It isn’t uncommon for people to have ringing in their ears, also known as tinnitus. Some estimates indicate that 10 percent of people experience tinnitus at one point or another, making it one of the most common health conditions in the world. Even though the most common manifestation of tinnitus is a phantom ringing or buzzing in your ear, it can also present as other sounds as well.
While the prevalence of tinnitus might be obvious, the causes are frequently more opaque. In part, that’s because tinnitus may be caused by a wide variety 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 setting is very noisy, you might be harming your hearing. This environmental tinnitus might sometimes be long lasting or it may sometimes react to changes to make your environment quieter.
What is tinnitus (and why is it so prevalent)?
Tinnitus is a condition that causes you to hear a noise that isn’t actually there. For most people, tinnitus manifests as a buzzing or ringing, but it may possibly also present as thumping, humming, screeching, or other noises as well. Typically, the sounds are steady or rhythmic. For most individuals, tinnitus will happen over a short period of time before resolving itself and vanishing. In less common cases, tinnitus could 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 relatively common (more on that soon). The second reason is that tinnitus is often a symptom of a root condition or injury. And there are lots of conditions and injuries that can result in tinnitus. Tinnitus is rather prevalent for these reasons.
How can the environment affect tinnitus?
Other things can also produce tinnitus, including ototoxic medications and chemicals. But when it comes to “environmental” triggers, noise is the biggest offender. Some locations, such as noisy city streets, can get very loud. Somebody would be in danger of environmental tinnitus, for example, if they worked around loud industrial equipment.
These environmental factors can be incredibly significant when considering your hearing health.
As with hearing loss, noise-induced damage can eventually cause tinnitus symptoms. In these cases, the resulting tinnitus tends to be chronic in nature. Here are a few of the most prevalent noise-related causes of tinnitus:
- Music: Listening to music at loud volumes is a pretty common practice. Tinnitus will often be the result if you do this frequently.
- Traffic: Traffic in densely populated locations can be a lot louder than you might expect it to be. And noise damage can happen at a lower volume than you might expect. Tinnitus and hearing damage can be the outcome of long commutes in these loud settings.
- Noise in the workplace: Lots of workplaces, including offices, are frequently the source of loud noises. Whether it’s industrial equipment or chatty office neighbors, spending eight hours a day around constant workplace noise can eventually lead to tinnitus.
- Events: If noise is loud enough, even over short periods, tinnitus can sometimes be the result. Firing a gun or going to a rock concert are examples of this type of noise.
People frequently wrongly think damage to their ears will only occur at extreme volume levels. For this reason, hearing protection should be used at lower volumes than you may expect. Hearing protection can help you avoid tinnitus symptoms from developing in the first place.
What should I do if I have tinnitus?
Will tinnitus go away on its own? Well, in some instances it might. In other cases, your symptoms could be permanent. There’s no way to identify which is which at the outset. Moreover, just because your tinnitus has reseeded doesn’t mean that noise damage has not occurred, resulting in an increased risk of chronic tinnitus in the future.
One of the most significant contributing factors to the development of tinnitus is that individuals tend to underestimate the volume at which damage happens to their ears. Damage has likely already occurred if you’re experiencing tinnitus. This means that there are a number of things that you should do to alter your environment so as to prevent more permanent damage.
Here are some tips you can try:
- Prevent damage by utilizing hearing protection like earplugs or earmuffs. You can also get some degree of protection from noise canceling headphones.
- Reducing the volume of your environment when possible. If you have any machinery that’s not in use, turn it off, and shut the windows if it’s noisy outside, for example.
- If you’re in a noisy setting, limit the amount of exposure time and give your ears breaks.
Managing symptoms
Lots of people who experience chronic tinnitus find the symptoms to be enormously distracting and uncomfortable. As a result, they often ask: how do you calm tinnitus?
If you hear a ringing or buzzing sound, it’s important to make an appointment, especially if the sound doesn’t go away. We can help you determine the best way to manage your specific situation. For the majority of cases of persistent tinnitus, there’s no cure. Here are a few ways to manage the symptoms:
- 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 example) can sometimes help reduce your tinnitus symptoms.
- White noise devices: Using a white noise device around your house can help you tune out your tinnitus in some cases.
- Hearing aid: The ringing or buzzing created by tinnitus can be drowned out by boosting the volume of outside sounds with hearing aids.
- Masking device: This is a device that fits like a hearing aid and plays sounds that mask your symptoms. The precise calibration of your device will depend on your specific symptoms.
- Retraining therapy: In some instances, you can work with a specialist to retrain your ears, gradually changing the way you process sound.
There’s no cure for tinnitus. A great first step would be to safeguard your hearing by managing your environment.
But tinnitus can be managed and managed. We’ll be able to formulate a specific treatment plan based on your hearing, your tinnitus, and your lifestyle. For some people, managing your tinnitus may simply mean using a white noise machine. In other cases, a more extensive approach may be necessary.
Schedule an appointment to learn how to manage your tinnitus symptoms.