Tinnitus and Airsickness?
 

Hello People!

To make a long story short...
I had an accident with my first hunting trip involving a shotgun blast without ear protection, so I had small "ringing in my ear, for soon 5 months now"

Anyhow, I've been in the aviation business for over 5 years now, without beeing to airsick, but lately after this incident I feel airsickness on more or less all flights now...

Do you think Tinnitus has something to do with the airsickness and do tinnitus heal it self with time? Any experience on the subject!!

It's not really annoying, just at bedtime etc..

Thank you!!

Tinnitus is often there for life and it seems to be aggravated by aspirin. Just one exposure to very high DB sound/pressure can cause it, but usually this takes much more than a few gunshots.

As far as a link between this and motion sickness, you are probably wrong, however you may have an inner ear infection that could account for the ringing and loss of balance. Chase the inner ear infection with your doctor.

Tinnitus and ear-related vertigo are caused by damage to different structures within the inner ear...but a truamatic event which damaged the sound sensing structures (cilia) could easily have damaged the semi-circular canals which provide attitude info to the brain. The celia and semi-circular canals are adjacent to each other.

It's true that a single gunshot should not cause any real damage...but that is for a gun held at arms length...if a 12 guage went off with the barrel near your ear, damage would seem likely to me.

If you're lucky, you may have incurred some damage to the eardrum, or the bone structures which connect the ear-drum to the tympanic membrane. Anything inside the tympanic membrane is harder to fix.

Sounds like you need to see a specialist asap. You should also contact an aviation medicine consultant to figure out how to deal with the FAA.

I got tinnitus back in 2004 when we were in an IED attack (loud noises) and I have not noticed any problems with vertigo or motion sickness. The ringing in my ears is not very loud, but it is constant.

Have you gone to a ENT yet?

First of all, thanks for great answers!
Well, I went to an ear specialist, he also told me that a single shotgun shot could be dangerous but unlikely, he told me he had shot 100 of shots without any problem, but also every "ear" is different.

He could not find anything wrong, I aslo did a hearing test with exellent hearing on both sides. He told me to ignore the tinnitus, but that' is easier said than done...

Regarding the airsickness, he thinks it's maybe psycological, since I worrie to much about the situation. He said thinking of airsickness can actually make you airsick...

Well, I got this week off, so I can relax a bit before doing all lot of up and downs again, I work with calibration of ILS systems, so that mean a lot of manuvering, and not a whole lot of straight and level.

Anyways! Thanks !
And you think the tinnitus will eventually go away, or is it forever? Strange stuff...

I have had tinnitus on and off in the past, it never seemed to last more than a week or two. I was a diver at the time, and I'm sure that had something to do with it. I have heard that you can get permanent tinnitus, so I guess it depends on the individual and the circumstances.

rickair7777 never feelt any nauses or airsick due to your tinnitus?

Nope, never did. I suspect mine was caused by ear squeeze while diving, which would be different from a high-decibel explosion. I never actually ruptured an eardrum either, just stretched them.

When you get airsick is it associated with vertigo or just nausea? What happens when you eat food? Also, do you get any headaches? One thing I heard of is pilots chewing to much gum actually swells the jaw muscles by the ear causing some of the mentioned symptoms. Not headaches though.