Can the loudness of tinnitus be measured?
Yes and no. With the help of an audiogram one can measure how loud an individual will experience a certain sounds by playing with a distinct loudness for comparison. This is, however, not an objective measurement. Rather, this type of measurement is based on the somewhat based judgement of the individual itself. Nevertheless, if the individual is cooperative, then measurement can be reproduced within a very narrow range of deviation, and do give a good picture of the loudness a test person does actually experience. Such measurement have revealed that, interestingly, many tinnitus sufferers do actually record even minute changes in the loudness of their tinnitus, typically after sports or some from of physical strain. The measurable change in loudness will only be in the range of a few dB (i.e. hardly differentiable for normal people), but tinnitus sufferers will describe them as substantial. This underlines the sensitivity of people towards their tinnitus.
