What Causes Tinnitus?

Anyone who has dealt with tinnitus before will know all about the annoyance it can cause. While it’s not something that should ever fully impede one’s life, it can still cause frustration for plenty of people out there. It can be prevented and treated if it is prevalent in your life, fortunately. In this article, we’re going to briefly talk about tinnitus and the causes of the issue. 

What is tinnitus defined as?

Tinnitus is defined as a constant ringing or buzzing sound in one’s ears. You may have dealt with a certain kind of ringing in your ears before, but it probably disappeared after a short while. Tinnitus is when it’s for constant or intermittent periods. It can be exclusively within one’s head or it can be heard using a stethoscope or a similarly effective piece of equipment. The former is known as objective tinnitus while the latter is known as subjective tinnitus. 

What are the typical causes?

Everybody is different, so not every individual will experience the same kinds of feelings or sensations. The following is a series of issues that have been proven to be linked to tinnitus:

Hearing loss

Hearing loss doesn’t always directly lead to ringing in one’s ears, but the nerves and the signals sent to the brain can become awkward and cause confusion. The inner hairs within the ear may become damaged or faulty over time as they sense what they think is sound. The brain will then continue to work as normal even though there is no sound around and produce a dull ringing noise. 

Head trauma

Doing damage to your head or ears may lead to nerve damage within the ear. This can then lead to similar kinds of issues as hearing loss and tinnitus. 

Stress

Stress and negative emotions can put a lot of pressure on the head and it can cause a slight ringing in the ears. If you have ever been through intense emotions, then you’ll know that it can cause you to have ringing in your ears. A little stress every now and again will likely not cause tinnitus, but if it becomes a regular thing, then you will need to get in contact with your audiologist.

Loud noises

If you spend your life around life noises, then you’re going to develop tinnitus at a quicker rate than the average person. If it’s your job or your passion, then that’s fine, but it’s a case of making sure you protect your ears from the loud noises you have to deal with. Loud noises will leave your ears ringing for a while, and if this happens then speak to your audiologist to see what the best options are for you.