Tinnitus is an exceptionally common medical condition. Around 20 million people routinely suffer from chronic tinnitus so severe that it becomes burdensome. And there are also more common presentations of tinnitus which are much more mild and sporadic and are also easier to cope with.
Tinnitus happens when you hear a phantom noise, when you’re hearing a sound that nobody else can hear. It could manifest as a persistent buzzing or ringing in the ears. 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, there are a considerable variety of types of tinnitus. Treating these varieties of tinnitus will call for different approaches.
What is tinnitus?
Exactly what is tinnitus and what are its causes? Well, it’s significant to mention that not all kinds of tinnitus are the same. The various causes of tinnitus will manifest with similar symptoms. But identifying the cause can be crucial to identifying the right treatment approach.
In some instances, concussions or other traumatic brain injuries or neurological problems can be the cause. In other instances, tinnitus may result from age-related hearing loss. The following are some other possible causes:
- Neurological tinnitus: Problems with the ear are not always the cause of tinnitus. The brain itself can sometimes be the source. If your baseline neurological functions are damaged by injury it can trigger neurological tinnitus. In other words, something has gone wrong with the typical ways that your brain and ear communicate. The result is that you hear a phantom sound that might not be there. A stroke, concussion, or brain injury can all be the root sources of tinnitus, as well as others. In some situations, neurological tinnitus may resolve as the brain heals. It might be irreversible in other circumstances.
- Subjective tinnitus: With subjective tinnitus, the sound you’re hearing is phantom and has no external source and no one else can hear it. Lots of other forms of tinnitus also fall into this category. Neurological tinnitus, for example, 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 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 forms. 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 people, the sound they hear with tinnitus is fairly constant. Both objective and subjective tinnitus have this characteristic. With somatic tinnitus though, things are a bit different. This is tinnitus that grows worse with movement. Usually, somatic tinnitus is most susceptible to movement of the head or neck areas.
Most of these types of tinnitus aren’t generally mutually exclusive. You may have subjective tinnitus and neurological tinnitus together, for instance. Figuring out the cause of your symptoms can help your hearing specialist decide the best tinnitus treatment options for your symptoms.
Getting tinnitus support
You most likely won’t need to take any specific action if your tinnitus symptoms are intermittent. But if your tinnitus sticks around or comes back frequently, it might have real and significant impacts on your day-to-day life. When that happens, your best plan to get some relief is to call us for a consultation.
We have several different tinnitus management strategies we may try depending on the root cause of your symptoms. A few of these strategies can minimize the severity of your symptoms making them less apparent. Other treatment options can mask the sound you’re hearing.
Tinnitus can’t generally be cured, but it can be successfully managed. We will help you personalize the best treatment for your particular situation. This will help you enjoy life again by moving your symptoms into the background where they can be more easily ignored.