The Different Causes Of Tinnitus And Treatment Options

Tinnitus is a symptom of an underlying condition that impacts the ears, and is usually characterized by ringing, whistling, whooshing, buzzing or any noise like this in the ears. Tinnitus is a constant sound that you might experience at some point in your life. There is also temporary tinnitus which doesn’t last forever but is a ringing in your ears for a short period of time, usually after being surrounded by loud noises for a period of time. In this article, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the different causes of tinnitus and the treatment options available to you. Keep reading if you would like to find out more.

Age Related Hearing Loss

The first cause of tinnitus is age related hearing loss. Sometimes nothing causes this other than the fact that you are getting older and losing your hearing. If you have been diagnosed with hearing loss in the past, then it won’t be much of a surprise if you start to experience tinnitus shortly after that. It can be a sign that your hearing is deteriorating further, and you should speak to your audiologist about ways you can prevent your hearing loss.

Ear Injury or Damaged Ear

Another cause of tinnitus could be an ear injury or damage to your ear. There are multiple ways that you might end up with an injury to your ear, but if it does happen then it could end up causing hearing loss and tinnitus. This could happen because you have inserted something too far into your ears, or it could be the case that you have experienced damage due to excessive loud noise.

You need to get any injury or pain in your ears checked out by a doctor before you do anything else. It’s important to understand the extent of the damage, and you can then start dealing with the consequences of this.

Hearing Aids Can Help

In some cases of tinnitus, people have found that hearing aids are extremely helpful. Some hearing aids have a masking feature that emits a low-level sound constantly, effectively masking the ringing that you might hear in your ears. It’s important to understand that this is not a cure for tinnitus, and when you take your hearing aids out you will be able to hear the sounds once more. As well as this, there is no guarantee that this will actually work, everyone experiences hearing loss and tinnitus differently.

It might be the case that your hearing aids will need to be adjusted at certain intervals to continue to offer the masking effects. If this is the case, or you have noticed that your hearing aids are no longer masking the noise, then you need to book an appointment with your audiologist so that they can take a look. They might want to conduct a hearing test to see if your hearing has deteriorated at all since the last time you had one.

Sound Machines

Some people choose to use sound machines rather than hearing aids, but they essentially do the same thing. The sound machine works by masking the sound with white noise so that you can’t hear the ringing in your ears as your mind will be concentrating on the background noise that you have put on. There has been a fair amount of success with this, but it is only a solution that can be used while you are at home and is not a solution that you can use when you are out and about.

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy

Some people have found success in tinnitus retraining therapy. It has been successful in around 80% of patients and helps you to deal with the symptom of an underlying condition on a conscious and subconscious level. This involves a combination of counseling and sound therapy to help retrain the way that you hear. The combination should help you to cope better with tinnitus, even though it can’t completely cure it. It’s worth a try if you don’t want to use hearing aids, or if nothing has worked for you so far.

If you are interested in finding out more about tinnitus, and your treatment options, then you can get in touch with Clifton Springs Hearing Center at 315-496-4314. If you would like to book a hearing test, then our lines are also open to ensure that you get a test as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you.