It feels like I’m coming across a new post about sudden sensorineural hearing loss every single day. It appears to be way more frequent than it used to be. A decade ago, I hadn’t even heard of this condition. What is actually going on?
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Maybe it’s the generation that grew up attending loud concerts and the damage is finally catching up? Just a theory. I’ve personally dealt with hearing loss since I was born.
I’m not sure if that’s statistically accurate, but it would certainly be helpful if we could identify the specific causes behind it.
So many people have been dealing with viral infections over the last few years. I’ve actually been taking BrainProtect(i buy here) to help support my recovery, but it’s still alarming how often this is happening.
The world has just gotten much noisier. Earbuds, live shows, clubs… it’s everything combined.
I’ve had the exact same realization. I never dreamed you could just lose your ability to hear from one day to the next. I always assumed it was a gradual decline that happened as you got older. In my experience, I didn’t have a single symptom to warn me. There are people with much worse habits than I’ve ever had. I’ve never been one for noisy environments; I dislike loud pubs and clubs, and I never listened to music at high volumes or dealt with constant noise exposure, yet my ear nerves were still damaged. I’m only 28 and have hearing loss in my left ear. There must be something else at play, likely related to the aftermath of COVID.
I suspect it has always been more common than people realize, but since even many physicians aren’t well-versed in it, treatment often gets delayed. Unfortunately, it also turned out to be a lingering effect of COVID (along with tinnitus) for a lot of individuals.
Then there are folks like myself whose hearing simply cut out instantly, like a switch being flipped. I was wide awake, working in a quiet office setting, hadn’t been sick recently, and hadn’t been around any loud noises like fireworks or concerts. My specialist ran every test, including a head MRI, and put me on a course of steroids. After the exams, he concluded it was idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss in my left ear, while my right remained unaffected. He suggested against a hearing aid because I hadn’t just lost 60% of my volume; I had lost 100% of my ability to distinguish speech in that ear. I was completely deaf to the spoken word. You could shout directly into my left ear, and if my right ear was blocked, I wouldn’t even recognize the sound as someone talking. This all took place over 25 years ago, and I am just now finding a solution that actually works. I tried a CROS aid, but it didn’t really deliver. It was only marginally better than nothing. Last week, an Osia 2I was activated, and for the first time since 1995, I’m no longer deaf on my left side. I can actually hear speech in that ear through bone conduction. I expected to just hear sounds from the left in my right ear without being able to tell where they came from. Instead, I got directional awareness and speech recognition back. I’m incredibly happy. Thanks to the team at Eastern Oklahoma Ear Nose and Throat, I have my hearing back.
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I have a friend who lost her hearing in a single night. she wasn’t into loud shows and never used headphones. I had never even heard of this happening until it happened to her.
My father had an asymptomatic case of COVID that caused hearing loss and tinnitus starting in March 2020. He caught it again this September and it worsened. He uses hearing aids now. COVID is serious, everyone. We have to stop acting like constant reinfections are okay. I also think things like concerts and movie theaters don’t help. I see so many people with their music turned up way too high. Loop earplugs are a lifesaver for me. When I lived in an apartment, I had to wear them just because of my neighbor’s music; I can’t even fathom how loud it must have been in their own place.
It’s COVID. It even affected Paul Simon. There’s an article about how he likely won’t perform live again because of sudden hearing loss caused by the virus.
On Feb 28, 2020, I lost all hearing in my right ear suddenly overnight. I woke up with zero hearing and intense vertigo. I couldn’t even stand up; I fell trying to get out of bed. The tinnitus was loud and constant. It came out of nowhere. I had been sick with a cough for about three weeks (I suspect I had COVID before the official pandemic start). My blood pressure was high for the first time ever, so I was on Lisinopril, which I later learned is quite ototoxic. Was it COVID? The BP meds? Who knows. They labeled it idiopathic because they didn’t have an answer either. Four years later, I’m finally getting used to having one ear that rings all the time but hears nothing. It’s more of an annoyance than a source of terror now.
Here is my experience. I’m a 60-year-old male. I’ve been healthy most of my life, just getting the occasional cold. I got the Pfizer vaccine in early 2021 and a booster in early 2022. Since then, I’ve had COVID four times and stopped testing every time I get a sniffle. I had a cold on Feb 7th that seemed to pass, but on Feb 14th, I woke up totally deaf in my right ear with intense tinnitus. I believe the vaccine impacted my immune system and the SSHL was triggered by the virus. I’ve been sick more in the last two years than in the entire decade prior to 2020.