with my health. So bad back or run down - gets louder.
My hearing on general has got a lot worse.
Tried a few things, nothing works.
Have you thought about Tinnitus Retraining? I used to work as an ambulance chaser and over the years had a number of clients that suffered tinnitus either from work or road traffic accidents (often with multiple airbags going off) and it was recommended for new sufferers of tinnitus in many an ENT report i read?
https://www.hear-it.org/Tinnitus-Retraining-Therapy
Mine gets way more noticeable when someone mentions ‘tinnitus’.
<sigh>
Agree about protection, I use noise cancelling headphones when travelling and earplugs.
However aside from that I "cured" (i.e. manage) mine with this http://tinnitus.org/trt-excercises/
eyestwice - me too - having read this thread my ears are howling