I have had noise #1 (a perfect description) for about 35 years. I’m now 83. It came on initially from racing unmufflered motorcycles as near as I can tell. I describe it as sounding like a leaking air hose. I am now also (almost profoundly) deaf. Sadly, the tinnitus has not been affected by my hearing loss, and in fact it seems acerbated by it. I am truly thankful for the assist I get from my Resound Quatro aids. With the remote (smart phone) control offering total frequency, amplification and programming changing capabilities my quality of life is supported.
I can’t imagine getting by without them now.
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I have tried the Phonak tinnitus program with two sets of aids. This tinnitus program did not help my tinnitus. It actually disrupted my speech understanding. I may not have had it adjusted correctly but gave it a try.
What did the tinnitus program actually do?
Was it attempting to mask the tinnitus with another background sound? I don’t think it’s meant for use with conversation. I think it’s mostly intended to provide distraction when it’s quiet and the tinnitus would be more constantly bothersome. Or is it intended to be used in conversation or other active listening situations?
From what I could tell the background noise was always on. It could be adjusted for different frequencies and different dB. Didn’t play with it enough time really prove it out. When it messed with my speech recognition I turned it off.
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Number 2 for me, although I’ve had it last for as little as a minute or two or as long as a couple of hours. They are always varying tones, sometimes high and sometimes low, and varying volumes. I think I get more in my ‘bad’ ear but it is hard to tell as both get it fairly often, it is usually about every day or so with sometimes multiple occurrences in a day (a mix of different tones and ears.) and sometimes, rarely, it will be both ears at once. I always wonder if mine is related to just atmospheric pressure or humidity or something.
The longest I’ve had it continuously was for almost a week. It was after my second ever airplane ride (a 10hr flight) and my bad ear did not ‘pop’ afterwards for a week (though I tried everything, it was awful!) and was left feeling stuffed and with that loud ringing for that time.
I feel bad for those that live with it constantly, hopefully some day someone can find a way to give them true relief from it.
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Mine is a more or less constant high pitched noise, almost like white noise. Sometimes, I get a pure tone for a while, but it usually doesn’t last long. I think my damaged hair cells have their gain turned up to maximum trying to pick up sounds they no longer work at. It is like tuning a radio between stations and turning the volume wide open. It isn’t all that loud, and I have learned to live with it. It started somewhere in the mid seventies when I drove about seventy miles with the windows down. I didn’t notice any loud sounds, but when I arrived, it was there. It really bothered me for maybe a year. Then, I begin to grow accustomed to it. I recently listened to a presentation on Audiology Online about treatment and it was mostly about behavior modification with the goal of making tinnitus less bothersome. The presenter said there is no medical treatment for it.
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I’ve had the same tinnitus since 14, when I had a bad ear infection treated by Coriciden. I have a constant TONE in my ears (wish I knew where it was on a piano keyboard!) 24x7. I’m really only aware of it when the aids are OUT and no other sound competes with it.
I have a built-in “weather vane” with my tinnitus: every time the pressure changes my ears let me know about a day or two before the weather changes! It’s accurate about 90% of the time - no accounting for the times when it doesn’t kick in. Pressure change tinnitus for me differs for RAIN vs HEAT! (Does this sound like Bill Nye the Science Guy yet?!) Prior to RAIN, my ears will go “wooo-wooo-WOOO-wooo” off and on throughout the day. When a HEAT wave is coming, one of the ears will be like a hammer blow: BONG! BONG! bong-bong-bong-bong-BONG! throughout the day.
It’s annoying as heck but at least I can predict the weather with reasonable accuracy and make my tinnitus seem like a good thing. 
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My tinnitus was first noticeable at about age 50. Besides the nearly-constant background noise that occasionally got louder I noticed distortion in my hearing, especially when listening to a Bruckner symphony at a concert (lots of brass).
At about age 60, my doctor talked me into seeing an audiologist. As I was walking into the building for the test, a noisy ventilation fan “switched” the tinnitus to a much higher level in one ear. Naturally, I did very poorly in the test and the audiologist insisted I get an MRI scan to check for a tumor. My wife kidded me that they found “nothing.”
My hearing got much worse at age 67 when I had chemo for leukemia and I got hearing aids a few months later. I still have the tinnitus but I’m used to it now. But the hearing distortion is worse – sounds like everyone is speaking from the bottom of a barrel.
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Wow.
You’re the second person I’ve heard on this forum that’s talked about distortion in sound. That must be really difficult because it doesn’t sound like the medical/audiology fields are prepared to deal with distortion at all.
I really feel for you, Fred.
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My tinnitus is 24x7, pure tone. When it started, I can’t recall, but for as long as I remember, it’s been an ongoing thing. The tone is at 4kHz without fail all of the time, although every so often, there are a few variances that occur, up or down in frequency. As to volume, that I couldn’t say, but I would say it is similar to the average volume of a conversation.
As others have asked/postulated, with tinnitus affecting a hearing test, for myself, yes. Hearing tests for me are difficult unless there is a warble or beep rather than a steady tone. From my posted audiogram from 2018 which was done with a steady tone, this past year with the warble/beeps used for the hearing test, I believe I was told I had a 5db improvement in hearing from 4kHz-8kHz. Not so much an ‘improvement’ but that I was able to better recognize that the tone was there rather than a phantom tone from my tinnitus.
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I also have tinnitus in my R ear. I developed this suddenly when I lost my hearing in that ear 3 years ago. How can I describe it, I described to my surgeon (he’s my age old 
) as kids we had these tin frog clickers that we pressed together, that made a clicking sound. Some of the older folk might remember these tin clickers. Gosh we had fun with these in class at school.
But since my CI my tinnitus has greatly improved, I can barely hear it at all. For which I’m extremely grateful. Not that it was ever bothersome before though.
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That is interesting that the ventilation fan had such an immediate and permanent effect on your hearing. It’s got to be a brain/ear kind of thing.
I had to chuckle about your not doing well on the hearing test. I have a running joke with my aud-guy when he conducts the TONE test on me. He knows about my tinnitus, and I always preface the test by saying, “You know I’m gonna FAIL this one, right?” I do a little better when the hearing test tones are warbled and not just a pure tone. Is that cheating tho? 
The effect was NOT permanent. It lasted an hour or so but by then the hearing test was long over. But the “normal” tinnitus is permanent.
^^^ Ah that is GREAT news! I can easily see how any kind of music or persistant noise could have an impact on tinnitus. If I hear a sustained tone, sometimes my own tinnitus will hum along at the same note.
Mine started when I was about 6 years old. It was a very high pitched tone or hiss. My hearing loss began at birth, is slowly progressive and spares my low frequency hearing. Over the years the sound has dropped in frequency to about 3kHz. Often, wearing my hearing aids seems to make it worse once I take them out, especially if I’ve been in noisy environments during the day. But it’s basically always with me to varying degrees. It is sometimes a nuisance. Most of the time I only notice it in passing because I’ve lived with it all my life.
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I’ve had tinnitus for about 24 years, at least that is when it became continuous. I’m guessing its 8k plus or minus and very loud. I do have the occasional intrusion of loud low tones. Sometimes an hour or two, sometimes longer. When that happens it’s pretty much all I can hear. Hugh frequency is bilateral. Sometimes the low frequency will be a bit louder in one ear but not always same ear.
How are others assessing frequency and db ? When I try with various apps and headphones I can never actually find a match - just that it seems to be 8.4k or so.
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When doing your audiogram the different frequency tones will match the tinnitus.
My tinnitus is a continuous around 5khz tone with an occasional loud around 1khz tone that will appear and last for a few seconds then subside. My tinnitus started after I had stapendoctomies.
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I guess mine is closest to #2. I have sort of a ringing / beeping–esp. in my right ear. It can seem rather musical at times. The problem is that I generally only notice it when I’m in a quiet area (like when I’m trying to sleep). Sometimes I listen to white noise or focus on the whirr of my ceiling fan.
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@Raudrive. When I met with audiologist we discussed tinnitus but there was no attempt to ascertain the frequency or db level. My exam felt rushed and commentary felt like rehearsed memorization of what needed to be said, it was very impersonal. Think I’ll go to Costco. The folks here seem to speak highly of the thoroughness.
I’ve tried various online tinnitus apps to try and determine my frequency but when I get up past 8k it feels like the headphones/earbuds, etc, are straining to produce the sound. I’ve tried many set, high and low end and all say good through 20k hz. Maybe it’s my hearing in that range and not the headphones or buds.
As I’m typing this I’m wondering if my tinnitus is higher than the audiogram tests, and that I perhaps I actually cannot hear in the frequency range of my tinnitus. That might explain why I cannot create a tone that matches. If that is the case, any thoughts on how to ascertain the frequency and db level ?
The tinnitus is pretty miserable as many here know first hand. I’ve always accepted the “just live with it” approach.
Thank you