Drumming With Damaged Ear / Possible Tinnitus

...and later removing myself (peroxyde and water) a plug of around 1cm! But like said before, I will refrain to attempt anything by myself and let the professional do its job next Tuesday.

I get similar problems sometimes when my allergies are acting up. I flush my ears with peroxide and they're good for a while.

Most people are very reluctant to clean their ears with peroxide. I don't get that. I grew up on a farm and it was a common practice for kids and animals. According to what I've been able to find online, there's no reason to fear the peroxide wash.

I've heard similar stories from a few people. Audiologists say everything's fine when it's obviously not, so they end up flushing their own ears and discovering that their audiologist was a quack.
 
@TMe : I understand your point has I always use water and peroxyde to unclog earwax. But the last two times (may and this week) my left ear didn't liked it at all as I had episodes of hearing loss for a few days after. Probably a mix of irritation, clogged Eustachian tube and maybe allergies.

It looks like sea water spray was the most beneficial trick after cleaning
 
Just came back from the ENT appointment. For what it's worth, pressure was gone this morning and hearing seems "normal" (I'll explain later). Yesterday, I've made a DIY Otovent balloon ? and inhaled steamed water with a few drops of Tea Tree essential oil. Let's not forget the daily seawater treatment in the nose.

She saw no fluid behind eardrum and the fork test was ok for my two ears. She suggests that maybe my Eustachian tube is fragile or malfunctioning on the left side. She also explained that I have some symptoms of "smoker's rhinitis". Yes, I know that cigarette could induce hearing problems so I have to choose between addiction and my hearing... Cold turkey ?, here you come!!!

Anyway, I showed her my latest hearing test (2012) and she told me what I already knows: high frequencies are affected by my day job (music teacher in elementary school). This old test shows dips in the 3 to 8 kHz for each ears. I have a new hearing test scheduled next Monday BTW.

Obviously, she told me that I'll have to protect my hearing when working with musician's ear plugs. I plan to use them when drumming also or use my newly bought Vic Firth isolation ear muffs. Also an alternative would be to use miking and monitoring with my newly acquired Westone IEM's. I'll also take the habit to use hearing protection when: lawn mowing, vacuum cleaning and using noisy tools (saws, drills, sand buffer, etc...).

As for my "normal hearing" back, except the already mentioned highs loss, I've also noticed that I do not hear the lows as well with my left ear. As an example, was listening to Led Zep on speakers moderately and blocking right or left ear gave interesting results:

- blocking right ear: more mids but less bass;
- blocking left ear: more bass but less mids (2012 tests shows a deeper dip in the 6kHz area on the right).

As also already mentioned, headphone non scientific test shows a difference (a few dB lower, how much, I don't know?) between left and right:

- 50-60 Hz lower in left;
- 200 - 500 seems identical for both, yes!
- 8 kHz seems almost the same;
- 12 kHz lower in left.
Unfortunately, standard hearing test only covers from 250 Hz to 8 kHz, I'll report back next Monday, stay tuned :) ??

So, now to protect what's remaining of my hearing and quit smoking...
 
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Most people are very reluctant to clean their ears with peroxide. I don't get that. I grew up on a farm and it was a common practice for kids and animals. According to what I've been able to find online, there's no reason to fear the peroxide wash.

I've heard similar stories from a few people. Audiologists say everything's fine when it's obviously not, so they end up flushing their own ears and discovering that their audiologist was a quack.
@TMe : I understand your point has I always use water and peroxyde to unclog earwax. But the last two times (may and this week) my left ear didn't liked it at all as I had episodes of hearing loss for a few days after. Probably a mix of irritation, clogged Eustachian tube and maybe allergies.

It looks like sea water spray was the most beneficial trick after cleaning
Guys, I used to do the same thing (almost). Used a product called Ceremol to loosen up earwax (which didn't really work) followed by blasting out the wax with water from a syringe. I used to wait until there was such wax build-up that I was almost deaf in that ear before performing this procedure (which is crazy when you think about it) because I didn't want to overdo it.

That is until I discovered ear picks (sometimes called ear curettes). They're rods with tiny spoons on the end of them whereby you can scoop out excess wax and I haven't head to do the dreaded syringing procedure since (plus I can remove wax gradually instead of waiting for a large build-up).

Of course you have to be careful when using the picks (be cautious when poking around in there) but as long as you do it gently and slowly you should be fine (and of course, do it yourself as only you can feel what's going on in there).
 
Well, report back.

My hearing test (yesterday), gave the same results as the one from 2012. Good news meaning that in 7 years, my hearing loss didn't changed. Another good news is the ENT gave me a form to reclaim money support (if I ever need hearing aids, those things are quite pricey!) from the government due to my job (music teacher).

She's not sure it'll be accepted but she will help me to appeal in case it's rejected.
 
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