Tinnitus originates from ‘ringing’ a Latin word, that is, the protection of noise without external sounds. The greatest number of people have experienced tinnitus at a point in their lives especially when exposed to loud music.

Tinnitus can become a continuous issue that can affect some one’s quality of life. It sounds like ringing, hissing, buzzing or whistling can come to both ears. These sounds may be high pitched, medium or low beside being complex or single noise in its interpretation.  When the environmental noise is low especially during the night, that’s when these sounds seem to become louder making it difficult to sleep.

What causes tinnitus?

Tinnitus cause is not completely understood. But in general understanding and agreement, tinnitus is a problem of how the ear sounds and how the brain processes these sounds.

In every hearing loss as a result of damaged sensory of the inner year, 2 of 3 cases are associated with tinnitus cases.

Auditory deprivation or neural hypersensitive

Humans’ brain craves for stimulation. Therefore, the brain seeks alternative stimulation if the ear is damaged and the auditory nerve cannot send normal signals to it.  The neurons become more hyperfine since more effort is required to pick sounds. As a result, the brain may end up picking signals from adjacent nerves.

Taking an example of someone listening to their car radio when they lose the reception range of the transmitter, he or she begins to hear white noises and motionless interfering with the broadcast. To hear more clearly, one might wrongly try to clear up the signal by increasing the radio’s volume. This is feckless because it worsens the motionless interference.

Moving out of the radio transmitter represents damage to the hair cells while motionless interference stands for the tinnitus caused by auditory deprivation.

Diet or medication

Tinnitus can be as a result of dietary intake or medications. However, the risk due to medication is very low. Moreover, drugs known to affect tinnitus and often prescribed affect less than one person in a thousand people develops tinnitus. Also, drugs that causing tinnitus depends on the dose. Therefore, a person has to take a dose above average to be at risk of developing tinnitus.

Here are some of the medication that potentially increases the risk of tinnitus development to an individual.

1. Aspirin

It is one of the common medications linked to tinnitus. However, the risk of developing tinnitus due to aspirin medication use is very low. To acquire tinnitus due to this medication, one has to take a significantly higher dose than what is prescribed. Fortunately,  when aspirin is suspected to onset tinnitus in an individual, reduction of the dosage reverses the effects.

1. Quinine

It is used to prevent malaria. However, when taken in prolonged or large doses, it causes cochlear damage. If the medication is taken in low doses, tinnitus is hardly observed. In the event of any tinnitus signs due to quinine usage, discontinuation of the medication hinders tinnitus development.

1. Aminoglycoside antibiotics

They are a small group of strong specific antibiotics known to be ototoxic. Therefore, this medication can damage the inner ear causing hearing loss and in some cases tinnitus. Examples of these drugs are Streptomycin and Gentamicin.

These medications are injections administered in hospitals during the treatment of a life-threatening infection. These drugs are known to cause tinnitus thus requires strict monitoring during administering. A blood test should frequently be done on the patient to ensure that the levels of Aminoglycoside antibiotics do not exceed the risk level.

1. Cytotoxic

These drugs are used for certain cancer treatment regimes. Drugs containing platinum such as cisplatin are more damaging. Carboplatin and oxaliplatin are lesser damaging drugs as compared to cisplatin. Doctors using this type of medications are obliged to discuss the risks before administering them. Additionally, hearing tests before and after using these medications is important so that the doctors can monitor the patients’ inner ear condition.

1. Loop Diurectics

It is high blood pressure, heart failure, and smoke kidney disorders medication.  Ear damage occurs only if the drug is used in large doses. Small doses prescribed for mild or moderate hypertension does not cause ear damage. In addition, even large doses such as diuretics may only cause irreversible damage if used with other ototoxic drugs.

Are you suspecting that the drugs you are using causes tinnitus? Well, consult with your doctor for advice.

Diet

High salt diet, tobacco usage, and high caffeine increase tinnitus developments risks. However, diet as a tinnitus cause is very subjective. While some foods worsen tinnitus cases, other foods reduce its effects. It is important to adjust your diet accordingly with the help of your doctor if you suspect that some food improves of makes your tinnitus worse.

Noise exposure and stress

Loud noises exposure can lead to cochlear hair cells damage, which in return may result in tinnitus development or onset.

What does tinnitus sound like?

Tinnitus can either occur irregularly or constantly depending on its severity. Tinnitus can be perceived and present itself in many ways. That is, some people may experience whistling sounds, others whining sounds or noise with musical effect while other may experience rushing, hissing, or buzzing sounds. In other words, tinnitus may vary from one person to another.

99 percent of people with tinnitus suffer from subjective tinnitus (only they alone can hear the noises) while the remaining 1 percent suffers from objective tinnitus ( the noises can be identified by others in close proximity)

What treatment options do you have for tinnitus?

There is a widely spread misconception that there is no help for tinnitus. We do not refute that there is no known cure for tinnitus. However, this does not mean that there are no methods that can be used to improve or even stop tinnitus in some cases.

Everyone will experience tinnitus at some point in life. This can be caused by exposure to loud noise, ear mechanic changes or aging hearing loss, however, it is a person’s perception and reaction to the tinnitus that leads to relentless tinnitus.

Stressing periods tends to aggravate tinnitus, and we can associate tinnitus hearing with negative emotions. That being said, it is imperative for everyone to manage the negative emotions as part of tinnitus treatment. Managing stress, utilizing relaxation techniques and sound therapy techniques can help ease tinnitus.

Given that tinnitus is the perception of noise with the absence of external noises, an introduction of external noises to detract from the internal noises would be a major part of managing tinnitus. Moreover, the use of psycho-educational counseling approach together with sound therapy will represent the mainstay of audiological rehabilitation.

Sound therapy partially masks tinnitus besides reducing a person’s reaction to it. With the reduced tinnitus reaction, someone can develop a positive cycle. This is called a tinnitus retraining therapy. However, even though the process may take months, the results are worth it.

Audiology Hearing Centre provides some discreet, comfortable devices that will help you control the tinnitus noise for you to be able to follow conversations and enjoy quiet time.  Moreover, we also provide other devices for people with disturbing tinnitus but without hearing loss.

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