Have you been suffering from a ringing, buzzing or whooshing sensation in one or both of your ears? This frustrating sound you’re experiencing is known as tinnitus. Tinnitus impacts everyone differently, from the sounds they hear to the duration they experience them. To fully understand what tinnitus is, it’s important to learn more about the causes of the condition.
Causes of tinnitus
Tinnitus can be caused by a number of factors and often depends on which type you are suffering from: subjective or objective. Subjective tinnitus describes the condition where only you can hear the buzzing, ringing or whooshing sounds; meanwhile, objective tinnitus means your audiologist may also be able to hear the noise.
Your audiologist will carefully evaluate your symptoms, collect your medical history, examine your ears and possibly conduct hearing tests to better understand your tinnitus. Then, they will use this information to help determine a cause behind your tinnitus. Causes of tinnitus may include:
- Expose to damaging noise
- Age-related hearing loss
- Earwax buildup
- Abnormal bone growth or tumor in the ear
- Meniere’s disease
- Head or neck injuries
- Anxiety and depression
- Temporal Mandipular Joint Dysfunction
- Vestibular neuritis
- Traumatic Head Injury
- Vascular Dysfunction
In some cases, your exact cause of tinnitus may not be determined, but can still rule out a number of serious health issues.
Tinnitus treatment options
While there is currently no “cure” for tinnitus, Adirondack Audiology offers a number of relief options to serve our patients. Common treatments for tinnitus include:
Hearing aids: Hearing aids are a popular choice when it comes to tinnitus relief. Many hearing aids have a tinnitus-masking feature available. This feature works by emitting a ‘white’ or ’pink’ noise, as well the option for music and/or environmental sounds, that helps to cover the tinnitus sounds you are experiencing. These hearing aids can also be used in conjunction to treat individuals with hearing loss.
Tinnitus retraining therapy: Another common treatment option that can be used alone or in combination with other methods is tinnitus retraining therapy. This relief option uses sound therapy to retrain your brain into perceiving tinnitus in a different way. This provides the patient with a different way to cope with tinnitus sounds, while making it easier for you to handle the condition day-to-day.
Visit Adirondack Audiology to find out if you’re suffering from tinnitus and what we can do to help you find the relief you deserve.