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Can tinnitus go away after a concert?

Often, yes. The temporary ringing and muffled hearing after a loud concert is called a temporary threshold shift, and in most people it resolves within hours to a couple of days. The hair cells in the cochlea have been transiently overworked but not destroyed, and they recover.

The worrying scenario is when the tinnitus does not fade. If you still hear ringing two weeks after a loud event, the temporary shift has likely become a permanent one, and you have probably done some lasting damage to the cochlea. The sooner you see an audiologist after that point the better — there is some evidence for steroids in the acute window, though it is limited.

The most important thing here is prevention. Repeated temporary threshold shifts do accumulate, even if each one resolves. Every loud concert without protection edges the audiogram down. Custom-moulded musician earplugs with a flat 15–20 dB attenuation are inexpensive, almost invisible and protect your hearing without ruining the music. They are the single best investment a music lover can make.

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