Is this tinnitus?

[turboswag]

over the past few weeks, i've had something happen to me 3 times now. in my left ear, my hearing will suddenly decrease and i'll hear a ringing noise. the ringing is very loud for about 30 seconds, then it dies down so that it's hardly noticeable. but my hearing in that ear will be worse for anywhere from 1 minute to 3 hours. i can still hear, it's just everything is quiet, as if it's blocked. it scares me because it comes on so quickly and i can't find a reason from it. it seems to happen at any time (i.e. not because of a loud noise). it always resolves after a few hours (2/3 times, it got better within minutes) but i'm worried because it's so sudden. it's happened every time in the same ear.

my hearing is good otherwise, and i wonder if this is tinnitus? i know your ears can sometimes ring for no reason, but what scares me is the decrease in hearing for a while. the only possible cause i can think of is that my wisdom teeth are coming in, as i'm 17, and maybe that is causing it. i know they make my ear hurt sometimes, and the bottom tooth on the same side as my affected ear is also very sore and swollen as of today.

anyone have anything similar? is it going to happen one day, only it won't get better?

[AstroJ]

I get this often in my right ear, exactly as you describe. I'm a musician and spent the last ten years playing loud gigs with no ear protection :doh: so I put it down to that.

It can be a bit freaky when the sound completely cuts out in one ear because it throws you off balance.

Do you play/listen to a lot of loud music? Go to gigs? Clubs?

[insideout20]

I have been getting this. I don't know what it is

[turboswag]

AstroJ, i use headphones a lot, but never much more than halfway. i'm pretty young still so i wouldn't think it would be from that. my hearing is good aside from this. the sound also doesn't cut out completely, just seems faded. it happened to me again today but this time only lasted for about a minute.