Occasional Tinnitus
- Occasional Tinnitus In Left Ear
- Is Tinnitus Constant Or Intermittent
- Occasional Tinnitus In One Ear
- Occasional Ringing Ears
- Occasional Tinnitus Treatment
- Tinnitus Cures That Work
Occasional Tinnitus In Left Ear
If you have a thumping or whooshing sound in one or both ears that seems to follow a steady beat, you may have this rare form of tinnitus. Like regular tinnitus, you hear a constant sound that. Simply put, Tinnitus is a condition where people experience a ringing in their ears, but it can also sound like clicking, hissing, roaring, or buzzing for others. It varies per person, but the. Meniere disease is characterized by intermittent episodes of vertigo, fluctuating hearing loss, tinnitus, and ear pressure secondary to malabsorption of endolymphatic fluid in the inner ear.29. Tinnitus is very frequent in AN as it is many inner ear diseases. In most cases, the tinnitus is high pitched and localized to the tumor ear. However, the symptom may be non-localizing and may. Tinnitus is a condition where people experience a ringing in their ears, but it can also sound like clicking, hissing, roaring, or buzzing for others. More often than not it can disrupt a person's.
Most tinnitus is primary tinnitus, where no cause can be identified aside from hearing loss. Secondary tinnitus is associated with a specific underlying cause that may be treatable. Your ENT specialist will help you distinguish whether your tinnitus is primary or secondary.
Tinnitus may be caused by different parts of the hearing system. The outer ear (pinna and ear canal) may be involved. Excessive ear wax, especially if the wax touches the ear drum, causing pressure and changing how the ear drum vibrates, can result in tinnitus.
Middle ear problems can also cause tinnitus, including middle ear infection (common) and otosclerosis (uncommon), which hardens the tiny ear bones or ossicles. Another rare cause of tinnitus from the middle ear that does not result in hearing loss is muscle spasms in one of the two tiny muscles in the ear. In this case, the tinnitus can be intermittent and sometimes your examiner may also be able to hear the sounds.
Most subjective tinnitus associated with the hearing system originates in the inner ear. Damage and loss of the tiny sensory hair cells in the inner ear (that can be caused by different factors such as noise damage, medications, and age) may also be associated with tinnitus.
One of the preventable causes of tinnitus is excessive noise exposure. In some instances of noise exposure, tinnitus can be noticed even before hearing loss develops, so be careful to take special precautions to protect your ears and hearing in noisy environments.
Medications can also damage inner ear hair cells and cause tinnitus. These include both non-prescription medications such as aspirin and acetaminophen, when taken in high doses, and prescription medication including certain diuretics and antibiotics. As we age, the incidence of tinnitus increases.
Tinnitus may also originate from an abnormality in, or near, the hearing portion of the brain. These include a variety of uncommon disorders such as damage from head trauma, or a benign tumor called “vestibular schwannoma” (acoustic neuroma).
Is Tinnitus Constant Or Intermittent
Tinnitus that sounds like your pulse or heartbeat is known as “pulsatile tinnitus.” Infrequently, pulsatile tinnitus may signal the presence of cardiovascular disease, narrowed arteries, or a vascular tumor in your head and neck, or ear. If you are experiencing this type of tinnitus, you should consult a physician as soon as possible for evaluation.
Finally, non-auditory conditions and lifestyle factors can exacerbate tinnitus. Medical conditions such as temporomandibular joint arthralgia (TMJ), depression, anxiety, insomnia, and muscular stress and fatigue may lead to, or exacerbate, tinnitus.
Tinnitus is the term for hearing sounds that come from inside your body, rather than from an outside source.
It's often described as 'ringing in the ears', although several sounds can be heard, including:
- buzzing
- humming
- grinding
- hissing
- whistling
Some people may hear sounds similar to music or singing, and others hear noises that beat in time with their pulse (pulsatile tinnitus).
You may also notice that your hearing is not as good as it used to be or you're more sensitive to everyday sounds (hyperacusis).
Is it serious?
Occasional Tinnitus In One Ear
Tinnitus is rarely a sign of a serious underlying condition. For some people it may come and go and only be a minor irritation.
However, for some people, it can have a significant impact on everyday life and be very distressing, affect concentration, and cause problems such as difficulty sleeping (insomnia) and depression.
In many cases, tinnitus will get better gradually over time, either by disappearing or by the body getting used to it (habituation). But it's important to seek medical advice to see if an underlying cause can be found and treated, and to help you find ways to cope with the problem.
When to see your GP
You should see your GP if you continually or regularly hear sounds such as buzzing, ringing or humming in your ears.
They can examine your ears to see if the problem might be caused by a condition they could easily treat, such as an ear infection or earwax build-up. They can also do some simple checks to see if you have any hearing loss.
If necessary, your GP can refer you to a hospital specialist for further tests and treatment.
Read more about diagnosing tinnitus.
What causes tinnitus?
Tinnitus can develop gradually over time or occur suddenly. It's not clear exactly why it happens, but it often occurs along with some degree of hearing loss.
Tinnitus is often associated with:
- age-related hearing loss
- inner ear damage caused by repeated exposure to loud noises
- an earwax build-up
- a middle ear infection
- Ménière's disease – a condition that also causes hearing loss and vertigo (a spinning sensation)
- otosclerosis – an inherited condition where an abnormal bone growth in the middle ear causes hearing loss
However, around one in every three people with tinnitus doesn't have any obvious problem with their ears or hearing.
Occasional Ringing Ears
Read more about the causes of tinnitus.
Who is affected?
Most people have experienced short periods of tinnitus after being exposed to loud noises, such as after a music concert.
In the UK, more persistent tinnitus is estimated to affect around six million people (10% of the population) to some degree, with about 600,000 (1%) experiencing it to a severity that affects their quality of life.
Occasional Tinnitus Treatment
Tinnitus can affect people of all ages, including children, but is more common in people aged over 65.
Treating tinnitus
There's currently no single treatment for tinnitus that works for everyone. However, research to find an effective treatment is continuing.
If an underlying cause of your tinnitus can be found, effectively treating it may help improve your tinnitus – for example, removing a build-up of earwax might help.
Tinnitus Cures That Work
If a specific cause can't be found, treatment will focus on helping you manage the condition on a daily basis. This may involve:
- sound therapy – listening to neutral sounds to distract you from the sound of tinnitus
- counselling – therapy that aims to educate you about tinnitus and help you learn to cope with it more effectively
- cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – therapy that aims to help change the way you think about your tinnitus so it becomes less noticeable
- tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) – therapy that aims to help retrain the way your brain responds to tinnitus so you start to tune the sound out and become less aware of it
Read more about how tinnitus is treated.