Interview: “I GOT TINNITUS FROM USING EAR BUDS”

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Watch out when using ear buds to clean your ears. Daniel perforated his eardrum whilst using them, resulting in
an ear infection that left him deaf for 48 hours and suffering from permanent tinnitus.

Surely as a child you were taught to clean your ears using the classic cotton swabs. Me too, and I’ve been using them so cheerfully until very recently. 

When I got tinnitus, I began to search for information about everything related to the proper ear care, in the hope of finding a solution to my ringing. 

Visiting many doctors and studying about the prevention and care of our precious ears I learned, to my surprise, that ear buds SHOULD NOT be used to clean your ears.

This is key:

The wax accumulated in your ears serves to protect you from external agents and infections. If you remove that wax, you are sending your ears into the battlefield without armour. Would you go to the battlefield without any armour? Exactly. 

Note: after you shower, simply dry your ears on the outside, but do not use swabs to remove the earwax

And that’s what happened to Daniel. All his life, Daniel had been using ear swabs and, since he also wanted to have them ultra-clean (Daniel likes to always look impeccable), he would push them to the very bottom of his ear. 

In the end, he ended up perforating his eardrum, which led to a terrible infection in both ears, that left him unable to hear anything for 48 hours.

But that wasn’t the worst part:

After the infection was cured, Daniel developed permanent tinnitus.

See what happened to Daniel due to the misuse of ear buds and avoid the same thing happening to you.

 

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Name: Daniel F.

 

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Age: 31 years-old

 

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Country: Holand

 

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Proffession: Customer Service Representative for Mercedes Benz

 

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Length suffering from tinnitus: 11 months

 

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Type of sound you hear: a constant beeping at low frequency, like a “beeeeep”

 

#1. How old were you when your tinnitus started?

It was last year, I was 30 years old.

#2. Do you remember exactly the day the ringing started?

Sure, you don’t forget that that easily! I was on the couch and I felt my ear swell a bit. Two days later I got otitis and the next day the other ear got inflamed too.
 
A few days passed and the otitis wasn’t improving. The inflammation became so great that I had to go to the doctor’s. The diagnosis was otitis with perforation of the eardrum. This was due to using ear buds every day and pushing them to the bottom of my ear which perforated my eardrum.
The doctor prescribed Paracetamol and, after a few days, the otitis started to go down. But then, when the otitis started to go down, I started to notice a constant ringing in the right ear! I was like: “What is this…?” 

#3. Did you get scared?

At first, I didn’t worry too much because I really thought that the ringing would be gone after few days…

#4. At what point did you lose hope and realise that the beeps would be permanent?

A week later I realised that it wasn’t going to go away. The days went by, the otitis was healing but I noticed that the beeping remained.

#5. Did you visit a doctor immediately?

I didn’t because in my family there was already someone with tinnitus and I knew that it was pointless, I knew there was no cure for it…

#6. Did you try some alternative method on your own to combat your tinnitus (e.g. Ginkgo biloba, Chinese medicine, meditation, etc.)?

No I didn’t because I had already been told that there was no cure…

#7. Did you hide it or get embarrassed at any point?

I wasn’t ashamed, but I didn’t discuss it openly either because many people don’t know what tinnitus is really.

#8. What aspect of your tinnitus affects you most?

At first I was worried, but now I am used to it and it doesn¡tt affect me at all, I carry on with my life with total normality and I can sleep well at night.

#9. Does it affect you emotionally?

In my case it doesn’t really, because I’m lucky that my ringing is quite low, although I know there are many people who are affected a great deal by their tinnitus.

#10. What are your tricks to forget about the ringing?

What I do is I don’t pay the slightest attention to the beeps, I don’t make them important, I simply ignore them. By not making them important, it affects you less.

#11. Has the volume of your beeps decreased or worsened over time?

Actually, it has not changed at all, the volume and intensity remain the same!

#12. Did you know what it was when you heard the word tinnitus?

The symptoms were first detected in someone from my family but no, we had never heard the word tinnitus before. In fact, the doctor didn’t even use the term ‘tinnitus’, just ‘ringing’. Tinnitus was a word we learned later on the Internet.

#13. How do you imagine the rest of your life with tinnitus?

If the volume of the beep stays as it is, then I’ll be fine. My only fear is if it gets worse, and I hope that doesn’t happen.

#14. And what would you do if it gets worse?

In that case, I would go to the doctor’s and try to find a solution.

#15. Normally doctors don’t prescribe anything to people with tinnitus, because there is no official cure, what would you do then?

If the doctor didn’t give me anything, then I would seek advice on the Internet.

#16. Do you think you would find good advice on the Internet?

What I would do is look for testimonials from people who have gone through the same and see what has helped them and what has not.

#17. Would you even try some alternative medicine?

I would be willing to try any other alternative method if my beeps didn’t let me sleep, that’s for sure.

#18. Is there any key anecdote that you would highlight because of having tinnitus?

When my ears got infected from using the swabs so abruptly, they both got blocked and I couldn’t hear anything for two days.
I couldn’t hear the alarm in the morning (I would wake up every two hours thinking that I had fallen asleep!), nor the cars on the street, or anything. Complete deafness for 48 hours!
I was new at my old job and I was afraid of not doing it well, so I hid it from everyone. When customers would call, I would only notice because the phone light was on. During those two days I had to tell them that there was a technical problem and pass the call on to someone else!

#19.  Do you think that health services could do more to make tinnitus more bearable following diagnosis?

Yes, because in my case the doctor prescribed me the wrong medication and, when they realised, it was too late. If the doctor had not been wrong, maybe today I wouldn’t have tinnitus.

#20. And finally, what would you advise someone who has just been diagnosed with tinnitus?

Search on the Internet for people who have tried things that have relieved their symptoms, and do not clean the ear wax because it is necessary to protect your ears!

Read:

The 6 medicines that can cause tinnitus

10 myths about tinnitus you have heard (again and again)

Many people who suffer from tinnitus don’t know exactly what the cause was. But in Daniel’s case, his tinnitus could have been avoided, if he had known how to properly take care of his ears.

In high school and university, you study hundreds of subjects so you can find a good job in the future, but they don’t teach you how to take care of the most valuable thing you have.

When the Dalai Lama was asked what most surprised him in the world, he replied: “The Western man, because he first loses his health to earn money, and then loses his money to recover his health“

One of the fundamental goals of Education should be to understands how your mind and your body work, to be taught to know who you are and how to stay in good condition for longer – because apparently so, you have to live a few years with the same body!

From MUNDO TINNITUS we hope that Daniel’s eardrum will improve over time and that he will continue to face his tinnitus with such a positive attitude.

¡Best of luck, Daniel!

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