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 people worldwide. And there are also more common presentations of tinnitus which are a lot more mild and intermittent and are also easier to deal with.
Tinnitus happens when you hear a phantom noise, when you’re hearing a sound that no one else can hear. It may manifest as a persistent buzzing or ringing in the ears. Although hearing loss is frequently associated with tinnitus, there isn’t necessarily a cause-and-effect connection between the two.
As a matter of fact, there are a significant variety of types of tinnitus. And each one will require a different treatment approach.
What is tinnitus?
So, what is tinnitus and where does it come from? 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 determining the cause can be crucial to identifying the correct treatment approach.
In some instances, concussions or other traumatic brain injuries or neurological problems can be the cause. In other instances, tinnitus may result from age-related hearing loss. The following are a few other possible causes:
- Neurological tinnitus: Tinnitus is not always caused by ear problems. The brain itself can sometimes be the cause. If your baseline neurological functions are damaged by injury it can trigger neurological tinnitus. This means that the standard communication between your brain and ears isn’t working correctly. As a result, a phantom sound is heard which isn’t really there. Neurological tinnitus can be due to concussion, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and more. As the brain heals, neurological tinnitus will, in some cases, go away on its own. It might be irreversible in other instances.
- Subjective tinnitus: With subjective tinnitus, the sound you’re hearing is phantom and has no external source and no one else can hear it. This form of tinnitus includes many other forms of tinnitus as well. Neurological tinnitus, for instance, 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 the sound you’re hearing in your ears is a real, verifiable sound, it’s known as objective tinnitus. Objective tinnitus does occur, though it’s not as common as subjective types. Pulsatile tinnitus, which is when you hear your heartbeat or pulse, is an illustration of this type of tinnitus. Objective tinnitus causes those sounds to be unusually loud.
- Somatic tinnitus: For many people, the sound they hear with tinnitus is relatively constant. That’s true for both subjective and objective tinnitus. 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.
Most of these forms of tinnitus aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. For instance, you might have neurological tinnitus and subjective tinnitus. Identifying the cause of your symptoms can help your hearing specialist choose the best tinnitus treatment options for your symptoms.
Getting assistance with your tinnitus
If your tinnitus is here one minute and gone the next, you likely don’t need to do anything about it. But your quality of life can be significantly impacted if your tinnitus symptoms are rather constant or keep coming back. When that occurs, your best plan to get some relief is to call us for a consultation.
We have a few different tinnitus management strategies we might try depending on the underlying cause of your symptoms. A few of these strategies can minimize the intensity of your symptoms making them less obvious. Other treatment options can mask the sound you’re hearing.
Generally, there’s no cure for tinnitus, though it can usually be effectively managed. We will work with you to create 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.