Ringing in Ear Symptoms: Tinnitus – Causes and Solutions
What causes ringing in the ears?. Tinnitus is a common condition that can have various underlying causes, from age-related hearing loss to certain medications. Explore the potential reasons behind the ringing noise and what you can do about it.
Understanding Tinnitus: The Ringing in Your Ears
Tinnitus, commonly known as ringing in the ears, is a prevalent condition that affects millions of people worldwide. It is not a disease itself but rather a symptom of an underlying health issue. Tinnitus can manifest as a wide range of sounds, including ringing, buzzing, whistling, hissing, humming, or even a pulsating noise. These sounds can originate from one ear, both ears, or even appear to come from within the head.
Tinnitus can be either subjective, meaning only the affected individual can hear the sound, or objective, where the sound can be detected by a healthcare professional using a stethoscope. The vast majority of tinnitus cases are subjective, with the individual being the only one who can perceive the sound.
Causes of Tinnitus: Unraveling the Reasons Behind the Ringing
Tinnitus can have various underlying causes, and understanding these causes is crucial for managing the condition effectively. Let’s explore some of the common reasons behind the ringing in your ears:
Age-Related Hearing Loss
As people age, the hearing mechanism within the inner ear can deteriorate, leading to age-related hearing loss, also known as presbycusis. This gradual hearing loss often starts around the age of 60 and can contribute to the development of tinnitus.
Exposure to Loud Noises
Exposure to loud sounds, whether it’s from concerts, sporting events, loud machinery, or even a single sudden noise, can damage the delicate hair cells in the inner ear. This damage can trigger the onset of tinnitus, which may be temporary or become a chronic condition.
Excessive Earwax Buildup
The ear naturally produces earwax (cerumen) to protect the ear canal and eardrum. However, if this wax accumulates excessively, it can cause a blockage and lead to tinnitus. It’s important to have a healthcare professional remove any significant earwax buildup to alleviate the ringing in your ears.
Certain Medications
Certain prescription and over-the-counter medications can trigger or exacerbate tinnitus. These include aspirin, diuretics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), quinine-based medications, and some antibiotics, antidepressants, and cancer drugs. If you suspect a medication is causing your tinnitus, consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your treatment.
Ear and Sinus Infections
Temporary tinnitus can sometimes accompany ear or sinus infections, as these conditions can affect the inner ear and increase pressure within the sinuses. If the infection is the underlying cause, the tinnitus should subside once the infection is treated and resolved.
TMJ Disorders
Problems with the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), the joint that connects the jaw to the skull, can also contribute to tinnitus. TMJ disorders can cause popping or pain in the joint, which can be accompanied by ringing in the ears.
Blood Pressure Issues
Conditions that affect blood pressure, such as high blood pressure, stress, alcohol consumption, and caffeine intake, can lead to a type of tinnitus known as pulsatile tinnitus. This is caused by changes in the blood vessels near the middle and inner ear, which can become less stretchy and produce a louder, pulsing sound.
Other Potential Causes of Tinnitus
In addition to the previously mentioned causes, tinnitus can also be associated with other medical conditions, such as:
- Changes in the inner ear bones
- Meniere’s disease, an inner ear disorder
- Head and neck injuries
- Conditions like fibromyalgia and Lyme disease
If you’re experiencing persistent or worsening tinnitus, it’s important to consult with a healthcare professional to determine the underlying cause and develop an appropriate treatment plan.
Minimizing the Impact of Tinnitus
While tinnitus can be a frustrating and often life-altering condition, there are various strategies and treatments that can help manage its impact on your daily life. Some effective approaches include:
- Identifying and addressing the underlying cause, such as treating a hearing loss or adjusting medication
- Using sound therapy techniques, such as white noise machines or masking devices, to help reduce the perceived volume of the tinnitus
- Engaging in relaxation techniques, such as meditation or stress management, to alleviate the stress and anxiety associated with tinnitus
- Seeking support from a healthcare professional, such as an audiologist or tinnitus specialist, who can provide personalized guidance and treatment options
Remember, tinnitus is a common condition that rarely indicates a serious health problem. With the right approach and support, many individuals are able to effectively manage their tinnitus and improve their quality of life.
Seeking Professional Help for Tinnitus
If you’re experiencing persistent or worsening tinnitus, it’s important to seek the guidance of a healthcare professional, such as an audiologist or otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat specialist). They can help you identify the underlying cause of your tinnitus and develop a tailored treatment plan to address your specific needs. This may include referrals to other specialists, such as a dentist for TMJ-related tinnitus or a neurologist for conditions like Lyme disease.
By working closely with a healthcare team, you can take proactive steps to manage your tinnitus and improve your overall well-being. Don’t hesitate to advocate for your health and seek the support you need to find relief from the persistent ringing in your ears.
Possible Reasons You Have Tinnitus (Ringing in Ears)
Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors
- Tinnitus Triggers
Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, can be caused by many things. But it isn’t a disease. It’s a symptom of another health problem.
What causes the ringing? Usually it’s from damage to tiny hairs in your inner ear. That changes the signals they send to your brain that control how you hear sound. You might get tinnitus as a normal part of aging, but there are other causes. It could be temporary, or it might last for the rest of your life.
Age-related hearing loss: For many people, hearing gets worse as you age. This usually begins around 60. It usually affects both ears. You’ll probably notice a problem with high-frequency sounds.
Loud noises: Loud noises are a leading cause. It could be something you hear every day for years, or something that only happens once. That includes everything from concerts and sporting events to loud machinery and backfiring engines. They can affect one or both ears, and they may cause hearing loss and pain. The damage can be permanent or temporary.
Too much earwax: Your body makes this gunky stuff to trap dirt and protect your ears. But if it doesn’t wash away on its own and too much piles up, it could lead to ringing or hearing loss. Your doctor can remove the buildup gently. Don’t grab a cotton swab and try to do it yourself.
Certain medicines: Prescription and over-the-counter drugs can trigger ringing or make it louder. This includes aspirin, diuretics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), quinine-based medication, and certain antibiotics, antidepressants, and cancer drugs. Usually the stronger the dose, the greater your chance of problems. Often if you stop the drug, your symptoms will go away. See your doctor if you think a drug may be to blame. But don’t stop taking any medication without talking to your doctor first.
Ear and sinus infections: You might notice tinnitus when you’ve had a cold. That could be due to an ear or sinus infection that affects your hearing and increases pressure in your sinuses. If that’s the cause, it shouldn’t last long. If it doesn’t get better after a week or so, see your doctor.
TMJ: Problems with your jaw or temporomandibular joint (TMJ) can cause tinnitus. You might notice popping or pain in the joint when you chew or talk. The joint shares some nerves and ligaments with your middle ear. A dentist can treat TMJ disorders and help keep ear ringing from getting worse.
Blood pressure issues: This can include high blood pressure and things that raise it in the short term, like stress, alcohol, and caffeine. Hardening of the arteries can also play a role. Blood vessels close to your middle and inner ear become less stretchy, so your blood flow is stronger and seems louder. This iwhat is known as a pulsatile tinnitus.
Other medical problems: These include changes in your inner ear bones, an inner ear disorder called Meniere’s disease, or head and neck injuries. Conditions like fibromyalgia and Lyme disease also can trigger ear ringing. Your doctor will help you figure out the cause and ease the sounds.
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Tinnitus: Ringing in the ears and what to do about it
Constant noise in the head— such as ringing in the ears—rarely indicates a serious health problem, but it sure can be annoying. Here’s how to minimize it.
Tinnitus (pronounced tih-NITE-us or TIN-ih-tus) is sound in the head with no external source. For many, it’s a ringing sound, while for others, it’s whistling, buzzing, chirping, hissing, humming, roaring, or even shrieking. The sound may seem to come from one ear or both, from inside the head, or from a distance. It may be constant or intermittent, steady or pulsating.
Almost everyone has had tinnitus for a short time after being exposed to extremely loud noise. For example, attending a loud concert can trigger short-lived tinnitus. Some medications (especially aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs taken in high doses) can cause tinnitus that goes away when the drug is discontinued. When it lasts more than six months, it’s known as chronic tinnitus. As many as 50 to 60 million people in the United States suffer from this condition; it’s especially common in people over age 55 and strongly associated with hearing loss. Many people worry that tinnitus is a sign that they are going deaf or have another serious medical problem, but it rarely is.
Most tinnitus is subjective, meaning that only you can hear the noise. But sometimes it’s objective, meaning that someone else can hear it, too. For example, if you have a heart murmur, you may hear a whooshing sound with every heartbeat; your clinician can also hear that sound through a stethoscope. Some people hear their heartbeat inside the ear — a phenomenon called pulsatile tinnitus. It’s more likely to happen in older people, because blood flow tends to be more turbulent in arteries whose walls have stiffened with age. Pulsatile tinnitus may be more noticeable at night, when you’re lying in bed and there are fewer external sounds to mask the tinnitus. If you notice any new pulsatile tinnitus, you should consult a clinician, because in rare cases it is a sign of a tumor or blood vessel damage.
The course of chronic tinnitus is unpredictable. Sometimes the symptoms remain the same, and sometimes they get worse. In about 10% of cases, the condition interferes with everyday life so much that professional help is needed.
While there’s no cure for chronic tinnitus, it often becomes less noticeable and more manageable over time. You can help ease the symptoms by educating yourself about the condition — for example, understanding that it’s not dangerous. There are also several ways to help tune out the noise and minimize its impact.
Auditory pathways and tinnitusSound waves travel through the ear canal to the middle and inner ear, where hair cells in part of the cochlea help transform sound waves into electrical signals that then travel to the brain’s auditory cortex via the auditory nerve. When hair cells are damaged — by loud noise or ototoxic drugs, for example — the circuits in the brain don’t receive the signals they’re expecting. This stimulates abnormal activity in the neurons, which results in the illusion of sound, or tinnitus. |
What’s going on?
Most people who seek medical help for tinnitus experience it as subjective, constant sound like constant ringing in the ears or a buzzing sound in the ear, and most have some degree of hearing loss. Things that cause hearing loss (and tinnitus) include loud noise, medications that damage the nerves in the ear (ototoxic drugs), impacted earwax, middle ear problems (such as infections and vascular tumors), and aging. Tinnitus can also be a symptom of Meniere’s disease, a disorder of the balance mechanism in the inner ear.
Tinnitus can arise anywhere along the auditory pathway, from the outer ear through the middle and inner ear to the brain’s auditory cortex, where it’s thought to be encoded (in a sense, imprinted). One of the most common causes of tinnitus is damage to the hair cells in the cochlea (see “Auditory pathways and tinnitus”). These cells help transform sound waves into nerve signals. If the auditory pathways or circuits in the brain don’t receive the signals they’re expecting from the cochlea, the brain in effect “turns up the gain” on those pathways in an effort to detect the signal — in much the same way that you turn up the volume on a car radio when you’re trying to find a station’s signal. The resulting electrical noise takes the form of tinnitus — a sound that is high-pitched if hearing loss is in the high-frequency range and low-pitched if it’s in the low-frequency range. This kind of tinnitus resembles phantom limb pain in an amputee — the brain is producing abnormal nerve signals to compensate for missing input.
Most tinnitus is “sensorineural,” meaning that it’s due to hearing loss at the cochlea or cochlear nerve level. But tinnitus may originate in other places. Our bodies normally produce sounds (called somatic sounds) that we usually don’t notice because we are listening to external sounds. Anything that blocks normal hearing can bring somatic sounds to our attention. For example, you may get head noise when earwax blocks the outer ear.
Some drugs that can cause or worsen tinnitus Aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including ibuprofen (Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn) Certain antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin (Cipro), doxycycline (Vibramycin, others), gentamicin (Garamycin), erythromycin (Ery-Tab, others), tetracycline (Sumycin), tobramycin (Nebcin), and vancomycin (Vancocin) Antimalarial drugs such as chloroquine and quinine Certain anticonvulsants, including carbamazepine (Tegretol, others) and valproic acid (Depakote, others) Certain cancer drugs, including cisplatin (Platinol) and vincristine (Oncovin, Vincasar) Loop diuretics (when given intravenously in high doses), including bumetanide (Bumex), furosemide (Lasix), and torsemide (Demadex) Tricyclic antidepressants such as amitriptyline (Elavil, others), clomipramine (Anafranil), and imipramine (Tofranil) |
Evaluate and treat underlying problems
If you develop tinnitus, it’s important to see your clinician. She or he will take a medical history, give you a physical examination, and do a series of tests to try to find the source of the problem. She or he will also ask you to describe the noise you’re hearing (including its pitch and sound quality, and whether it’s constant or periodic, steady or pulsatile) and the times and places in which you hear it. Your clinician will review your medical history, your current and past exposure to noise, and any medications or supplements you’re taking. Tinnitus can be a side effect of many medications, especially when taken at higher doses (see “Some drugs that can cause or worsen tinnitus”).
Musculoskeletal factors — jaw clenching, tooth grinding, prior injury, or muscle tension in the neck — sometimes make tinnitus more noticeable, so your clinician may ask you to tighten muscles or move the jaw or neck in certain ways to see if the sound changes. If tight muscles are part of the problem, massage therapy may help relieve it.
Tinnitus that’s continuous, steady, and high-pitched (the most common type) generally indicates a problem in the auditory system and requires hearing tests conducted by an audiologist. Pulsatile tinnitus calls for a medical evaluation, especially if the noise is frequent or constant. MRI or CT imaging may be needed to check for a tumor or blood vessel abnormality.
Your general health can affect the severity and impact of tinnitus, so this is also a good time to take stock of your diet, physical activity, sleep, and stress level — and take steps to improve them. You may also be able to reduce the impact of tinnitus by treating depression, anxiety, insomnia, and pain with medications or psychotherapy.
If you’re often exposed to loud noises at work or at home, it’s important to reduce the risk of hearing loss (or further hearing loss) by using protectors such as earplugs or earmuff-like or custom-fitted devices.
Selected resources American Academy of Audiology American Tinnitus Association National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders |
Managing tinnitus
In addition to treating associated problems (such as depression or insomnia), there are several strategies that can help make tinnitus less bothersome. No single approach works for everyone, and you may need to try various combinations of techniques before you find what works for you. If you have age-related hearing loss, a hearing aid can often make tinnitus less noticeable by amplifying outside sounds.
There is no FDA-approved drug treatment for tinnitus, and controlled trials have not found any drug, supplement, or herb to be any more effective than a placebo. That includes ginkgo biloba, which is sometimes promoted for this purpose. Some patients believe that acupuncture helps, but it too has been found to be no better than a placebo.
The most effective approaches are behavioral strategies and sound-generating devices, often used in combination. They include the following:
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT uses techniques such as cognitive restructuring and relaxation to change the way patients think about and respond to tinnitus. Patients usually keep a diary and perform “homework” to help build their coping skills. Therapy is generally short-term — for example, weekly sessions for two to six months. CBT may not make the sound less loud, but it can make it significantly less bothersome and improve quality of life.
Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT). This technique is based on the assumption that tinnitus results from abnormal neuronal activity (see “What’s going on?”). The aim is to habituate the auditory system to the tinnitus signals, making them less noticeable or less bothersome. The main components of TRT are individual counseling (to explain the auditory system, how tinnitus develops, and how TRT can help) and sound therapy. A device is inserted in the ear to generate low-level noise and environmental sounds that match the pitch, volume, and quality of the patient’s tinnitus. Depending on the severity of the symptoms, treatment may last one to two years.
When TRT was developed in the 1980s by neuroscientist Dr. Pawel Jastreboff, it was designed to be administered according to a strict protocol. Today, the term TRT is being used to describe modified versions of this therapy, and the variations make accurate assessment of its effectiveness difficult. Individual studies have reported improvements in as many as 80% of patients with high-pitched tinnitus.
Masking. Masking devices, worn like hearing aids, generate low-level white noise (a high-pitched hiss, for example) that can reduce the perception of tinnitus and sometimes also produce residual inhibition — less noticeable tinnitus for a short time after the masker is turned off. A specialized device isn’t always necessary for masking; often, playing music or having a radio, fan, or white-noise machine on in the background is enough. Although there’s not enough evidence from randomized trials to draw any conclusions about the effectiveness of masking, hearing experts often recommend a trial of simple masking strategies (such as setting a radio at low volume between stations) before they turn to more expensive options.
Biofeedback and stress management. Tinnitus is stressful, and stress can worsen tinnitus. Biofeedback is a relaxation technique that helps control stress by changing bodily responses. Electrodes attached to the skin feed information about physiological processes such as pulse, skin temperature, and muscle tension into a computer, which displays the output on a monitor. Patients learn how to alter these processes and reduce the body’s stress response by changing their thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques may also help.
Not all insurance companies cover tinnitus treatments in the same way, so be sure to check your coverage. If you’re willing to enroll in a research study, you may be able to receive a cutting-edge treatment free. (For more information, go to www.clinicaltrials.gov, and enter the search term “tinnitus.”)
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Tinnitus, ringing in the ears – symptoms, causes, treatment
What is tinnitus?
The word tinnitus comes from the Latin tinnire, “to tinkle” , but tinnitus can sound more like a hum, hiss, chirp or a thin squeak.
About 40% of adults experience tinnitus from time to time. About 8% suffer from it often or constantly. For 1% of people, tinnitus is a serious problem that interferes with a normal life. It almost never affects children and very often elderly people with hearing loss.
This noise is not associated with external sounds and is “heard” better in silence than with external noise. Tinnitus lasts for a long time (more than 5 minutes) and should be distinguished from a short, transient sound that lasts a few seconds or occurs after a strong sound stimulus. Such noise is in no way connected with the mechanical processes occurring in the ear, its cause is in the nerve cells.
IMPORTANT! Information from the article cannot be used for self-diagnosis and self-treatment! Only a doctor can prescribe the necessary examinations, establish a diagnosis and draw up a treatment plan for a consultation!
Why does tinnitus occur?
There are two theories about its origin.
1) Due to the constant high level of noise in the life of a city dweller, cells in the inner ear are constantly dying, turning sounds into nerve impulses. They do not die immediately, but for some time they are in a “death” state. They can still send information to the brain, but are no longer able to generate impulses specific to each sound. The result is “noise”.
2) According to another theory, tinnitus is something like phantom pains. The auditory cortex of the brain “remembers” that information about external sounds should be transmitted through the auditory pathways, but the corresponding auditory cells have already died, and the brain “has to” find information that is similar to sound impulses. This information travels along pathways through the mood center, which is why tinnitus sufferers have such a hard time with noise. Gradually, as a result of incorrect adaptation, this path becomes the main one for the brain, and the person, as it were, gets used to hearing noise.
What can cause tinnitus?
- Tinnitus is usually caused by hearing loss from constant exposure to loud noises (tractor, lawn mower, loud music on headphones) or acoustic trauma.
- Otitis media, atherosclerosis, traumatic brain injury, cervical osteochondrosis, and hearing loss due to aging or other causes can contribute to tinnitus.
- Much less commonly, tinnitus can be a symptom of diabetes, kidney disease, or head or neck tumors.
- Some drugs cause tinnitus: quinine, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, paracetamol, diuretics (furosemide…), a number of antibiotics (gentamicin, streptomycin, etc.), certain types of chemotherapy, some psychiatric drugs (amitriptyline, sertraline, anafranil, etc.). e.)
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How to “measure” strength tinnitus?
Since this is a subjective sensation, it cannot be measured in decibels. In fact, the most important thing is how much tinnitus causes discomfort to its “happy” owner.
Therefore, a qualitative scale is used that rates tinnitus from “mild” to “catastrophic”, based on whether the person hears it all the time, whether it interferes with sleep or does something that requires silence.
Severe tinnitus leads to nervous tension, insomnia, inability to concentrate and even depression.
How to cure tinnitus?
There is no cure for tinnitus. Drugs of different groups have been studied, including antiepileptics, antidepressants, tranquilizers, but none of them is able to significantly reduce tinnitus.
Based on the theory that the brain does not adapt properly to the death of nerve cells that conduct auditory impulses, tinnitus is treated with a method called tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT). This is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy in which a person is taught to be distracted from the noise, to relax, not to hear it. Gradually, a positive feedback is formed, the brain “unlearns” to use the wrong way of conducting impulses, and the noise level really decreases.
In addition to training, the TRT course uses sound therapy individually selected by means of noise measurement – a person is empirically selected “white noise”, which he should listen to from time to time. It can be the sound of the sea, the wind or the rustle of leaves. Such noise is evaluated in the subcortical auditory pathways as a neutral sound, its perception is quickly blocked and it does not reach the cortex, and tinnitus is blocked along with it – the patient ceases to be aware of it.
Both parts of therapy are equally important, but the first is the main one: the patient must stop paying attention to tinnitus, learn to live with it and reduce its significance. The TRT method allows you to completely remove tinnitus in terms of three months to two years.
If you suffer from nocturnal tinnitus, there are Tinnitus Therapy Pro and Tinnitus Therapy Lite mobile apps to help relieve it while you sleep. Applications offer so-called sound maskers (white noise and others), as well as sound tracks developed by doctors lasting 8 hours. There are other apps and tracks, paid and free, that can make life easier and “mask” tinnitus that occurs day or night.
causes and treatment, how to diagnose
Tinnitus (from Latin tinnītus “ringing”) is the sensation of sound in one or both ears in the absence of an external source of sound. This sensation is mostly described as ringing in the ears, but the sounds can also be hissing, humming, clicking, or buzzing. Noise, hum or ringing in the ears can be strong, mild or moderate, constant or intermittent. The perception of tinnitus is individual.
Although tinnitus is heard in the ears, it occurs in the nerve circuits of the brain, which causes us to hear sounds in the head. It is not yet known exactly what is going on in the brain to create the illusion of a sound that is not actually there. Tinnitus is the most common disorder affecting 10 to 15% of the world’s population.
Causes of noise or ringing in the ears
The appearance of tinnitus can be caused by prolonged exposure to loud noises or certain lifestyle habits. Ringing in the ears can also occur in healthy people and for no apparent reason. However, in many cases, the appearance of noise or ringing in the ears is associated with hearing loss.
Causes that can trigger tinnitus can be divided into the following groups:
Medical
- Diabetes
- Anemia
- Allergy
- Otosclerosis
- Meniere’s disease
- Earwax plug
- Head and neck tumors
- Low serotonin 9 0034
- Blood pressure problems
- Thyroid problems (hypothyroidism).
- Diseases of the outer, middle or inner ear.
Hearing impairment
According to statistics, 80-85% of patients suffering from tinnitus have some degree of hearing impairment. Despite the fact that tinnitus is not the cause of hearing impairment, but its impact negatively affects concentration, performance, because constant sounds in the head are distracting and prevent you from concentrating on really important sound information. Annoying noise distracts from daily tasks and interferes with meaningful communication with family, friends and loved ones.
Head injury and brain disease
Head injury, such as a concussion, can damage the inner ear and cause tinnitus. Also, neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, can lead to tinnitus, and acoustic tumors of the auditory or vestibular nerve, by putting pressure on the nerve endings, can create tinnitus. In this case, the treatment of tinnitus should begin with an appeal to a neurologist.
Heart and blood vessel problems
If your tinnitus is pulsating, it may be due to a problem with your blood vessels.
Drugs that cause tinnitus
The most common drugs that cause tinnitus are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (eg, aspirin, gentamicin), diuretics, some antibiotics, and cancer drugs. If you experience tinnitus after starting a drug or changing its dosage, contact your healthcare provider right away to determine further treatment.
Risk factors for tinnitus
Often tinnitus occurs in people with hearing impairment of different ages, but the elderly and those whose professional activities are associated with high-level noise exposure are at risk.
Age-related hearing loss
Hearing loss due to aging is called presbycusis and begins at age 60. The greater the hearing loss, the more likely it is that tinnitus will occur. To prevent the appearance of annoying noise, you must first contact an audiologist for a hearing diagnosis in order to assess its severity (i.e., at what frequencies a decrease is observed) and then select a method for correcting the identified violations.
Loud noise exposure
Regular exposure to loud noise in professional activities (airport workers, factories, construction sites, city transport drivers, military, hunters) is a common cause of hearing loss and tinnitus. Wearing earplugs at work will help protect your hearing.
Lifestyle
Listening to music at high volumes for extended periods of time or frequent concerts can also cause permanent hearing damage. Excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, abuse of foods and drinks containing caffeine can cause tinnitus. Frequent fatigue and stress can also be risk factors.
If you have tinnitus, start your treatment journey by contacting a hearing care professional who specializes in diagnosing tinnitus to help determine the underlying cause. If common causes of tinnitus are ruled out, your doctor will refer you to another specialist for further evaluation and treatment.
How to reduce the effects of tinnitus
Since tinnitus is purely subjective, it can be difficult to diagnose, so following the advice of your hearing care professional on your own can help alleviate the condition:
- Avoid tobacco, coffee, cola, tea;
- Learn to relax, arrange a relaxing minute for yourself;
- Try to control your blood pressure, measure it regularly;
- Avoid loud noise and use earplugs for occupational protection;
- Try to eat less salt, because. its use is one of the causes of circulatory disorders;
- Exercise regularly, exercise improves blood circulation, which helps reduce tinnitus;
- Use a hearing aid. It not only helps with hearing loss, but also has a masking effect that will help you get rid of annoying tinnitus and reduce its impact on daily life.
Hearing loss and tinnitus
Noise or ringing in the ears or head often cannot be treated, but the good news is that tinnitus can be controlled. The latest technological solutions in the field of audiology and deafness come to the rescue. Clinical studies show that digital hearing aids are not only effective in addressing hearing loss, but also help reduce the impact of tinnitus and provide overall relief.
Amplification of environmental sounds through the hearing aid provides activation of the auditory part of the nervous system, which reduces the perception of tinnitus. With constant exposure to amplified environmental sounds, the auditory part of the nervous system is rebuilt, which has a beneficial effect on the function of nervous activity, restoring it and weakening hypersensitivity to auditory sensations.