It’s very common for individuals to experience tinnitus. Around 20 million people routinely suffer from persistent tinnitus so severe that it becomes burdensome. And there are also more prevalent presentations of tinnitus which are much more mild and intermittent and are also easier to cope with.
Tinnitus happens when you hear a phantom noise, when you’re hearing a sound that no one else can hear. This could be a ringing in the ears or a buzzing sound you can’t shake. Tinnitus is frequently linked to hearing loss, but that doesn’t mean that one condition will automatically result in the other.
As a matter of fact, there are a substantial variety of types of tinnitus. Dealing with these varieties of tinnitus will call for different approaches.
What is tinnitus?
Exactly what is tinnitus and what are its causes? The first thing to understand is that tinnitus comes in a number of types and causes. Regardless of the specific cause, the symptoms will be similar. But it’s still crucial to determine the cause in order to successfully manage the symptoms.
For some individuals, tinnitus is the result of a neurological problem, such as a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. In other instances, tinnitus may be caused by age-related hearing loss. The following are a few other potential causes:
- Neurological tinnitus: Issues with the ear are not always the cause of tinnitus. The brain itself can sometimes be the cause. Neurological tinnitus is a result of injury to or problems with your baseline neurological functions. This means that the standard communication between your brain and ears isn’t working correctly. As a result, a phantom noise is heard which isn’t really there. A stroke, concussion, or brain injury can all be the underlying sources of tinnitus, as well as others. In some situations, neurological tinnitus may resolve as the brain heals. For others, it may be permanent.
- Subjective tinnitus: With subjective tinnitus, the sound you’re hearing is phantom and has no external source and only you can hear it. Lots of other types of tinnitus also fall into this category. Neurological tinnitus, for instance, is often 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. Both objective and subjective tinnitus have this attribute. However, somatic tinnitus is different. This is tinnitus that grows worse with movement. Typically, somatic tinnitus is most sensitive to movement of the head or neck areas.
Often, people will have more than one form of tinnitus at the same time. For example, you might have neurological tinnitus and subjective tinnitus. In order for us to formulate a treatment plan, we will first need to identify the root cause of your tinnitus.
Getting tinnitus assistance
You probably won’t need to take any specific action if your tinnitus symptoms are sporadic. But your quality of life can be seriously impacted if your tinnitus symptoms are fairly constant or keep returning. When that happens, your best plan to get some relief is to call us for a consultation.
We have a few different tinnitus management methods we may try depending on the underlying cause of your symptoms. Several treatments can make the sounds you’re hearing less noticeable. Other treatment solutions can mask the sound you’re hearing.
Generally, there is no cure for tinnitus, though it can usually be successfully treated. We will work with you to create treatments that work for your symptoms. This will help you enjoy life again by moving your symptoms into the background where they can be more easily ignored.