It’s really common for individuals to experience tinnitus. Around 20 million individuals routinely suffer from chronic tinnitus so intense that it becomes burdensome. This doesn’t even reference the more common types of tinnitus, which for most individuals can come and go without causing a major impact on their quality of life.
Tinnitus happens when you hear a phantom sound, when you’re hearing a sound that no one else can hear. It may manifest as a continual buzzing or ringing in the ears. Tinnitus is often related to hearing loss, but that doesn’t mean that one condition will immediately lead to the other.
As a matter of fact, there are a considerable variety of forms of tinnitus. And each one will call for a different approach to treatment.
What is tinnitus?
So, what is tinnitus and where does it stem from? The first thing to understand is that tinnitus comes in a number of types and causes. Regardless of the specific cause, the symptoms will be similar. But it’s still crucial to determine the cause in order to successfully manage the symptoms.
For some individuals, tinnitus is the result of a neurological issue, including a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. Hearing loss due to age can be another factor that can cause tinnitus. Here are a few of the most prevalent types of tinnitus:
- Neurological tinnitus: Tinnitus isn’t always caused by ear issues. The brain itself can sometimes be the cause. Neurological tinnitus is caused by injury to or issues with your baseline neurological functions. In other words, something has gone wrong with the typical ways that your brain and ear communicate. As a result, a phantom noise is heard which isn’t actually there. Neurological tinnitus can be caused by concussion, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and more. In some cases, neurological tinnitus might go away as the brain heals. It may be irreversible in other instances.
- Subjective tinnitus: When you’re the only one who can hear the sound of your tinnitus, which is quite common, hearing specialists will talk about your condition as a subjective tinnitus. Lots of other types of tinnitus also fall into this category. Neurological tinnitus, for instance, is often also subjective tinnitus. There are a large number of sounds that can manifest with subjective tinnitus, including buzzing, ringing, screeching, roaring, thumping, and lots of others.
- Objective tinnitus: When the sound you’re hearing in your ears is a real, verifiable sound, it’s known as objective tinnitus. Objective tinnitus does happen, though it’s not as common as subjective forms. Most commonly, 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: Tinnitus sounds are frequently quite constant for many people coping with them. Both objective and subjective tinnitus have this attribute. But, somatic tinnitus is different. This is tinnitus that grows worse with movement. Typically, somatic tinnitus will cause the symptoms to become more intense when you move your head or neck.
The majority of these forms of tinnitus are not generally mutually exclusive. For example, you may have neurological tinnitus and subjective tinnitus. Identifying the cause of your symptoms can help your hearing specialist decide the best tinnitus treatment options for your symptoms.
Getting help with your tinnitus
If your tinnitus is here one minute and gone the next, you most likely don’t need to do anything about it. But your quality of life can be significantly impacted if your tinnitus symptoms are fairly constant or keep coming back. When that happens, your best plan to get some relief is to call us for a consultation.
We have a number of different tinnitus management methods we might try depending on the underlying cause of your symptoms. A few of these techniques can decrease the severity of your symptoms making them less evident. Other treatment options can mask the sound you’re hearing.
Generally, there is no cure for tinnitus, although it can usually be effectively treated. We will help you customize the best treatment for your specific situation. This will help you enjoy life again by moving your symptoms into the background where they can be more easily disregarded.