It’s very common for people to experience tinnitus. Something like 20 million individuals regularly suffer from chronic tinnitus so severe that it becomes burdensome. This doesn’t even count the more common forms of tinnitus, which for most people can come and go without causing a huge impact on their quality of life.
When you hear noises in your ears that don’t have an external source and no one else can hear them, that’s tinnitus. This may be a ringing in the ears or a buzzing sound you can’t get rid of. Although hearing loss is often accompanied by tinnitus, there isn’t always a cause-and-effect relationship between the two.
As a matter of fact, tinnitus comes in a number of forms. And each one will require a different treatment approach.
Tinnitus – exactly what is it?
Exactly what is tinnitus and what are its causes? Well, it’s significant to mention that not all kinds of tinnitus are the same. Regardless of the specific cause, the symptoms will be similar. But it’s still essential to determine the cause in order to effectively treat the symptoms.
For some individuals, tinnitus is the outcome of a neurological issue, including a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. Hearing loss due to age can be another factor that can cause tinnitus. Here are some of the most prevalent types of tinnitus:
- Neurological tinnitus: Problems with the ear are not always the cause of tinnitus. Sometimes, the underlying cause lies within the brain. Neurological tinnitus is a result of injury to or problems with your baseline neurological functions. In other words, something has gone wrong with the typical ways that your brain and ear interact. The outcome is that you hear a phantom sound that might not be there. A stroke, concussion, or brain injury can all be the underlying sources of tinnitus, as well as others. As the brain heals, neurological tinnitus will, in some cases, clear up on its own. For others, it could be permanent.
- Subjective tinnitus: With subjective tinnitus, the sound you’re hearing is phantom and doesn’t objectively exist and only you can hear it. Lots of other types of tinnitus also fall into this category. Neurological tinnitus, for example, is frequently also subjective tinnitus. There are a large number of sounds that can manifest with subjective tinnitus, including buzzing, ringing, screeching, roaring, thumping, and many others.
- Objective tinnitus: When you have objective tinnitus, you’re hearing a real, verifiable, objective sound. Objective tinnitus is not really as common as subjective tinnitus, but it still occurs. Pulsatile tinnitus, which is when you hear your heartbeat or pulse, is an illustration of this form of tinnitus. For individuals with objective tinnitus, that pulsing sound typically seems louder than it should.
- Somatic tinnitus: For many people, the sound they hear with tinnitus is fairly constant. Both objective and subjective tinnitus have this attribute. But, somatic tinnitus is different. This is tinnitus that grows worse with movement. Usually, somatic tinnitus will cause the symptoms to get worse when you move your head or neck.
The majority of these types of tinnitus are not necessarily mutually exclusive. You might have subjective tinnitus and neurological tinnitus together, for instance. In order for us to develop a treatment plan, we will first need to determine the underlying cause of your tinnitus.
Getting tinnitus assistance
If your tinnitus is here this minute and gone the next, you most likely don’t have to do anything about it. But if your tinnitus sticks around or comes back frequently, it could have real and severe impacts on your day-to-day life. That’s when it’s particularly important to speak with a hearing specialist to receive specialized care and find some tinnitus relief.
After we determine the root cause of your symptoms, there are a few treatment methods we can use. A few of these strategies can decrease the severity of your symptoms making them less obvious. Other treatment solutions can mask the sound you’re hearing.
Generally, there is no cure for tinnitus, although it can usually be effectively treated. We will work with you to create treatments that work for your symptoms. That way, you can more easily ignore the buzzing or ringing in your ears, and get back to the life you enjoy.