It’s really common for people to experience tinnitus. Tinnitus can become so extreme that it becomes a burden to live with for about 20 million individuals worldwide. And there are also more common presentations of tinnitus which are a lot more mild and sporadic and are also easier to cope with.
Tinnitus happens when you hear a phantom sound, when you’re hearing a sound that nobody else can hear. It may manifest as a continual buzzing or ringing in the ears. Although hearing loss is frequently accompanied by tinnitus, there isn’t always a cause-and-effect connection between the two.
In fact, there are a significant variety of forms of tinnitus. And each one will call for a different approach to treatment.
What is tinnitus?
Exactly what is tinnitus and what are its causes? The first thing to understand is that tinnitus comes in several forms and causes. Regardless of the specific cause, the symptoms will be similar. But it’s still crucial to identify the cause in order to successfully treat the symptoms.
In some instances, concussions or other traumatic brain injuries or neurological issues can be the cause. In other circumstances, tinnitus may result from age-related hearing loss. The following are a few other potential causes:
- Neurological tinnitus: Issues with the ear aren’t always the cause of tinnitus. In some cases, the root cause lies within the brain. If your baseline neurological functions are impaired by injury it can activate neurological tinnitus. This means that the normal communication between your brain and ears isn’t functioning correctly. As a result, a phantom noise is heard which isn’t actually there. Neurological tinnitus can be caused by concussion, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and others. As the brain heals, neurological tinnitus will, in some situations, go away on its own. It might be permanent in other circumstances.
- 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 forms 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 lots of others.
- Objective tinnitus: When you have objective tinnitus, you’re hearing a real, verifiable, objective sound. Objective tinnitus isn’t quite as common as subjective tinnitus, but it still occurs. Typically, this means you’re dealing with something called pulsatile tinnitus, which happens when you’re hearing your heartbeat or circulatory system. Objective tinnitus causes those sounds to be unusually loud.
- Somatic tinnitus: Tinnitus sounds are often quite constant for many people coping with them. That’s true for both subjective and objective tinnitus. But, somatic tinnitus is different. This type of tinnitus becomes more extreme when you move around. Typically, somatic tinnitus is most susceptible to movement of the head or neck areas.
Frequently, individuals will have more than one type of tinnitus at the same time. For instance, you may have neurological tinnitus and subjective tinnitus. In order for us to develop a treatment plan, we will first need to determine the root cause of your tinnitus.
Getting assistance with your tinnitus
You probably won’t have to take any specific action if your tinnitus symptoms are intermittent. But your quality of life can be seriously impacted if your tinnitus symptoms are fairly constant or keep coming back. That’s when it’s especially important to speak with a hearing specialist to receive specialized care and find some relief from your tinnitus.
We have a number of different tinnitus management strategies we may try depending on the root cause of your symptoms. A few of these techniques can minimize the intensity of your symptoms making them less evident. We may also employ masking techniques to hide your symptoms.
Generally, there is no cure for tinnitus, although it can usually be effectively treated. We will work with you to formulate treatments that work for your symptoms. That way, you can more easily disregard the buzzing or ringing in your ears, and get back to the life you love.