Anxiety and disbelief over sudden hearing loss and tinnitus

About 20 years ago I developed very mild tinnitus. I habituated to it and rarely noticed it except in a quiet room. I was careful to protect my hearing so it never worsened. On May 9 this year I went to see my dentist to start the process of getting a crown on a molar. As soon as he began working with this drill. to remove the old tooth I experienced a very loud painful screeching noise in both ears. I stopped him and told him what was happening. I don't recall what he said but, stupidly, I allowed him to continue working despite the painful noise. I had to stop him several times because it was unbearable. I remember gripping my belt as he worked. At one point he offered me little rolls of cotton to put in my ears but that didn't help. It wasn't the noise coming into my ears externally I was hearing but noise from vibration being carried through my skull to my ears. It was so intensely loud I can't even explain. It sounded like the noise was coming from inside my ears. I don't know how long this went on. Ten minutes or so I guess. Why I allowed the dentist to continue is something I will never understand. Immediately after he was done I had extremely loud tinnitus. Within a couple of days I was having throbbing pain in both ears. I went to see my PCP who prescribed a steroid pack. About a week later I saw an ENT where I did a hearing test showing major loss of hearing in the high frequencies. The ENT continued the Prednisone for another week. I now have very noticeable hearing loss. It's like there's a "dead zone" in my hearing. I am having difficulty understanding what people say on the phone, on TV and even in person. Voices sound flat. If there's any background noise whatsoever it makes it even harder to understand. I've noticed many things just don't sound the same. At night the loss is very noticeable. There are environmental sounds from around the house and from outside I either barely hear now or don't hear at all, unimportant sounds that I used to just take for granted and ignore. Now it bothers me that I'm not hearing them. I heard a slow police siren in the distance a couple of nights ago. When the siren reached the highest pitch the sound disappeared completely and then I could hear it again as it was falling. The tinnitus is very loud. I'm having anxiety through the roof, difficulty concentrating, difficulty sleeping. I found a support forum for tinnitus where I learned about "tinnitus distress", of which I have every symptom. So at least I have a name for it, but in that forum they are focused more on tinnitus than on hearing loss. While the tinnitus is driving me crazy I am actually even more upset about losing my hearing. Before this happened I could very clearly. I did not have difficulty understanding people talking. It's just hard to believe and accept I lost so much hearing so quickly because of dental work. This didn't have to happen. I'm more angry at myself than at the dentist because I could have and should have stopped the whole thing. Why I allowed the dentist to continue I will never understand. I have to see a mental health professional because I'm not functioning very well. My life has kind of ground to a halt. All the normal problems I was focused on before have kind of flown out the window. I'm still able to work, but concentrating is very difficult. Sorry for the long post. I just wonder if this has happened to anyone else? The whole thing is unbelievable.