Tinnitus is an incredibly common medical condition. Something like 20 million individuals regularly cope with persistent tinnitus so severe that it becomes burdensome. And there are also more prevalent presentations of tinnitus which are much more mild and sporadic and are also easier to deal with.
When you hear sounds in your ears that don’t have an external source and no one else can hear them, that’s tinnitus. This might be a ringing in the ears or a buzzing sound you can’t shake. Although hearing loss is frequently associated with tinnitus, there isn’t necessarily a cause-and-effect relationship between the two.
In fact, there are a substantial variety of forms of tinnitus. Treating these varieties of tinnitus will require different approaches.
Tinnitus – exactly what is it?
Exactly what is tinnitus and how is it caused? The first thing to understand is that tinnitus comes in numerous forms and causes. Regardless of the particular cause, the symptoms will be similar. But it’s still crucial to determine the cause in order to effectively treat the symptoms.
For some individuals, tinnitus is the outcome of a neurological issue, like a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. Hearing loss related to age can be another factor that can cause tinnitus. Here are a few of the most common types of tinnitus:
- Neurological tinnitus: Tinnitus isn’t always caused by ear issues. 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 gone wrong with the normal ways that your brain and ear interact. As a result, a phantom sound is heard which isn’t actually there. A stroke, concussion, or brain injury can all be the underlying causes of tinnitus, as well as others. As the brain heals, neurological tinnitus will, in some instances, go away on its own. It may be irreversible in other instances.
- Subjective tinnitus: With subjective tinnitus, the sound you’re hearing is phantom and has no external source and only you can hear it. This type of tinnitus comprises many other types of tinnitus also. For example, 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 many others.
- Objective tinnitus: When you have objective tinnitus, you’re hearing a real, verifiable, objective sound. Objective tinnitus is not quite as common as subjective tinnitus, but it still occurs. 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 individuals, the sound they hear with tinnitus is fairly constant. Both objective and subjective tinnitus have this attribute. 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.
Often, people will have more than one type of tinnitus simultaneously. For instance, you may 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.
Getting tinnitus assistance
If your tinnitus is here this minute and gone the next, you probably don’t have to do anything about it. But your quality of life can be significantly impacted if your tinnitus symptoms are fairly constant or keep coming back. When that happens, 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 root cause of your symptoms. A few of these strategies can decrease the intensity of your symptoms making them less obvious. Other treatment options can mask the sound you’re hearing.
Generally, there is no cure for tinnitus, although it can usually be successfully treated. We will help you personalize the best treatment for your particular situation. That way, you can more easily ignore the buzzing or ringing in your ears, and get back to the life you enjoy.