Tinnitus is an incredibly common condition of the ear. It’s one of the most prevalent health conditions in the world with some estimates indicating that up to 10 percent of the population experiences it at one point or another. Although the most common manifestation of tinnitus is a phantom ringing or buzzing in your ear, it can also present as other sounds too.
While the prevalence of tinnitus may be evident, the causes are often more opaque. In part, that’s because tinnitus may be caused by a wide array of causes, some of which are temporary and others that can be more long lasting.
This is why environmental factors can Have a major impact on tinnitus symptoms. If the background sound of your particular environment is very loud, you may be damaging your hearing. If your tinnitus is a result of damage, it may end up being permanent.
Why do so many individuals experience tinnitus?
When you hear noises that aren’t actually present, that’s tinnitus. 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. Tinnitus will typically clear itself up after a short period of time. In less common cases, tinnitus could become effectively permanent, a condition known as chronic tinnitus.
There are a couple of reasons why tinnitus is so common. The first is that the environmental factors that contribute to tinnitus are also fairly common (more on that in a bit). The second reason is that tinnitus is usually a symptom of a root condition or injury. And there are lots of conditions and injuries that can result in tinnitus. Consequently, tinnitus tends to be quite common.
How can the environment affect tinnitus?
There are a wide variety of factors that can contribute to tinnitus symptoms, including ototoxic chemicals and medications. But when it comes to “environmental” triggers, noise is the biggest culprit. For example, some locations are noisier than others (traffic noise in some settings can get exceptionally high). Likewise, anybody who works around industrial equipment all day would be at risk of their environment worsening their tinnitus.
These environmental factors can be exceptionally important when considering your hearing health.
As with hearing loss, noise-induced damage can eventually cause tinnitus symptoms. In these cases, the resulting tinnitus is often chronic in nature. Here are a few of the most prevalent noise-related causes of tinnitus:
- Traffic: You might not even realize how loud traffic can be in densely populated places. 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 noisy settings.
- Events: Tinnitus can sometimes be caused by loud noises, even if they aren’t experienced over a long duration. For example, attending a concert or using firearms can both trigger tinnitus if the volumes get to a high enough level.
- Noise in the workplace: Lots of workplaces, including offices, are frequently the source of loud noises. Tinnitus can eventually result from being in these places for eight hours a day, whether it’s industrial equipment or the din of a lot of people talking in an office.
- Music: Listening to music at high volumes is a pretty common practice. Doing this on a consistent basis can frequently result in tinnitus symptoms.
People often wrongly think damage to their ears will only happen at extreme volume levels. As a result, it’s essential to use hearing protection before you think you might need it. Noise induced tinnitus symptoms can often be avoided altogether by doing this.
If I have tinnitus, what should I do?
Will tinnitus go away on its own? Perhaps, in some instances. But your symptoms may be irreversible in some instances. There’s no way to know which is which at the outset. If you have tinnitus due to noise damage, even if your tinnitus does clear up, your chance of having your tinnitus come back and become chronic is much more likely.
People often underestimate the minimum volume that damage starts to happen, which is the most significant contributing factor to its advancement. Damage has probably already occurred if you’re experiencing tinnitus. 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:
- If possible, try to decrease environmental volume. If you have any machinery that isn’t in use, turn it off, and close the windows if it’s noisy outside, for instance.
- Prevent damage by utilizing hearing protection like earplugs or earmuffs. You can also get some amount of protection from noise canceling headphones.
- Reducing the amount of time you spend in noisy environments without giving your ears a chance to recover.
How to deal with your symptoms
Lots of people who experience chronic tinnitus find the symptoms to be enormously distracting and uncomfortable. This prompts them to attempt to find a way to ease the severity of their symptoms.
If you hear a ringing or buzzing sound, it’s important to set up an appointment, particularly if the sound doesn’t go away. We will be able to evaluate your symptoms and identify how to best address them. There’s no cure for the majority of types of chronic tinnitus. Here are a number of ways to manage the symptoms:
- 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 severity of tinnitus symptoms. Your tinnitus symptoms can sometimes be eased by using relaxation techniques like meditation, for instance.
- Retraining therapy: You can sometimes retrain your ears with the help of a specialist, which will progressively retrain the way you process sound.
- Masking device: This is a device that fits like a hearing aid and plays sounds to mask your symptoms. Your device will be specially calibrated to mask your symptoms of tinnitus.
- White noise devices: Using a white noise device around your home can help you tune out your tinnitus in some cases.
There’s no cure for tinnitus. A great first step would be to protect your hearing by controlling your environment.
But treating and managing tinnitus is possible. Depending on your lifestyle, your hearing, and your tinnitus, we’ll be able to develop a specific treatment plan for you. For some, dealing with your tinnitus may simply mean making use of a white noise machine. In other situations, a more intensive approach may be needed.
Set up an appointment to find out how to manage your tinnitus symptoms.
