It’s really common for individuals to experience tinnitus. Something like 20 million individuals routinely cope with persistent tinnitus so severe that it becomes burdensome. And there are also more common presentations of tinnitus which are much more mild and intermittent and are also easier to deal with.
Tinnitus happens when you hear a phantom sound, when you’re hearing a sound that no one else can hear. It could manifest as a continual buzzing or ringing in the ears. Tinnitus is often linked to hearing loss, but that doesn’t mean that one condition will automatically result in the other.
As a matter of fact, tinnitus comes in a number of forms. Dealing with these varieties of tinnitus will require different approaches.
What is tinnitus?
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 assorted causes of tinnitus will manifest with similar symptoms. But determining the cause can be essential to finding the correct treatment approach.
For some individuals, tinnitus is the outcome of a neurological issue, like a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. Hearing loss due to age can be another aspect that can cause tinnitus. The following are a few other potential causes:
- Neurological tinnitus: Issues with the ear aren’t always the cause of tinnitus. Sometimes, the underlying cause lies within the brain. If your baseline neurological functions are impaired by injury it can activate neurological tinnitus. In other words, something has gone wrong with the normal ways that your brain and ear interact. The result is that you hear a phantom sound that might not be there. Neurological tinnitus can be a result of concussion, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and more. In some situations, neurological tinnitus may go away as the brain heals. It might be permanent in other circumstances.
- Subjective tinnitus: When you’re the only one who can hear the sound of your tinnitus, which is very common, hearing specialists will refer to your condition as a subjective tinnitus. Lots of other forms of tinnitus also fall into this category. 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 many others.
- Objective tinnitus: When the sound you’re hearing in your ears is a real, verifiable sound, it’s referred to as objective tinnitus. 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 example of this type of tinnitus. For individuals with objective tinnitus, that pulsing sound usually seems louder than it should.
- Somatic tinnitus: Tinnitus sounds are frequently quite constant for many individuals coping with them. 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 susceptible to movement of the head or neck areas.
Frequently, people will have more than one type of tinnitus at the same time. You may have subjective tinnitus and neurological tinnitus together, for example. In order for us to put together a treatment plan, we will first need to identify the underlying cause of your tinnitus.
Getting tinnitus support
If your tinnitus is here this minute and gone the next, you probably don’t have to do anything about it. But if your tinnitus hangs around or comes back frequently, it may 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 tinnitus relief.
We have a number of different tinnitus management strategies we might try depending on the root cause of your symptoms. A few of these techniques can decrease the severity of your symptoms making them less apparent. We may also utilize masking techniques to hide your symptoms.
Tinnitus can’t usually be cured, but it can be successfully managed. 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 love.