It’s really common for individuals to experience tinnitus. Tinnitus can become so overwhelming that it becomes a burden to live with for about 20 million people around the world. This doesn’t even count the more common types of tinnitus, which for most people can come and go without causing a major impact on their quality of life.
When you hear sounds in your ears that don’t have an outside source and nobody else can hear them, that’s tinnitus. This may be a ringing in the ears or a buzzing sound you can’t shake. Although hearing loss is frequently accompanied by tinnitus, there isn’t always a cause-and-effect connection between the two.
As a matter of fact, tinnitus comes in a number of forms. Managing these varieties of tinnitus will require different approaches.
What is tinnitus?
Exactly what is tinnitus and how is it caused? The first thing to recognize is that tinnitus comes in several forms and causes. Regardless of the specific cause, the symptoms will be similar. But distinguishing the cause can be essential to finding the best treatment strategy.
For some individuals, tinnitus is the result of a neurological issue, such as a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. In other circumstances, tinnitus may result from age-related hearing loss. The following are some other potential causes:
- Neurological tinnitus: Problems with the ear are not always the cause of tinnitus. Sometimes, the underlying cause lies within the brain. If your baseline neurological functions are weakened by injury it can trigger neurological tinnitus. In other words, something has gone wrong with the typical ways that your brain and ear communicate. The result is that you hear a phantom sound that may not be there. A stroke, concussion, or brain injury can all be the underlying causes of tinnitus, as well as others. In some situations, neurological tinnitus may go away as the brain heals. 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. This form of tinnitus includes many other forms of tinnitus also. 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 the sound you’re hearing in your ears is an actual, verifiable sound, it’s known as objective tinnitus. Objective tinnitus does occur, though it’s not as common as subjective forms. Pulsatile tinnitus, which is when you hear your heartbeat or pulse, is an example of this type 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. That’s true for both subjective and objective tinnitus. With somatic tinnitus though, things are a bit different. This is tinnitus that grows worse with movement. Normally, somatic tinnitus will cause the symptoms to become more intense when you move your head or neck.
Often, people will have more than one type of tinnitus at the same time. For instance, you might have neurological tinnitus and subjective tinnitus. Determining the cause of your symptoms can help your hearing specialist decide the best tinnitus treatment strategy for your symptoms.
Finding 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 hangs around or returns frequently, it could have real and significant impacts on your day-to-day life. When that occurs, your best plan to get some relief is to call us for a consultation.
After we identify the underlying cause of your symptoms, there are a few treatment methods we can use. Several therapies can make the sounds you’re hearing less evident. Other treatment solutions can mask the sound you’re hearing.
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. This will help you enjoy life again by moving your symptoms into the background where they can be more easily ignored.