Causes of tinnitus and treatment

Tinnitus is an unusual noise seen in one or both ears, even if the patient feels like it comes from the head. So why do you have tinnitus? This article will show you all the 9 most common causes!

Symptoms of tinnitus

Tinnitus is when a person with this condition feels strange in their ears like the sound of the wind blowing, whistling, cooing, maybe on one side or both ears. These sounds are only felt by the tinnitus. Tinnitus can be continuous or buzzing every time.

People with tinnitus most clearly feel at night or in quiet times. Tinnitus may be accompanied by hearing loss, dizziness or headache, dizziness.

Tinnitus can be caused by external ear canal inflammation, ear canal, and otitis media.

The cause of tinnitus

1. Hearing is affected by loud noise

Tinnitus usually occurs with people who are exposed to noise.

Active hearing depends on the health of the auditory nerve in the inner ear. When exposed to loud, frequent noise can damage nerve fibers and lead to hearing loss. Frequent noise exposure is considered the leading cause of tinnitus. This is the case in people working in a factory, factory, driver, bridge, welding, construction, teacher, counselor, singer, songwriter, or music listener. long time…

2. Aging the auditory nerve

Tinnitus may also be related to generalized, weakening of the auditory nerve (called presbycusis). The degradation of the inner ear occurs in about 30% of people aged 65-74 and 50% 75 years and older.

3. Middle ear problems

Tinnitus occurs in 65% of people with a history of ear sclerosis (hard bone in the ear bone). The tinnitus in this case often has a high pitched sound (bees, buzzing, screams .), or uu (white noise), not a low-pitched sound.

Middle ear infections often cause tinnitus, which may disappear when the infection is treated. If middle ear inflammation recurs many times, it will form benign scars or tumors of skin cells in the middle ear (behind the eardrum) and cause hearing loss, tinnitus, along with other symptoms, even lice feel 'twitch' in the ear.

4. Vestibular disorder

Hearing loss and tinnitus are often accompanied by balanced dysfunction (vestibular system). Some vestibular disorders associated with tinnitus include Meniere's disease (Meniere is a disorder in the inner ear that causes spontaneous dizziness, spontaneous sensation, accompanied by hearing loss, tinnitus, double when it causes a feeling of fullness in the ear like air in the ear) and secondary endothelial thrombosis (due to abnormal amounts of fluid called endolymph in the inner ear); or partial fistula (torn or defective in one or both thin membranes in between the middle and inner ear).

5. Injury of the ear nerves, change of the auditory center system

The middle ear canal of the cochlea, the No. 8 cranial nerve, carries the audio signal from the inner ear to the brain. Tinnitus may be the result of this nerve damage. No. 8 neurological damage is often caused by: neural virus infection; blood compression syndrome (causing nerve irritation with blood); Benign tumors in the vestibular part of the nerve, due to age .

Nerve 8 determines your hearing.

Chronic tinnitus may also be related to 'hyperactivity' in the central auditory system, especially in the auditory cortex. In this case, the cause of tinnitus is due to cochlear damage (peripheral auditory structure), or the vestibulo-cochlear nerve.

6. Head and neck injuries

Compared to other causes, tinnitus due to head or neck trauma tends to be considered a bigger and more serious 'story'. It is accompanied by frequent headache pain, difficulty concentrating, memory impairment and a higher likelihood of depression.

7. Tinnitus due to side effects of western medicine

Many drugs can be agents or aggravate the tinnitus. For example: Anti-inflammatory drugs; antibiotics; circulatory diuretics; aspirin and salicylates, drugs containing quinine; chemotherapy drugs . Depending on the dose, this side effect may be temporary or permanent tinnitus.

8. Vascular-related diseases

Tinnitus is a 'rhythm' that sometimes occurs at the same time as the heartbeat. Patients often feel like hearing the pulse, heart beating in the ears, very loud and very clear. This is the result of noise from blood vessels near the inner ear. Tinnitus, hearing loss in this case is usually not too serious. However, sometimes it is a 'indicator' of other dangerous diseases such as high or low blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, anemia, hemangiomas or aneurysms .

9. Other causes

Besides the above 8 causes, there are many other reasons that also cause you to experience tinnitus, such as high stress levels, sinusitis or colds, autoimmune disorders (such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus), changes in hormones (pregnancy), diabetes, fibromyalgia, Lyme disease, allergies, cerebrospinal fluid depletion, vitamin deficiency and lead poisoning . In addition, too much alcohol or caffeine is also at risk. Increasing the level of tinnitus in some people.

How to treat tinnitus?

Avoid contact with excessive noise, prolonged and continuous noises.

Tinnitus has many causes, the best way is to see the above case, to see an ear, nose and throat specialist immediately to examine, find the cause to resolve and can be treated in the most effective way.

1. First of all, pay attention to the mood of the patient because the patient often worries, insomnia leads to physical weakness, so can use mild tranquilizers before going to sleep, moreover, quiet night static, increasing tinnitus.
2. Cases such as external ear canal, ear canal, earwax or middle ear infection, in addition to treating inflammation, need to clean the ear canal.
3. Some people with tinnitus due to loud noise or listening to music through headphones are too loud and prolonged to avoid exposure to noise; If the blood pressure is high, lower blood pressure medication should be used as directed by the cardiologist;
4. Cases of tinnitus due to vasomotor disorders, cerebral circulation insufficiency, need to use drugs to relax the inner ear artery and increase oxygen transport to the cochlea; treatment of sinus nasal diseases, throat tinnitus such as VA curettage, nasopharyngeal cleaning, hot flushing or atrial venting in case the atrial tap is blocked.
5. Severe cases such as atrial inflammation, Ménière's disease, brain tumors, nerve nerve number VIII, nasopharyngeal cancer must be treated according to deep specialty, can treat medical or surgical treatment.
6. Many cases of tinnitus cannot find a cause, there is no specific treatment. Need to explain to patients getting used to this symptom.

Doctor's advice

1. Do not use a lot of stimulants such as alcohol, tobacco, coffee.
2. Avoid excessive noise, prolonged and continuous noises, listen to loud music or through headphones.
3. Enhance exercise, sports, meditation, yoga, breathing exercises.
4. Have a healthy lifestyle, work and rest properly.