Tinnitus: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment

Are you hearing weird noises and becoming worried that something might be wrong with you? Well, there most certainly might be something wrong, but it’s actually quite more benevolent than you might have thought. Not that hearing issues are benevolent, but compared to what you might be thinking that these noises are caused by, those are actually a picnic. Yes, you have heard that right. I’ve connected those noises to hearing issues.

Now I am going to be even more specific and connect them to something called tinnitus. So, if you tend to hear a kind of a ringing in your ears, or clicking, hissing, or even whistling, then you might want to visit a doctor that can examine your overall hearing. Chances are that you have tinnitus. Let us now check out precisely what it is, so that you don’t confuse it with certain other issues.

What Is Tinnitus?

This condition is said to affect a large percentage of people all over the world and it usually appears after the age of 50. It manifests in those ringing, clicking, hissing and whistling noises that I have mentioned above and it can either be brief and temporary, or persistent and chronic. Tinnitus can be caused by several different factors but, unfortunately, there is no cure for it, since this is not a disease, but a symptom of an underlying condition, which is usually not serious at all, but consulting a doctor is still the right move.

Yet, even though there’s no actual cure, there are remedies that can alleviate the problem: https://www.healthline.com/health/tinnitus-remedies

The simple truth is that people with chronic tinnitus get used to it overtime and it stops bothering them altogether after a while. Yet, there are still some of those who can’t adjust to the noises. They find them extremely annoying and disturbing and that can affect their whole quality of lives. That’s why a treatment plan is absolutely necessary for these patients.

What Are The Symptoms?

Before we get to the treatment plan, though, let us take a look at the signs and symptoms of this particular condition. After all, you can’t start treating something without first learning how to recognize it. As with any other medical condition, it’s best if you recognize this one rather sooner than later, which means that you should be rather attentive in order to catch these signs and symptoms that I’ll be talking about here.

The symptoms shouldn’t be that difficult to discern here. In fact, they are rather obvious. Tinnitus is basically an internal sound, either intermittent or continuous, and it can appear in one or both ears. The actual sound will differ from person to person, but it was mostly described as screeching, hissing, whistling, chirping, clicking, buzzing, pulsing, or simply ringing.

Whatever you describe it like, there’s one thing for sure. It will definitely be annoying. It’s just that some people are more tolerant to it than the others, meaning that you might either be extremely bothered by it, or you might be able to ignore it altogether. Yet, ignoring it is not a wise idea, since I’ve already explained that this noise can be a symptom of some other medical conditions.

There is one more thing that you need to know about the symptoms of tinnitus. Let me put it this way. Have you ever wondered something along the lines of “why do I get tinnitus when lying down?”, or “why do I hear noises when it’s so quiet around me”? Well, there is a quite simple answer to these particular questions. The actual volume of those sounds can fluctuate, but they are usually the loudest during the night, or when it is quiet for any other reason and that’s why you get it when you lie down.

What Are The Causes?

I have mentioned above that we will take a look at how tinnitus can be treated, but not before we determine what can cause it. So, let us now check out how this particular condition can actually be caused. This way, you will have the opportunity to avoid certain harmful scenarios and thus prevent tinnitus from appearing once you reach a certain age.

Basically, the loss of small sensory hair cells in your inner ear is the most common cause of tinnitus. It usually happens as you age, but it can also be a result of prolonged exposure to extremely loud noises. This is why hearing loss can coincide with tinnitus and that’s why I have mentioned in the beginning of this article that you might have hearing problems if you are experiencing tinnitus frequently.

There are, of course, some other possible causes of this condition. Those include neck and head injuries, ear infections, foreign objects touching your eardrum, brain injuries, cardiovascular diseases, as well as diabetes. To put things simply, tinnitus can be caused by some other, underlying medical problems that you might be going through, which means that you should consult your doctor to get to the bottom of it.

How Is It Treated?

As it’s probably perfectly logical, in order to treat tinnitus, you’ll need to treat the underlying medical condition that it is caused by. Since this symptom is mostly connected to hearing loss, the first thing you should do is consult a hearing specialist and check whether you might need to get an aid. This will not only get rid of those buzzing and unpleasant sounds, but it will also help you hear better, which is certainly a huge deal. Even if you think that your hearing is perfect, tinnitus can be a clear sign that it isn’t, so don’t hesitate to visit that specialist.

Additionally, you shouldn’t hesitate to get a hearing aid either. You should, however, be careful when it comes to choosing the right aid for you, since there are quite a lot of those on the market. So, when you come to this stage, make sure to take your time and do proper research in order to choose the most perfect hearing aid for you.