Do you ever hear a constant ringing noise in your ears? You might not be alone. Let’s discuss more regarding it.

What is Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is when you hear a ringing or buzzing noise in one or both of your ears even though no such sound is actually present. This noise may be soft or loud, low-pitched or high-pitched. For some, it may be a clicking, buzzing, hissing, or roaring sound. And these sounds may be continuous or may come and go.

While tonal tinnitus can cause nearly continuous sounds that stay in a certain set of frequencies and pulsatile tinnitus creates a rhythmic whooshing sound in sync with your heartbeat, musical tinnitus can make you hear music.

But regardless of the kind of sound you experience, it can interfere with your normal hearing, and can often impede concentration and cause anxiety and depression.

According to new research, around 14% of adults experience tinnitus, and about 2% experience a severe form of it. But tinnitus isn’t a disease, it’s a symptom of a number of different problems.

What Causes Tinnitus?

Ringing in ears can be caused by a number of things:

1. Damage to the inner ear
2. Damage to the tiny bones in your middle ear or your eardrums
3. An ear infection
4. Tumors in the ear or on the auditory nerve
5. Hearing loss due to aging
6. An excess buildup of earwax
7. Regular exposure to very loud sounds
8. Meniere’s disease
9. TMJ disorders
10. Regularly using noisy equipment like chainsaws or jackhammers
11. Regularly using headphones or earphones to listen to loud music (temporarily)
12. Muscle spasms in your inner ear
13. High blood pressure
14. High cholesterol
15. Thyroid problems
16. Head and neck injuries
17. Certain antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, antimalarial drugs, loop diuretic medicines, and high doses of aspirin

Although for some people, they may even find certain foods to trigger ringing in the ears – like caffeine, salt, alcohol, or even aspirin. Another trigger is smoking.

How is Tinnitus Diagnosed?

Since you’re the only one who can actually hear those sounds, diagnosing tinnitus can be tricky. Tinnitus can be detected through a range of tests like speech recognition tests, checking how well you can hear volume and frequency, and checking the function of the middle ear.

The audiologist will transmit sounds through a set of headphones, one ear at a time, and whenever you hear the sound, you’ll need to make a gesture like raising your hand. What you can and can’t hear but should be able to hear at your age and sex can determine if there’s hearing loss.

He may also ask you to move your eyes, clench your jaw, or move your arms, neck, and legs. Additionally, he may use tests like CT scans and MRIs to check for irregularities or damage, or lab tests to check for anemia, thyroid problems, heart disease, or vitamin deficiencies. But even then, there is no guarantee that a cause will be able to be determined.

How is Tinnitus Treated?

In a nutshell, if a certain medical condition is causing ringing in ears, the treatment will be focused on treating that. If it’s the medicine that’s causing the tinnitus, you’ll switch medicines. Your doctor may also:

1. Remove excess earwax
2. Prescribe hearing aids to amplify sounds if the tinnitus is caused by hearing loss
3. Suggest using a white-noise machine or using fans, humidifiers, or air conditioners to help you sleep
4. Prescribe a masking device that you are supposed to wear in your ear and is like a hearing aid
5. Advise you to reduce your exposure to loud noises
6. Suggest Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as stress can make it worse

Tinnitus isn’t permanent and often goes away on its own. But sometimes, it can’t be cured. Even then, treatments can help make symptoms less noticeable.