It isn’t unusual for individuals to have ringing in their ears, also known as tinnitus. Some estimates indicate that 10 percent of people have tinnitus at one time or another, making it one of the most common 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 manifest as other sounds also.
Sadly, the causes of tinnitus aren’t as obvious as the symptoms. Some of the wide range of tinnitus causes are temporary, while others can be more permanent.
That’s why your environment can be critically important. If the background sound of your particular setting is very loud, you may be damaging your hearing. If your tinnitus is caused by damage, it may end up being permanent.
What is tinnitus (and why is it so common)?
Tinnitus is a condition in which you hear a sound that isn’t actually there. Tinnitus normally manifests as a ringing or buzzing, but can also manifest as other sounds, like screeching, thumping, or humming. The sounds are usually rhythmic in nature. For the majority of people, tinnitus will manifest over a short period of time before solving itself and vanishing. In less common cases, tinnitus could become effectively permanent, a condition referred to as chronic tinnitus.
There are a couple of reasons why tinnitus is so common. The first is that the environmental factors that play a role in tinnitus are also relatively common (more on that in a bit). The second reason is that tinnitus is usually a symptom of an underlying condition or injury. Put simply, there are lots of such injuries or conditions that can trigger tinnitus. As a result, tinnitus tends to be very common.
How can the environment impact tinnitus?
Other things can also produce tinnitus, including ototoxic medicines and chemicals. However, when most individuals discuss “environment” in terms of tinnitus, they really mean the noise. For instance, some locations are noisier than others (traffic noise in some areas can get exceptionally high). Somebody would be at risk of environmental tinnitus, for instance, if they worked around loud industrial equipment.
When evaluating the state of your health, these environmental factors are extremely significant.
As with hearing loss, noise-induced damage can eventually trigger tinnitus symptoms. In these situations, the resulting tinnitus is often chronic in nature. Here are some of the most common noise-related causes of tinnitus:
- Noise in the workplace: It could come as a surprise that many workplaces, sometimes even offices, are pretty loud. Tinnitus can eventually result from being in these settings for eight hours a day, whether it’s industrial equipment or the din of a lot of people talking in an office.
- Traffic: You may not even realize how loud traffic can be in heavily populated places. And noise damage can occur at a lower volume than you might expect. Long commutes or consistent driving in these loud settings can eventually cause hearing damage, including tinnitus.
- Music: Listening to music at loud volumes is a fairly common practice. Tinnitus will often be the result if you do this regularly.
- Events: Tinnitus can sometimes result from loud noises, even if they aren’t experienced over a long time-period. Shooting a gun or going to a rock concert are examples of this kind of noise.
Hearing damage can happen at a much lower volume than people generally expect. Consequently, it’s crucial to use hearing protection before you think you might need it. Noise related tinnitus symptoms can often be avoided altogether by doing this.
What should I do if I have tinnitus?
So, does tinnitus go away? Perhaps, in some instances. In other situations, your symptoms could be permanent. At first, it’s basically impossible to tell which is which. Likewise, just because your tinnitus has gone away for now doesn’t mean that noise damage has not occurred, resulting in an increased chance of chronic tinnitus in the future.
People often underestimate the minimum volume that damage begins to occur, which is the most significant contributing factor to its development. Damage has likely already happened if you’re experiencing tinnitus. This means that there are a number of things that you should do to change your environment so as to prevent more irreparable damage.
For example, you could try:
- If possible, try to lower environmental volume. If you have any machinery that’s not in use, turn it off, and close the windows if it’s noisy outside, for instance.
- Wearing hearing protection (either earplugs or earmuffs) in order to counter damage. Noise canceling headphones can also be a benefit in this regard.
- Reducing the amount of time you spend in noisy environments without giving your ears a chance to recover.
How to manage your symptoms
Lots of people who experience persistent tinnitus find the symptoms to be extremely disruptive and uncomfortable. Because of this, they often ask: how do you quiet tinnitus?
If you hear a buzzing or ringing sound, it’s important to set up an appointment, particularly if the sound doesn’t go away. We can help you figure out the best way to manage your particular situation. There’s no cure for most kinds of chronic tinnitus. Here are a number of ways to manage the symptoms:
- Masking device: This is a device that fits like a hearing aid and plays sounds that mask your symptoms. Your device will be specifically calibrated to mask 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.
- White noise devices: Utilizing a white noise device around your house can help you tune out your tinnitus in some cases.
- Hearing aid: This can help amplify outside sounds and, as a result, drown out the ringing or buzzing created by tinnitus.
- Relaxation techniques: High blood pressure has sometimes been linked to an increase in the intensity of tinnitus symptoms. So taking a little time to relax (with meditation, for instance) can sometimes help reduce your tinnitus symptoms.
Tinnitus is not curable. A great first step would be to protect your hearing by controlling your environment.
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. A white noise machine, for many individuals, might be all that’s needed. For others, management might be more intense.
Set up an appointment to learn how to regulate your tinnitus symptoms.
