Hi Marakanetz. I recognize your symptoms. I have a hearing impairment myself, mostly caused by bad genes on both sides of my family. At least it's isolated primarily to one ear in my case. I've talked to audiologists, family doctors and medical specialists to discuss the issue. Also, my brother in law is an ear, nose, throat specialist, so he's been a useful source of information too. The news I might pass on to you is likely to be somewhat pessimistic.
Visit your general practitioner/family doctor first. If you're really lucky, it may be something like a chronic middle ear infection which can be cleared up. Another possiblity is that you have an ear wax buildup to the point where your ear canal is plugged. If it is this, your ear canal can be flushed out and it will be back to normal. Although if you're prone to wax buildup, it's likely to occur again with time so ear flushing will be a regular event every couple of years. Flushing only takes about thirty seconds. The doctor simply uses a large syringe to jet some water into your ear to clean it out. It's gross what comes out.
If it isn't an infection or wax buildup, there are two general categories of hearing loss.
The first is mechanical. Basically, the small bones in your middle ear become more rigid and don't respond to air borne vibrations as easily. This usually occurs with age. It's a "normal" ageing process. This can be corrected by surgery. What they do is bypass the bones by inserting a small wire. The wire mechanically transmits the sound instead of the bones. This is an effective operation, but it is a delicate procedure. There is a chance that the operation will fail and you might lose hearing completely in the operated ear.
The second reason for hearing loss is nerve damage. This is not reversable, at least not until genetic engineering gets to the point where we can manipulate and regenerate nerve cells. A hearing aid is all you can do for this, and even then, only to the extent that you have some nerves left to transmit what the hearing aid picks up.
Hearing loss sneaks up on you. It usually starts in the teenage years, then a few years later, all of a sudden you notice you have a problem. The damage is already done. You tend to lose high frequencies first. This has the effect of making conversations and TV viewing difficult. Without the higher frequencies, voices become more muffled. You compensate by turning up the volume, or leaning closer to the person wyou're speaking with. You also start to say "Pardon Me" a lot, asking people to repeat themselves.
You also start to lose the ability to locate the source of sounds. Our brain use time differences in the arrival of sounds to our two ears to help to locate a sound producing object in space. As our hearing deteriorates, the brain isn't getting the information from our ears. Thus it has a harder time locating the source of a sound. That's why you need to be looking at somebody in order to identify the source of the sound. You need your eyes to locate what your ears cannot.
If you go to live rock concerts, consider ear plugs, or just don't go. If you can feel the music vibrating through your feet, it's too loud for your ears. Think of those little bones in your ears slamming against each other. Even if you can't feel the vibrations in other parts of your body, if your ears tell you it's too loud, believe what your body is telling you. If your ears ring after you leave the room, the music was too loud to be safe. If you hear ringing the next day, you have suffered hearing damage. Maybe not a lot if it was just once, but it accumulates. It will catch up with you.
Ncarv, from you post above. Bad news man. It's starting for you. Your body's warning you.
You asked if there's anything you can do to tame the music. Yes, ...earplugs. Either that or turn it down. If you can't turn it down because it's a concert, don't go. Buy the video so you can control the volume. Sorry. It's not a joke.
Please see your doctor.
