Tinnitus is an exceptionally prevalent medical condition. Tinnitus can become so overwhelming that it becomes a burden to live with for about 20 million individuals around the world. This doesn’t 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 sound, when you’re hearing a sound that nobody else can hear. It could manifest as a persistent buzzing or ringing in the ears. Although hearing loss is often associated with tinnitus, there isn’t always a cause-and-effect relationship between the two.
In fact, there are a significant variety of forms of tinnitus. And each one will require a different approach to treatment.
Tinnitus – exactly what is it?
So, what is tinnitus and where does it come from? Well, it’s important to mention that not all types of tinnitus are the same. The assorted causes of tinnitus will manifest with similar symptoms. But distinguishing the cause can be essential to finding the best treatment strategy.
In some instances, concussions or other traumatic brain injuries or neurological issues can be the cause. Hearing loss due to age can be another factor that can cause tinnitus. Here are some of the most common types of tinnitus:
- Neurological tinnitus: Issues with the ear are not always the cause of tinnitus. The brain itself can sometimes be the cause. Neurological tinnitus is caused by injury to or issues with your baseline neurological functions. In other words, something has broken down with the typical ways that your brain and ear communicate. As a result, a phantom noise 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. In some situations, neurological tinnitus may resolve as the brain heals. For others, it may be permanent.
- Subjective tinnitus: When only you can hear the sound of your tinnitus, which is quite common, hearing specialists will refer to your condition as a subjective tinnitus. Lots of other types of tinnitus also fall into this category. Neurological tinnitus, for instance, is often 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: With objective tinnitus, you’re hearing a real, verifiable, objective sound. Objective tinnitus isn’t really as common as subjective tinnitus, but it still happens. Typically, this means you’re experiencing something called pulsatile tinnitus, which happens when you’re hearing your heartbeat or circulatory system. Objective tinnitus causes those sounds to be abnormally loud.
- Somatic tinnitus: For many people, the sound they hear with tinnitus is relatively 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. Usually, somatic tinnitus will cause the symptoms to become more intense when you move your head or neck.
The majority of these types of tinnitus are not necessarily mutually exclusive. You may have subjective tinnitus and neurological tinnitus at the same time, for example. In order for us to put together a treatment plan, we will first need to determine the root cause of your tinnitus.
Getting assistance with your tinnitus
If your tinnitus is here one minute and gone the next, you most likely don’t have to do anything about it. But if your tinnitus sticks around or comes back frequently, it may have real and serious impacts on your everyday life. That’s when it’s especially important to speak with a hearing specialist to receive specialized care and find some tinnitus relief.
After we determine the underlying cause of your symptoms, there are a few treatment methods we can employ. Several treatments can make the sounds you’re hearing less evident. We might also utilize masking techniques to hide your symptoms.
Tinnitus can’t generally be cured, but it can be successfully 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.