It’s very common for people to experience tinnitus. Something like 20 million individuals regularly suffer from persistent tinnitus so severe that it becomes burdensome. This does not even reference the more common forms of tinnitus, which for most people can come and go without causing a huge impact on their quality of life.
Tinnitus happens when you hear a phantom noise, when you’re hearing a sound that no one else can hear. This may be a ringing in the ears or a buzzing sound you can’t get rid of. Tinnitus is frequently associated with hearing loss, but that doesn’t mean that one condition will immediately lead to the other.
As a matter of fact, there are a significant variety of types 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 recognize is that tinnitus comes in several forms and causes. The various causes of tinnitus will manifest with similar symptoms. But it’s still essential to identify the cause in order to successfully manage the symptoms.
For some people, tinnitus is the result of a neurological problem, including a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. In other instances, tinnitus may result from age-related hearing loss. The following are some other potential causes:
- Neurological tinnitus: Issues with the ear aren’t always the cause of tinnitus. The brain itself can sometimes be the source. If your baseline neurological functions are damaged by injury it can trigger neurological tinnitus. In other words, something has broken down with the typical ways that your brain and ear interact. As a result, a phantom sound is heard which isn’t really there. Neurological tinnitus can be caused by concussion, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and more. As the brain heals, neurological tinnitus will, in some instances, clear up on its own. For others, it may be permanent.
- Subjective tinnitus: With subjective tinnitus, the sound you’re hearing is phantom and doesn’t objectively exist and no one else can hear it. Lots of other types of tinnitus also fall into this category. For instance, neurological tinnitus can also be 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 referred to as objective tinnitus. Objective tinnitus does occur, though it’s not as common as subjective types. Typically, this means you’re experiencing something called pulsatile tinnitus, which happens when you’re hearing your pulse or circulatory system. For those with objective tinnitus, that pulsing sound typically seems louder than it ought to.
- Somatic tinnitus: For many individuals, 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 gets worse with movement. Typically, somatic tinnitus is most sensitive to movement of the head or neck areas.
Most of these forms of tinnitus aren’t generally mutually exclusive. You may have subjective tinnitus and neurological tinnitus together, for example. In order for us to develop a treatment plan, we will first need to determine the underlying cause of your tinnitus.
Getting help with your tinnitus
If your tinnitus is here this minute and gone the next, you most likely don’t need to do anything about it. But if your tinnitus hangs around or comes back frequently, it may have real and significant impacts on your everyday life. That’s when it’s especially important to talk to a hearing specialist to receive specialized care and find some tinnitus relief.
After we identify the root cause of your symptoms, there are a number of treatment strategies we can utilize. Several treatments can make the sounds you’re hearing less obvious. Other treatment options can mask the sound you’re hearing.
Generally, there’s no cure for tinnitus, although 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 enjoy.