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. This does not even reference the more common forms of tinnitus, which for most people can come and go without causing a major impact on their quality of life.
Tinnitus occurs when you hear a phantom noise, when you’re hearing a sound that nobody else can hear. This may be a ringing in the ears or a buzzing sound you can’t shake. Tinnitus is often related to hearing loss, but that doesn’t mean that one condition will automatically lead to the other.
As a matter of fact, there are a substantial variety of types of tinnitus. Managing these varieties of tinnitus will call for different approaches.
Tinnitus – exactly what is it?
So, what is tinnitus and where does it come from? Well, it’s significant to mention that not all kinds of tinnitus are the same. The various causes of tinnitus will present with similar symptoms. But identifying the cause can be essential to finding the correct treatment approach.
For some people, tinnitus is the outcome of a neurological problem, such as a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. Hearing loss due to age can be another factor that can trigger tinnitus. The following are a few other possible causes:
- Neurological tinnitus: Issues with the ear are not always the cause of tinnitus. The brain itself can sometimes be the source. Neurological tinnitus is caused by injury to or issues with your baseline neurological functions. This means that the typical communication between your brain and ears isn’t functioning correctly. The outcome is that you hear a phantom sound that might not be there. Neurological tinnitus can be caused by concussion, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and more. As the brain heals, neurological tinnitus will, in some situations, clear up on its own. For others, it may be lasting.
- 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 comprises many other forms of tinnitus also. 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 many others.
- Objective tinnitus: When you have objective tinnitus, you’re hearing a real, verifiable, objective sound. Objective tinnitus does happen, though it’s not as common as subjective forms. 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 abnormally loud.
- Somatic tinnitus: For many people, the sound they hear with tinnitus is fairly constant. That’s true for both subjective and objective tinnitus. But, somatic tinnitus is different. This is tinnitus that grows worse with movement. Typically, somatic tinnitus is most susceptible to movement of the head or neck areas.
Frequently, people will have more than one form of tinnitus simultaneously. You might have subjective tinnitus and neurological tinnitus together, for example. In order for us to formulate a treatment plan, we will first need to identify the root cause of your tinnitus.
Getting help with your tinnitus
You most likely won’t have to take any specific action if your tinnitus symptoms are sporadic. But if your tinnitus sticks around or comes back frequently, it might have real and significant impacts on your day-to-day life. That’s when it’s particularly important to speak with a hearing specialist to get specialized care and find some relief from your tinnitus.
We have several different tinnitus management methods we might try depending on the root cause of your symptoms. Several therapies can make the sounds you’re hearing less obvious. We may also employ masking techniques to hide your symptoms.
Tinnitus can’t generally be cured, but it can be effectively managed. 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.