What is Tinnitus and How To Prevent It?

Tinnitus is a problem that occurs with an external source of sound in the head. It’s a ringing sound for many, while it’s whistling, buzzing, chirping, hissing, moaning, roaring, or even shrieking for others. The sound may seem to originate from one or both ears, inside the head, or from a distance. It can be steady or pulsating, constant or intermittent.

After being exposed to thunderous noise, almost everyone has had tinnitus for a short time. For example, attending a loud concert can trigger tinnitus which is short-lived. Some medicines (especially aspirin and other high-dose, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) may cause tinnitus to disappear when the drug is discontinued. It is known as chronic tinnitus if it lasts more than six months. This condition affects as many as 50 to 60 million people in the United States; it is particularly common in people over 55 years of age and is strongly associated with hearing loss.

The majority of tinnitus is subjective, meaning you can only hear the noise. But sometimes it’s objective, which means somebody else can listen to it, too. For example, if you have a heart murmur, with every heartbeat, you may hear a whooshing sound; your clinician may listen to that sound through a stethoscope, too. Inside the ear, some people hear their heartbeat-a phenomenon called pulsatile tinnitus. It is more likely to occur in older people because blood flow in arteries whose walls have stiffened with age tends to be more turbulent. When you are lying in bed, and there are fewer external sounds to mask the tinnitus, pulsatile tinnitus may become more noticeable at night.

Common Causes Behind Tinnitus

Tinnitus occurs primarily because of damage to the inner ear. Any injury to the inner ear can cause tinnitus to the nerves in the ear, which transmits random sound signals to the brain.

Some other tinnitus-causing conditions include:

• Long-lasting exposure to loud sounds
• Hearing disability linked to age
• Excessive ear wax deposition or ear blockage
• Abnormal bone growth or bone stiffening in the middle ear
• Tumors and head or neck injuries
• Increase in intra ear pressure
• Problems with the joints on the front of the ears (temporary mandibular joints)
• Benign tumor growth in the inner ear

How Many Types Of Tinnitus Are There?

There are two types of tinnitus:

Subjective Tinnitus

The continuous humming or ringing sound can only be heard by the patient and not by others (even doctors are unable to attend). Brain-related responses to hearing loss primarily cause this tinnitus. This is the most common form in tinnitus, of which approximately 99 percent of cases identified of tinnitus are subjective.

Objective Tinnitus

The doctor can hear the persistent ringing sound during a patient’s physical examination. An infection can cause this ringing with the middle ear or by spontaneous and constant muscle contractions. This form of tinnitus occurs very rarely and is seen in approximately 1 percent of all cases of tinnitus.

In most cases, the involvement of any or more of the following causes raises the risk of tinnitus. It lists the main risk factors:

• Age
• Main underlying illnesses such as high blood pressure
• Loud noise exposure, at work or home
• Drop-in hearing
• Internal ear damage

How Can Tinnitus Be Diagnosed?

Let us have a look at how your ENT specialist can diagnose your tinnitus problem:

Physical examination: Involves descriptions of the present medical condition, its symptoms, and physical inspection of the area of the head, neck, and ear to assess any anomalies that may result in tinnitus.

Hearing Tests or Audiometry: This examination is conducted to assess the experience of hearing of the patient, using an audiometer to transmit sounds of various frequencies into one ear. This test aims at testing the patients’ interpretation of different sounds.

Otoscopy: The procedure is conducted using an otoscope to evaluate the structures in the middle ear and the inner ear, in particular the eardrum.

Cranial Nerves Examination: The test helps to detect any perturbations in the functioning of the vestibule-cochlear nerves.

Relevant Movement Test: The test helps to rule out any tinnitus-causing underlying disorders. During this exam, the patient is asked to firmly clench his teeth or shift his head, legs, and neck to determine the severity of the tinnitus symptoms.

Blood tests: The tests help to diagnose primary disorders such as thyroid or other hormone problems, which contribute to tinnitus.

Computerized tomography scans (CT ) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans: These brain scans are conducted to search for any irregular tissue or tumor development in the brain.

What Are The Treatments Of Tinnitus?

Masking devices: These devices either suppress or mask the tinnitus sounds by producing a continuous low tone in the patients’ ears. It is useful because the repetitive ringing sound is more agonizing than a continuous low-pitch manner. Patients may undergo tinnitus impact reduction for a shorter period, often after the masks have been removed.

Hearing aids or cochlear implants can help to relieve tinnitus.

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy: Retraining the brain is a treatment for preventing tinnitus thought. Psychological therapy and masking devices are used to relieve concern over tinnitus from the patient.

Biofeedback and neurofeedback are useful for the detection of tinnitus through daily visual feedback. Then the patient is prepared to avoid activities or body functions that cause these tinnitus symptoms.

Medications: Medications only help but do not relieve the symptoms. Some of the medicines like alprazolam are, to some degree, beneficial.

Other treatment strategies include cleaning out any wax in the face, treating underlying problems either with medications or by surgery. Often useful for the treatment of tinnitus are acupuncture and stimulation of the acoustic (auditory nerve).

How Can You Prevent Tinnitus?

The best way to stop tinnitus is to prevent damage to the inner ear. Precautions for avoiding tinnitus include:

• Wearing earplugs or masks to shield from noisy noises at work
• Protecting from everyday noises like noise from a hairdryer or air-cooler at home
• Protecting against hearing loss during the aging phase
• Reducing blood pressure and anxiety
• Arse stress management strategies, such as yoga
• Avoiding significant doses of such drugs, such as aspirin

Tinnitus is not a life-threatening disorder, but early diagnosis and treatment must avoid psychological severe problems such as anxiety or depression.

Conclusion

This was all you need to know about tinnitus. It is not a disease but a common problem that you can get rid of quickly. If you ever feel that you are suffering from tinnitus, then you must get in touch with your ENT specialist and get rid of your problems.