Remedies to Treat Ringing in Your Ears

Finding out what’s causing your tinnitus is the first step in treating it. A doctor can determine if there’s an underlying cause and then address it with medications or surgery.

Tinnitus is known for the ringing, clicking, buzzing, or hissing sounds you might experience. However, it isn’t really a disease itself, but rather a symptom of a problem somewhere in your ear or the nerves that run through it.

About 10 percent of people in the United States experience tinnitus each year, even if just for a few minutes. Sounds can show up in one ear or the other, and they can be loud or soft.

People with severe tinnitus may have problems hearing, working, or even sleeping.

Tinnitus that lasts for just a few seconds isn’t necessarily unusual. Something as simple as a blockage can create these sounds, but more serious conditions can also be the cause.

These include:

• hearing loss caused by noise levels
• ear infections
• sinus infections
• heart disease
• diseases of the circulatory system
• brain tumors
• hormonal changes
• Meniere’s disease
• thyroid disease

A large percentage of people won’t have an identifiable cause. This is referred to as “idiopathic tinnitus.” While there’s no cure for idiopathic tinnitus, there are remedies that can help reduce its intensity.

This article will explore a variety of remedies from sound-based therapies to lifestyle changes that can help you manage tinnitus and improve your quality of life.

One way to tackle tinnitus is to treat the underlying cause, primarily when that cause is hearing loss. When hearing loss isn’t the issue, sounds-based therapies can still help by distracting you from the symptom itself.

Hearing aids

Most people develop tinnitus as a symptom of hearing loss. When you lose hearing, your brain undergoes changes in the way it processes sounds.

A hearing aid is a small device that uses a microphone, amplifier, and speaker to increase the volume of external noises. This can help the brain learn new ways to process sound.

If you have tinnitus, you may find that the better you hear, the less you notice your tinnitus.

One survey of 230 healthcare professionals found that about 60 percent of people with tinnitus experienced at least some improvement with a hearing aid, and roughly 22 percent found significant relief.

Sound-masking devices

Sound-masking devices provide a pleasant external noise that can help drown out the internal sound of tinnitus. There are many of these types of devices available, from tabletop sound machines to small devices that are placed in your ear.

These machines can play:

• white noise
• pink noise
• nature noises
• music
• other ambient sounds

Most people prefer a level of external sound that is just slightly louder than their tinnitus, but others prefer a masking sound that drowns out the ringing completely.

You may also consider using commercial sound machines designed to help you relax or fall asleep. You can even use:

• regular headphones
• a television
• music
• a fan

However, not all noises are created equal when it comes to sound-masking. A 2017 study found that broadband noises like white noise are usually more effective than nature sounds.

Modified or customized sound machines

Sound-masking devices help to cover the sound of tinnitus while you’re using them, but they have no long lasting effects.

Modern medical-grade devices can be used to create customized sounds tailored specifically to your tinnitus. Unlike regular sound machines, these devices are only worn occasionally.

You might be able to experience benefits after the device is turned off. Over time, you may notice long-term improvement in the loudness of your tinnitus.

In 2017, researchers found that these devices were usually more effective than things like white noise at reducing tinnitus symptoms. However, these devices can be costly and are often not covered by insurance.

Sometimes when there is no cure, treatment involves acceptance and finding a way to live with certain conditions. This is true of tinnitus, too.

There are therapies that are designed not to cure tinnitus, but to help reduce the distress and annoyance it may be causing you.

Cognitive behavioral therapy

Tinnitus is associated with a high level of emotional stress. Depression, anxiety, and insomnia are not unusual in people with tinnitus.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of talk therapy that helps people with tinnitus learn to live with the condition. Rather than reducing the sound itself, CBT teaches you how to accept it.

The goal is to improve your quality of life and prevent tinnitus from being your focus.

CBT involves working with a therapist or counselor, usually once a week, to identify and change negative thought patterns.

CBT was initially developed as a treatment for depression and other psychological problems, but it seems to work well for people with tinnitus.

Several reviews of studies, including one published in the Korean Journal of Audiology, have found that CBT significantly improves irritation and annoyance that often comes with tinnitus.

Progressive tinnitus management

Progressive tinnitus management (PTM) is a therapeutic treatment program that the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers.

Tinnitus is one of the most common conditions seen in veterans of the armed services. The loud noises of war and training often lead to noise-induced hearing loss.

If you’re a veteran, talk with your local VA hospital about their tinnitus treatment programs. Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is another therapy you can ask about that may be helpful.

Consult the National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR) at the VA. They have a step-by-step tinnitus workbook and other educational materials that you can look into.

There really aren’t any medications that can cure tinnitus directly, but different medications may be used to help make your symptoms more tolerable.

Anti-anxiety drugs

Tinnitus treatment often involves a combination of approaches. Your doctor may recommend medication as part of your treatment.

These drugs may help make your tinnitus symptoms less bothersome, thereby improving your quality of life. Anti-anxiety drugs like alprazolam (Xanax) can also help with insomnia that stems from your tinnitus symptoms.

Antidepressants

Antidepressants are a little different in the way they may help tinnitus symptoms because they actually may play a role in reducing the problem, not just your perception of it.

Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry messages about sensations back to the brain from all over your body, and some of the same neurotransmitters that modify sound also play a role in depression.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is one of the neurotransmitters that helps transmit sound signals.

Some antidepressants work by increasing serotonin, which in turn may suppress the effects of the GABA neurotransmitter and reduce tinnitus symptoms.

According to the American Tinnitus Association, antidepressants commonly used to treat tinnitus include:

• clomipramine (Anafranil)
• desipramine (Norpramin)
• imipramine (Tofranil)
• nortriptyline (Pamelor)
• protriptyline (Vivactil)

There are some behaviors that may help reduce your tinnitus symptoms, including reducing your stress or changing the way you eat. The section below explores some lifestyle changes that can help reduce tinnitus.

Treating dysfunctions and obstructions

According to the American Tinnitus Association, most cases of tinnitus are caused by hearing loss. Occasionally though, tinnitus is caused by an irritation to the auditory system.

Tinnitus can sometimes be a symptom of a problem with the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). If your tinnitus is caused by TMJ disorder, then a dental procedure or realignment of your bite may alleviate the problem.

There are also nonprocedural TMJ disorder treatments that you can ask your doctor or dentist about.

Tinnitus can also be a sign of excess earwax. Removal of an earwax blockage may be enough to make mild cases of tinnitus disappear.

Foreign objects lodged against the eardrum can also cause tinnitus. A regular practitioner can check for obstructions in the ear canal, but if you’re experiencing tinnitus, it may be best to see an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist.

Exercise

Exercise can have a big impact on your overall health and well-being. Tinnitus can be aggravated by:

• stress
• depression
• anxiety
• lack of sleep
• illness

Because of this, regular exercise might help. One small study of people with chronic tinnitus found that yoga reduced stress and symptoms of tinnitus.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction

Mindfulness is increasingly being credited for its health benefits and was first used to treat chronic pain.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) courses help people develop skills to control their attention and draw focus away from uncomfortable feelings. It may be useful in treating tinnitus.

One study found that people who participated in an 8-week program designed specifically for tinnitus reported a significant improvement in their symptoms.

DIY mindfulness meditation

If you don’t have time to commit to an 8-week program, you can purchase a copy of the book “Full Catastrophe Living” by Jon Kabat-Zinn, or see if it’s available at your local library.

Kabat-Zinn’s book is a manual for practicing meditation and breathing techniques and can help encourage daily mindfulness.

There are several alternative or complementary tinnitus treatment options, including:

• nutritional supplements
• homeopathic remedies
• acupuncture
• hypnosis

None of these treatment options are supported by scientific studies. Many people are convinced that the herb ginkgo biloba is helpful, but large-scale studies have been unable to prove this.

There are many nutritional supplements claiming to be tinnitus remedies. These are usually a combination of herbs and vitamins, often including zinc, ginkgo, and vitamin B-12.

These dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are not supported by scientific research. However, anecdotal reports suggest that they may help some people.

If you think you have tinnitus, make an appointment with a primary care doctor. They will begin an examination by asking you about your personal and family medical history, as well as your lifestyle and any medications you are taking.

Be sure to mention what kind of work you do — especially if you are exposed to loud noises — and any injuries you may have had.

The appointment will continue with an examination of your head, neck, and ears. Your doctor may also perform some basic hearing and movement tests. At this point, your doctor may order additional tests or refer you to an audiologist.

Some of the tests that may be used to pinpoint the cause of your tinnitus include:

• full auditory testing
• imaging studies like a CT or MRI
• blood work to check things like your thyroid levels

A proper diagnosis can help your doctor guide your treatment for tinnitus, although testing may be needed if another underlying condition is causing the symptom.

Tinnitus is rarely a sign of a serious medical condition. Talk with a doctor if you’re unable to sleep, work, or hear normally.

You should go to your local emergency department if you’re experiencing:

• facial paralysis
• sudden hearing loss
• foul-smelling discharge from your ear
• a pulsating sound in sync with your heartbeat

Tinnitus may be distressing for some people. If you or someone you love is thinking about suicide, you should go to the emergency room right away.

Tinnitus can be a frustrating condition. There’s no simple explanation for it and there’s no simple cure, unless there’s an underlying treatable cause.

But there are ways to reduce the intensity of the symptoms and improve your quality of life.

Talk with a doctor to make sure there are no underlying conditions causing your tinnitus and to discuss treatment options that might relieve your symptoms.

Tinnitus: One Possible Reason Your Ears Won’t Stop Ringing

Some people have a ringing in their ears. Others might hear a roaring, buzzing, hissing or clicking inside their heads. The sounds may be intermittent, or they may be constant. They may be a minor annoyance or a major distraction. But if you’re one of the nearly 10 percent of adults who experience some form of tinnitus, there may be help.

What is Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is the perception of sound in the human ear in the absence of any external sound. It can be perceived in one or both ears, or in the head.

Tinnitus can be described in many different ways. Patients report hearing sounds such as a high-pitched ringing, buzzing, hissing, humming, whistling, ticking, roaring, clicking, crickets, tunes, songs, whooshing or the sound of wind or waves.

The American Tinnitus Association estimates the more than 50 million American experience tinnitus to some degree. Of these, about 12 million have severe enough tinnitus to seek medical attention. And about two million patients are so seriously debilitated that their daily living is affected.

Causes of Tinnitus

The exact physiological cause of tinnitus is unknown, says UH otolaryngologist Sarah Mowry, MD. “Several sources are known, however, to trigger or worsen tinnitus,” she says, such as:

Noise-induced hearing loss – This is the most common cause of tinnitus. Either a single intense event or long-term noise exposure such as factory or construction work, can damage hearing. With exposure to loud noise, hair cells in the inner ear become damaged or destroyed. Once damaged, these hair cells cannot be renewed or replaced. Up to 90 percent of all tinnitus patients have some level of hearing loss.

Wax build up – Everyone produces different amount of earwax. When a significant amount of earwax becomes built up in the ear canal, hearing can be compromised and tinnitus may seem louder. Earwax should not be removed with a cotton swab. You should speak to your physician or ear, nose and throat doctor.

Certain medications – Some medicines are toxic to the ears and can produce tinnitus as a side effect. Effects depend on the medicine’s dose and can be temporary or permanent.

Ear or sinus infections – Many people, including children, experience tinnitus along with an ear or sinus infection. This will generally lessen and gradually go away once the infection is healed.

Jaw misalignment – Temporomandibular jaw misalignment, or TMJ, can induce tinnitus.

Cardiovascular disease – About 3 percent of tinnitus patients experience pulsatile tinnitus, often in time with their heartbeat. This can indicate the presence of a vascular condition where the blood flow through the veins and arteries is compromised – like a heart murmur, hypertension or hardening of the arteries.

Certain types of tumors – Very rarely, a person will have a benign, slow-growing tumor on their auditory, vestibular or facial nerves. These tumors can cause tinnitus, deafness, facial paralysis and loss of balance.

Head and neck trauma – Physical injury to the head and neck can induce tinnitus.

Certain disorders – Hypo or hyperthyroidism, Lyme disease, fibromyalgia and thoracic outlet syndrome can have tinnitus as a symptom.

What To Do If You Think You Have Tinnitus

The first steps to take if you think you have tinnitus is to note the details surrounding your symptoms. Did you begin a new medicine or were injured or exposed to excessive noise right before it started? Is the tinnitus in one or both ears? Does it fluctuate or is constant? Do you have a hearing loss?

Next, visit your physician or make an appointment with an ENT (ear, nose and throat specialist). Also, have your hearing checked by an audiologist.

Living with Tinnitus

Most people who seek medical help for their tinnitus learn that no serious medical problem is causing their condition. This knowledge alone is often enough to allow some to adapt to the sounds they hear.

“Other people experience tinnitus as disruptive and stress-inducing and need help learning how to cope with the sounds,” Dr. Mowry says. She has these tips on coping with tinnitus:

Avoid silence – Tinnitus can sound louder when you are in total silence. Listening to soothing music or nature sounds can promote a comfortable state of relaxation. Other soothing sound suggestions are an aquarium, dehumidifier or electric fan.

Amplification – If you have hearing loss and tinnitus, a hearing aid will help you hear ambient sounds that can take the focus away from the tinnitus.

Maskers – This is a device that resembles a hearing aid and produces a “shhh” sound to cover the tinnitus. “These help your brain suppress the phantom noise so it’s less bothersome,” Dr. Mowry says.

Retraining therapy – You can try to retrain your brain to ignore the tinnitus sounds. This treatment can take more than one year.

Cognitive behavior therapy – This helps you identify and alter maladaptive thoughts and behaviors to achieve relief.

Biofeedback – This therapy teaches stress management and how to control your blood pressure, heart rate and skin temperature.

Drug therapy – Some medicines have been investigated for use in relieving tinnitus; however, medicines are primarily used to help with anxiety, depression and sleep difficulties that can be associated with tinnitus. Treating these problems can indirectly help.

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How to get rid of tinnitus?

Tinnitus is a noise or ringing in the ears in the absence of an external sound signal. This disease causes discomfort and headache in a person. As we said earlier, tinnitus can have a different nature: objective and subjective. In the first case, the noise is caused by somatic sounds that are created in the body in case of vascular diseases, neurological disorders, as well as dysfunction of the Eustachian tube. Sometimes these sounds can be heard by the doctor during the examination. In turn, subjective tinnitus is much more common. In this case, the noise has no real sound source and only the patient can hear it.

So, what to do if tinnitus suddenly appears?

First of all, you need to find out the cause of tinnitus. To do this, you need to contact a specialized doctor – a neurologist. After conducting a series of tests and analyzes, the specialist will not only determine the cause of the disease, but also offer possible solutions to the problem.

Important! Tinnitus can be indicative of a serious medical condition. Therefore, at the first sign of it, you should not delay visiting a doctor.

If during the examination it turned out that some disease was the cause of tinnitus, then all efforts in this case should be aimed at curing it. As a rule, in patients who have overcome the identified disease, tinnitus also disappears.

Modern methods of combating tinnitus.

There is still no universal cure for this disease. However, medicine has come a long way. Currently, there are several methods that will help minimize its impact.

Stimulation of the auditory system

Most often, sound therapy is used to alleviate the patient’s condition. The Tinnitus Masker program generates specific sounds that have a relaxing effect on the nervous system and minimize the sensation of tinnitus. The purpose of this method is to mask an unpleasant noise or ringing in the ears. As masking sounds, as a rule, white or pink noise is used, as well as some soothing melodies. In this case, complete and partial masking of tinnitus is possible. However, programs with partial masking are more popular, since with prolonged exposure to a broadband marker (that is, with complete noise masking), the patient has a high risk of hearing loss.
It is worth noting that in most cases the appearance of tinnitus is associated with hearing loss. In such cases, a hearing aid is used to get rid of the noise, which amplifies the surrounding sounds, thereby masking the tinnitus. Tinnitus Masker programs exist both as separate applications in mobile devices and as a built-in feature in hearing aids.

Drug effect.

In some cases, drug therapy is used. As treatment, antidepressants, anxiolytics, anticonvulsants and the like are used. Some studies show that these groups of drugs reduce the volume of noise and the associated level of anxiety in the patient. However, do not forget about the possible side effects: drowsiness, nausea, headaches, the risk of addiction to the drug.

Brain stimulation

Sometimes for as a therapy used for transcranial magnetic stimulation of the brain. The essence of this method is the impact of short magnetic pulses on specific areas of the brain through a special coil. The procedure is non-invasive, that is, it does not require surgical intervention and does not damage the skin in any way. This technology reduces the activity of neurons in the central parts of the auditory system, thereby alleviating the patient’s condition.

Therefore, at the first sign of tinnitus, you should immediately contact a specialized specialist. First of all, it is necessary to establish the very cause of the appearance of tinnitus. Only then can the appropriate treatment be selected. Although there is no universal cure for tinnitus, there are several effective methods and technologies to minimize its impact.

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Treatment of tinnitus in Ulyanovsk. Appointment for tinnitus treatment (ringing, tinnitus)

Why is there noise or ringing in my ears? What to do about ringing in the ear?

Noise or ringing in the ears (tinnitus) – a sound sensation that occurs in the head and is not associated with external sounds. Noise in the ears or “in the head” is quite common, but not everyone, sometimes even doctors, understands that this is a sign of impaired functioning of the hearing organ. A common belief is that tinnitus is associated with blood vessels.

A person visits a neurologist, who is prescribed droppers and vascular drugs. Sometimes this treatment helps, but more often it does not, and all because the cause of the noise has not been established, a complete comprehensive examination of the auditory system has not been carried out.

There is an opinion that tinnitus cannot be treated and it is not necessary to see a doctor, and if they do, then a neurologist, but this is fundamentally not true! With the appearance of tinnitus, you can not wait a single day, if the noise in the ear does not go away during the day – you urgently need to consult an audiologist-otorhinolaryngologist.

There can be a lot of reasons for tinnitus – these are disorders in the center of hearing of the brain and in the conductive auditory nerves and in the vessels of the head and in the cochlea and middle ear. Tinnitus may be the first sign of a brain tumor or a banal sulfur plug.

An audiologist, being both an ENT doctor and an otoneurologist, will quickly understand the problem, determine the cause of the noise and prescribe treatment or take other measures to eliminate tinnitus.

When tinnitus appears, you cannot wait even a single day.
If noise in the ear or whistling in the ears does not go away within a day, you should urgently consult an audiologist-otorhinolaryngologist.

Make an appointment with an audiologist

There are many reasons for noise in the ears or in the head, and before treatment it is necessary to conduct a complete examination by an audiologist-otorhinolaryngologist to determine the cause

Treatment of tinnitus

An audiologist performs a deep instrumental examination of the function of the middle ear:

• Impedancemetry, tympanometry, tests of the auditory tube.
• Inner ear function test – otoacoustic emission and, of course, audiometry.

If it is necessary to clarify the localization of disorders, MRI of the brain, multislice computed tomography of the temporal bones are prescribed. Moreover, this should be done immediately, as soon as tinnitus appears, since this is often the first sign of acute hearing loss and it can be treated by contacting an audiologist in the first 3 days from the onset of noise. Don’t wait for it to pass. When contacting an audiologist at the very beginning, it is sometimes possible to cure, but not always.

If you have had tinnitus for several years, the cause is usually the death of the hair cells in the inner ear and hearing loss. These are not necessarily profound hearing impairments, sometimes only high frequencies decrease slowly, gradually over several years. A person does not realize that he does not hear well, he simply does not understand speech, especially in a noisy environment, turns on the TV louder and the only thing that worries him is tinnitus (tinnitus).

In this case, no medication will help, only specially selected hearing aids with the Tinnitus Masker noise masking program can help here.