It’s very common for people to experience tinnitus. Something like 20 million individuals regularly cope with persistent tinnitus so intense that it becomes burdensome. This doesn’t even count the more common forms of tinnitus, which for most individuals 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 might manifest as a persistent buzzing or ringing in the ears. Although hearing loss is often accompanied by tinnitus, there isn’t always a cause-and-effect connection between the two.
As a matter of fact, there are a substantial variety of types of tinnitus. And each one will call for a different treatment approach.
Tinnitus – exactly what is it?
Exactly what is tinnitus and what are its causes? The first thing to understand is that tinnitus comes in numerous forms and causes. The assorted causes of tinnitus will manifest with similar symptoms. 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, such as a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. In other instances, tinnitus might be caused by age-related hearing loss. Here are some of the most common types of tinnitus:
- Neurological tinnitus: Issues with the ear aren’t always the cause of tinnitus. In some cases, the underlying cause lies within the brain. If your baseline neurological functions are damaged by injury it can trigger neurological tinnitus. In other words, something has broken down 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 due to concussion, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and others. In some situations, neurological tinnitus may resolve as the brain heals. It may be irreversible in other circumstances.
- Subjective tinnitus: When only you can hear the sound of your tinnitus, which is really common, hearing specialists will talk about your condition as a subjective tinnitus. Lots of other forms of tinnitus also fall into this category. 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 the sound you’re hearing in your ears is a real, verifiable sound, it’s referred to as objective tinnitus. Objective tinnitus isn’t really as common as subjective tinnitus, but it still occurs. Typically, this means you’re dealing with 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 fairly constant. Both objective and subjective tinnitus have this attribute. However, somatic tinnitus is different. This form of tinnitus becomes more intense when you move around. Normally, somatic tinnitus will cause the symptoms to get worse when you move your head or neck.
Most of these forms of tinnitus are not necessarily mutually exclusive. For example, you may have neurological tinnitus and subjective tinnitus. In order for us to develop a treatment plan, we will first need to identify the underlying cause of your tinnitus.
Finding tinnitus support
You most likely won’t have to take any specific action if your tinnitus symptoms are intermittent. But your quality of life can be significantly impacted if your tinnitus symptoms are rather constant or keep returning. When that occurs, your best plan to get some relief is to call us for a consultation.
We have a number of different tinnitus management strategies we may try depending on the root cause of your symptoms. A few of these techniques can minimize the intensity of your symptoms making them less obvious. We may also utilize masking techniques to hide your symptoms.
Generally, there is no cure for tinnitus, although it can usually be effectively treated. 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 love.