Ringing in ears and sensitivity to sound?

[Ezmar]

You can get used to tinnitus if it's permanent, but obviously that's not a good idea. I have permanent tinnitus in my left ear due to an infection I had 8-9 years ago. I don't really notice it anymore, but I still can't hear things like speech very well if they're going into my left ear. The consonants get eaten up by the ringing. I used to have additional hearing loss in the ear as well, but that backed off quite a bit, and now it's just a little bit.

Man, when science cones up with a cure for tinnitus, and they restore my hearing to normal, the silence would probably seem really strange. :P

[Rip Topaz]

I took a spike through my in ears at church last year when someone knocked into the network cable of the Aviom I was using.

My hearing has been a mess since. I've got a distortion that happens any time the volume gets too loud, and the ringing never stops. My doctor said it could take years to heal, or may never heal.

Protect your ears AT ALL COSTS!! If you can't hear, how are you gonna play??

[warnergt]

Protect your hearing.
Few people realize how important it is until they lose it.

[bolophonic]

I have friends who have toured relentlessly without earplugs for the last 20 years and they are all half deaf. My audiologist said that he got tinnitus from seeing Black Sabbath. I wear earplugs anytime I am around amplifiers and whenever I have to spend time around loud machinery. Good luck... apparently a significant percentage of human beings develop tinnitus without any damage from loud noises. I have a very slight case of it, but it is generally pretty innocuous.