Tinnitus is an exceptionally common condition of the ear. Some estimates indicate that 10 percent of people have tinnitus at one time or another, making it one of the most prevalent health conditions in the world. The condition is experienced as a sound in the ear that isn’t actually there, typically, it’s a buzzing or ringing, but tinnitus can take the form of other sounds as well.
While the preponderance of tinnitus might be obvious, the causes are often more cloudy. Some of the wide array of tinnitus causes are temporary, while others can be more long term.
That’s why your environment can be very important. If the background sound of your particular environment is very noisy, you may be harming your hearing. This environmental tinnitus might sometimes be long lasting or it might sometimes react to changes to make your environment quieter.
Why do so many people experience tinnitus?
When you hear sounds that aren’t really there, that’s tinnitus. Tinnitus normally manifests as a ringing or buzzing, but can also manifest as other noises, like screeching, thumping, or humming. The sounds are normally rhythmic in nature. Tinnitus will usually clear itself up after a short time period. In less common cases, tinnitus may become effectively permanent, a condition referred to as chronic tinnitus.
Tinnitus is so prevalent for a couple of reasons. The first is that the environmental factors that contribute to tinnitus are also quite common (more on that soon). Root conditions and injuries can contribute to tinnitus symptoms and that accounts for the second reason. In other words, there are many such injuries or conditions that can result in tinnitus. As a result, tinnitus tends to be rather common.
How is tinnitus impacted by environmental factors?
Other things can also produce tinnitus, including ototoxic medicines and chemicals. But when it involves “environmental” triggers, noise is the biggest offender. Some locations, such as noisy city streets, can get really loud. Somebody would be at risk of environmental tinnitus, for example, if they worked around loud industrial equipment.
When assessing the state of your health, these environmental factors are extremely significant.
Noise induced damage, as with hearing loss, can trigger tinnitus symptoms. When tinnitus is caused by noise damage, it’s typically chronic and frequently permanent. Here are some of the most common noise-related causes of tinnitus:
- Noise in the workplace: It might come as a surprise that many workplaces, sometimes even offices, are fairly loud. Whether it’s industrial equipment or chatty office neighbors, spending eight hours a day around constant workplace noise can eventually result in tinnitus.
- Music: Listening to music at high volumes is a pretty common practice. Tinnitus will frequently be the outcome if you do this regularly.
- Events: Tinnitus can sometimes be caused by loud noises, even if they aren’t experienced over a long time-frame. For example, attending a concert or using firearms can both trigger tinnitus if the volumes reach a loud enough level.
- Traffic: You might not even recognize how loud traffic can be in heavily populated locations. And you might not even realize that your ears can be damaged at lower volumes than you may expect. Tinnitus and hearing damage can be the outcome of long commutes in these loud locations.
Damage to the ears can occur at a much lower volume than people generally expect. Consequently, it’s essential to use hearing protection before you think you may need it. Noise associated tinnitus symptoms can frequently be avoided altogether by doing this.
What should I do if I’m experiencing tinnitus?
So, does tinnitus go away? Well, in some instances it may. In other cases, your symptoms may be permanent. There’s no way to identify which is which at the beginning. If you have tinnitus due to noise damage, even if your tinnitus does clear up, your risk of having your tinnitus come back and become chronic is a lot more probable.
Individuals often underestimate the minimum volume that damage begins to happen, which is the most significant contributing factor to its development. If you experience tinnitus, your body is telling you that damage has already probably happened. If this is the situation, identifying and changing the source of the noise damage is essential to prevent additional damage.
Here are some tips you can try:
- Prevent damage by using hearing protection like earplugs or earmuffs. Noise canceling headphones can also be an asset in this regard.
- If you’re in a noisy environment, regulate the amount of exposure time and give your ears rests.
- If possible, try to decrease environmental volume. If you have any machinery that isn’t in use, turn it off, and shut the windows if it’s noisy outside, for instance.
How to manage your symptoms
Many individuals who experience persistent tinnitus find the symptoms to be enormously disruptive and unpleasant. As a result, they frequently ask: how do you quiet tinnitus?
You should contact us for an appointment if you are hearing a persistent buzzing or ringing in your ears. We will be able to evaluate your symptoms and figure out how best to manage them. For most cases of chronic tinnitus, there’s no cure. Symptom management might include the following:
- White noise devices: In some cases, you can tune out some of your tinnitus symptoms by using a white noise generator around your house.
- Hearing aid: The ringing or buzzing created by tinnitus can be drowned out by raising the volume of outside sounds with hearing aids.
- Relaxation techniques: High blood pressure has sometimes been linked to an increase in the severity of tinnitus symptoms. So taking some time to relax (with meditation, for example) can sometimes help decrease your tinnitus symptoms.
- Retraining therapy: You can sometimes retrain your ears with the help of a specialist, which will slowly retrain the way you process sound.
- Masking device: This device is similar to a hearing aid, only instead of amplifying sounds, it masks them. Your device will be specially calibrated to mask your symptoms of tinnitus.
There’s no cure for tinnitus. That’s why managing your environment to safeguard your hearing is a practical first step.
But tinnitus can be addressed and treated. We’ll be able to formulate a specific treatment plan according to your hearing, your tinnitus, and your lifestyle. For some people, dealing with your tinnitus may simply mean using a white noise machine. For other people, management might be more demanding.
Set up an appointment to find out how to manage your tinnitus symptoms.