Tinnitus is an exceptionally common medical condition. Tinnitus can become so extreme that it becomes a burden to live with for about 20 million people around the world. 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 occurs when you hear a phantom sound, when you’re hearing a sound that nobody else can hear. This might be a ringing in the ears or a buzzing sound you can’t shake. 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, tinnitus comes in a number of forms. Managing these varieties of tinnitus will require different approaches.
What is tinnitus?
So, what is tinnitus and where does it come from? The first thing to recognize is that tinnitus comes in numerous types and causes. The various causes of tinnitus will present with similar symptoms. But it’s still crucial to identify the cause in order to effectively treat the symptoms.
For some people, tinnitus is the outcome of a neurological problem, like a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. In other circumstances, tinnitus might be caused by age-related hearing loss. Here are a few of the most prevalent types of tinnitus:
- Neurological tinnitus: Issues with the ear aren’t always the cause of tinnitus. Sometimes, the underlying cause lies within the brain. If your baseline neurological functions are damaged by injury it can activate neurological tinnitus. In other words, something has broken down with the normal ways that your brain and ear interact. The outcome is that you hear a phantom sound that may not be there. Neurological tinnitus can be due to concussion, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and more. As the brain heals, neurological tinnitus will, in some instances, clear up on its own. It may be permanent in other instances.
- Subjective tinnitus: When you’re the only one who 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. Neurological tinnitus, for instance, is frequently also 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 you have objective tinnitus, you’re hearing a real, verifiable, objective sound. Objective tinnitus does happen, though it’s not as common as subjective types. Most commonly, this means you’re experiencing something called pulsatile tinnitus, which happens when you’re hearing your heartbeat or circulatory system. For individuals with objective tinnitus, that pulsing sound usually seems louder than it should.
- Somatic tinnitus: For many people, the sound they hear with tinnitus is fairly constant. That’s true for both subjective and objective tinnitus. But, somatic tinnitus is different. This is tinnitus that grows worse with movement. Typically, somatic tinnitus is most sensitive to movement of the head or neck areas.
Most of these types of tinnitus aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. For instance, you may have neurological tinnitus and subjective tinnitus. In order for us to develop a treatment plan, we will first need to identify the root cause of your tinnitus.
Getting assistance with your tinnitus
You probably won’t have to take any specific action if your tinnitus symptoms are sporadic. But your quality of life can be seriously impacted if your tinnitus symptoms are rather constant or keep returning. That’s when it’s particularly important to talk to a hearing specialist to get specialized care and find some relief from your tinnitus.
After we determine the root cause of your symptoms, there are a few treatment strategies we can use. Several therapies can make the sounds you’re hearing less obvious. Other treatment solutions can mask the sound you’re hearing.
Generally, there is no cure for tinnitus, though it can usually be successfully managed. We will work with you to formulate 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.