It’s really common for people to experience tinnitus. Tinnitus can become so overwhelming that it becomes a burden to live with for about 20 million people worldwide. And there are also more prevalent presentations of tinnitus which are much more mild and intermittent and are also easier to deal with.
When you hear noises in your ears that don’t have an outside source and nobody else can hear them, that’s tinnitus. This could be a ringing in the ears or a buzzing sound you can’t get rid of. Although hearing loss is often accompanied by tinnitus, there isn’t necessarily a cause-and-effect connection between the two.
As a matter of fact, there are a considerable variety of types of tinnitus. Dealing with these varieties of tinnitus will require different approaches.
What is tinnitus?
So, what is tinnitus and where does it stem from? The first thing to recognize is that tinnitus comes in a number of forms and causes. The various causes of tinnitus will present with similar symptoms. But it’s still crucial to determine the cause in order to effectively treat the symptoms.
For some people, tinnitus is the outcome of a neurological problem, including a traumatic brain injury or a concussion. In other instances, tinnitus may result from age-related hearing loss. Here are a few of the most common types of tinnitus:
- Neurological tinnitus: Tinnitus isn’t always caused by ear issues. Sometimes, the underlying cause lies within the brain. If your baseline neurological functions are impaired by injury it can activate neurological tinnitus. This means that the normal communication between your brain and ears isn’t working correctly. The outcome is that you hear a phantom sound that might 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 cases, go away on its own. It may be irreversible in other circumstances.
- Subjective tinnitus: When only you can hear the sound of your tinnitus, which is very common, hearing specialists will refer to your condition as a subjective tinnitus. This type of tinnitus includes many other forms of tinnitus as well. For example, neurological tinnitus can also be subjective tinnitus. Subjective tinnitus can present as many different sound types, including ringing, buzzing, squeals, whistles, roars, and more.
- Objective tinnitus: When you have objective tinnitus, you’re hearing a real, verifiable, objective sound. Objective tinnitus does occur, though it’s not as common as subjective types. Pulsatile tinnitus, which is when you hear your heartbeat or pulse, is an example of this type of tinnitus. Objective tinnitus causes those sounds to be abnormally loud.
- Somatic tinnitus: For many individuals, the sound they hear with tinnitus is relatively constant. That’s true for both subjective and objective tinnitus. However, somatic tinnitus is different. This is tinnitus that grows worse with movement. Usually, somatic tinnitus will cause the symptoms to become more intense when you move your head or neck.
The majority of these forms 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 underlying cause of your tinnitus.
Getting assistance with your tinnitus
If your tinnitus is here this minute and gone the next, you probably don’t have to do anything about it. But if your tinnitus sticks around or comes back frequently, it might have real and serious impacts on your everyday life. That’s when it’s particularly important to speak with a hearing specialist to get specialized care and find some tinnitus relief.
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.
Tinnitus can’t usually be cured, but it can be successfully managed. We will work with you to formulate treatments that work for your symptoms. This will help you enjoy life again by moving your symptoms into the background where they can be more easily disregarded.