I’ve had 2 visits with ENT and basically got told both times, “are you sure you have tinnitus” and been told they don’t want to see me again. I get it’s a good thing that I have nothing wrong with my ears but I’ve been offered no support and yet what was worse was being treated as a liar, the 2nd appointment he even laughed at me as I said my son heard something and described my tinnitus noise, he said it’s impossible unless your son is a super hero! Never felt so humiliated. Oh also I was told I’m not a candidate for hearing aids, but in the letter he wrote I turned hearing aids down!
this was end of October, it’s taken me this long to write it down as it upset me so much.
long covid sucks and tinnitus came because of it, what’s my next move?
feeling really defeated and not yet been able to chat with my gp either.
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Molly108
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Molly, I'm so sorry you have had such an appalling treatment by the ENT doctor. If I were you I would report his behaviour. First to the hospital. All hospitals have a complaints line, then I would report him up the chain. If you look online there is a way of doing it, I think it's the CQC. Please report him, so he doesn't do that to someone else. Also the hospital will probably offer you another appointment with another ENT and hopefully, you will be referred to audiology.
If you don't mind me asking, where are you in the country?
I’m in Wiltshire. I saw 2 different ENT’s consultant and had to chase both appointments as they were a year apart. It’s coming up to 2yrs of having T now.
Hi, sorry to hear you are having a tough time with your ENT they sound really poor. One thing which may help is the National Institute of Health Care and Excellence (NICE) guidelines on T (nice.org.uk/guidance/ng155) which ALL clinicians should be following, this is a lengthy document so have a look at this flowchart in the supporting document section (nice.org.uk/guidance/ng155/... which shows your GP should be helping you get a MANAGEMENT PLAN in place for your T, if they are unable to do this then have them refer to audiology/ENT who should be able to help you with the management plan. Often the ENT will ensure there is nothing sinister wrong and it can fall to an audiologist to help you put a management plan in place. If your ENT has misrepresented you in their letter then you should try and get this corrected to ensure it does not hinder any future support. Hope this helps in some small way. Stay safe
I understand it is possible for other people to hear your tinnitus - it is called objective tinnitus, as opposed to subjective tinnitus which only you can hear. My guess is that it would be caused by some kind of mechanical means that generates sound waves that find their way out of your body, perhaps a form of pulsatile tinnitus or muscle spasm - if so, there might be a periodic/pulsating nature to the sound. I had dismissive experiences with an ENT consultant in an NHS hospital too. In the end, I paid for a private consultation, which was worth the £200 for a 45-minute appointment just to talk things over with someone in the know.
this is my understanding. I am with a wonderful online group who clarified about objective tinnitus, the day my son heard it I was getting 2/3 noises all at once and that lasted a few days. Not had it again. But for him to laugh and say it’s impossible!! He also had 2 students in the room!
Hi Molly108 So very sorry. It goes to show how little some ENT docs know. As Fridays_Child_62 says there is a type of T that can be heard externally. I can't believe he doesn't know. Even so whether he knows or not he shouldn't have laughed at you. It's very unkind. Be brave. Ask for a second opinion - and take one of your sons with you next time. Strength in numbers.
I will preface what I'm saying by being clear that not all ENT surgeons behave in this way - but I would be remiss if I didn't say that the BTA receives a number of similar descriptions of surgeons/consultants with less than optimal patient care skills every day, detailing appointments much like the one described by Molly.
Surgeons can seem to lack empathy and the issues and emotions inherent in tinnitus don't always make a good fit for their skillset.
My feeling would be that most people with tinnitus would be better off seeing an audiology department, which frequently has more direct experience of the conditions which may be causing tinnitus and access to other sources of support who can help people who are troubled by the condition.
Just my two pence on this chilly December morning. 😄 Hope everyone is as warm and comfortable out there as they can be today.
I completely agree! I know of good ent’s through the tinnitus group I’m on, just sadly no where near me. I asked to see audiology and he dismissed this too telling me it’ll go away if I don’t stress about it. Nothing mechanical wrong and I’m thankful for that. I will see if my gp can refer me to audiology and see one who specialises in Tinnitus.
I agree that the Audiology department may be a better port of call for many tinnitus sufferers. One thing the NHS consultant did for me was refer me to the hospital's Tinnitus Clinic, run by the Audiology department. This was a much better experience than the ENT department. I got about an hour to talk with an audiologist who had excellent patient handling skills. And they also phoned me up a few weeks later to see how I was getting on.
I'm going to say that any offer of helping people to manage their tinnitus is something to follow up, no matter whether that's in a physical location, online or delivered some other way.
Oh my goodness, I'm so so sorry you went through all this. I can empathise. My last ENT appt the "clinician" said "well, my hearings worse than yours" at the results of my test, and never even sent them to me or my GP! He also wrote something akin to "it's in her perception of what she thinks is tinnitus. She thinks it's related to her autoimmune diseases or something". and that was that, asked to leave. Truly unprofessional to say the least, as was yours, and just dire treatment you received (or, rather, didn't).
Read up all you can about the link to tinnitus with Covid - there will no doubt be medical research papers on the web, and anything else you can find with the words you would like to see in it. Them, armed with your info, see your GP again, and ask for a second opinion.
I have to say, my tinnitus has been decades long, and for the past year increasingly insanely worse, and then two months ago I woke up with something called Pulsatile Tinnitus - so have been rerefered for urgent check. I have had two one on one video chats with the Tinnitus Specialist and she basically said, let's face it, we need to do things to zone out of it, which I have done for so long now, but it is actually unbearably loud and multi-faceted so I'm hoping to get some hearing aids.
Don't give up - the more you ask, I hope, the more likely you will get help. I take it they looked inside your ears? Maybe you need an MRI?
Anyway, please read up.. it always helps to try and understand, of course.
thank you, I’m going to call my gp Monday hoping for a consultation appointment as will be longer so therefore chat properly rather than a quick 2/5 min call.
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