Sometimes it’s a ringing or whirring, while other times it’s a clicking or buzzing. What’s that sound and why are you the only one that can hear it? Tinnitus is often called ringing in the ears. When you experience tinnitus, you hear phantom sounds. The sounds seem very real, but they aren’t coming from the environment. Tinnitus can be temporary or permanent. Tinnitus symptoms can be mildly annoying or seriously degrade your quality of life. Tinnitus has many causes, and Hear Again America has many different treatment options available.
Causes Of Tinnitus
Tinnitus is not a disease; it is a symptom of another condition. Treating the tinnitus involves identifying the cause. Temporary tinnitus can be caused by high blood pressure, taking too much aspirin or an ear infection. Persistent tinnitus has many different causes. These include:
- Damage to the auditory nerve
- Exposure to loud noise
- Meniere’s disease
- Head or neck injuries
- TMJ
- Stress and depression
- Hearing loss
Researchers are still working hard to understand tinnitus and its relationship to physical and mental health. The hearing health care professionals at Hear Again America closely follow all new studies so they can provide you the most effective treatments available today.
Tinnitus Treatment Options
The type of tinnitus treatment that is best for you depends on the underlying cause of your tinnitus. You may find sound therapy or retraining therapy brings relief of your symptoms. If your tinnitus is caused by hearing loss, simply wearing hearing aids may bring relief.
Sound Therapy
This treatment therapy utilizes masking, white noise to increase background noise. The added external noise masks the tinnitus and provides additional auditory stimulation. This therapy can be as low tech as using low background music, fans or white noise machines and as high tech as small wearable devices that create white noise.
Retraining Therapy
Also called habituation therapy, this method involves behavioral counseling and working with a hearing professional to train your auditory system to treat the tinnitus sounds as natural. You will retrain your brain into perceiving the tinnitus differently. If the tinnitus is causing depression, stress or anger, traditional behavioral therapy may also be recommended.