You just can’t escape from that ringing in your ears. It’s been over two days and you can still hear that nagging buzzing in your ears. you realize that the buzzing is tinnitus but your beginning to be concerned about how long it will last.
Tinnitus can be caused by injury to the stereocilia in your ears (the air vibrations which your ears turn into sound, are sensed by these little hairs). Usually, too much excessively loud noise is the cause. That’s why when you’re sitting next to a booming jet engine, eating at a loud restaurant, or attending a concert, you notice tinnitus the most.
How Long Does Tinnitus Last on Average?
Tinnitus can’t be cured. But that doesn’t mean it’ll never subside. There will be a large number of factors that will determine how long your tinnitus will stick around, including your general health and the underlying cause of your tinnitus.
But if you just arrived home from a noisy day of traveling and you find your ears ringing, a couple of days should be enough for you to observe your tinnitus fading away. On average, tinnitus will persist for 16 to 48 hours. But in some cases, symptoms can last as much as a couple of weeks. And tinnitus will return if you are exposed to loud noise again.
If tinnitus persists and is affecting your quality of life, you need to see a specialist.
Why is Tinnitus Sometimes Permanent?
Tinnitus is usually impermanent. But that means it can be permanent. When the root cause is not ordinary that’s particularly true either with respect to origin or in terms of intensity. Here are several examples:
- Repeated exposure: After one rock concert, your ears will probably ring for a couple of days but repeated subjection will lead to far worse consequences. Repeated exposure to loud sounds can lead to permanent hearing injury, tinnitus included.
- Hearing loss: In many cases, tinnitus and hearing loss are joined at the hip. So you could end up with permanent tinnitus no matter what the cause of your hearing loss.
- Traumatic Brain Trauma (TBI): Most of the processing of sound happens in the brain. When those processors begin to misfire, as a result of traumatic brain injury, tinnitus can be the outcome.
Permanent tinnitus is substantially less common than its more temporary counterpart. But permanent or chronic tinnitus still impacts millions of Americans each year.
How do You Get Your Tinnitus to go Away?
It doesn’t matter if your tinnitus is short lived or long lived, you will want to get relief as soon as possible. There isn’t a cure for tinnitus but you can do some things to decrease the symptoms (however long they might endure):
- Find a way to cover up the sound: You can in some cases mask the sound and get a good nights sleep by using some source of white noise including a humidifier or fan.
- Use earplugs (or earmuffs): The next option, if you can’t avoid loud environments, is to wear ear protection. (And, really, you should be protecting your ears whether you have tinnitus or not.)
- Avoid loud noises. Your symptoms could be extended or may become more severe if you keep exposing yourself to loud noises such as a jet engine or rock concerts.
- Try to remain calm: Maybe it sounds a little… abstract, but keeping calm can really help keep your tinnitus in check, mostly because increases in blood pressure can trigger tinnitus flare-ups.
To be certain, if you have long lasting tinnitus, none of these techniques will cure your tinnitus. But it can be just as relevant to control and diminish your symptoms.
When Will Your Tinnitus go Away?
In the majority of scenarios, 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, if your tinnitus lingers, you’ll want to look for a solution. Finding a workable treatment is the best way to finally get some relief. If you think you have hearing loss (which is commonly associated with tinnitus) you should get your hearing tested.