Do you often experience symptoms like buzzing, humming, or hissing? Well, according to the top ENT specialists, this medical condition is known as tinnitus. The primary symptom of tinnitus is ringing in the ear, which can be phantom for some people and real for others. No matter what the reason for tinnitus is, it can be distracting and might interrupt the daily life of the affected person. To know about what is tinnitus and to get an immediate solution, you need to visit the top ear specialist in the town.
What is Tinnitus?
Tinnitus is the sound perception without an external source and other people also cannot hear it. It usually involves a ringing sound, but other symptoms include buzzing or roaring. It is a common disease, and almost 10 to 25% of adults suffer from it. Tinnitus in both children and adults might improve or go away completely, but in most cases, it worsens with time. If the tinnitus persists for more than 3 months, or it has become chronic, you need to immediately consult an ENT specialist.
If you leave tinnitus untreated for a longer duration, then you might lose some degree of hearing power. It can also affect the concentration ability or sleep, thus affecting the mood. In severe cases, tinnitus can also lead to depression or anxiety. The leading ENT specialists treat tinnitus through behavioral therapies, medicines, and sound therapies.
What are the Symptoms of Tinnitus?
Now that you know what is tinnitus, it is time to know about its symptoms. The ringing in the ear due to tinnitus is more like a continuous sine wave signal at a particular frequency. Other sounds include:
- Buzzing or humming
- Intermittent clicking
- Surf like roaring
- Hissing
Sometimes, the affected person might also hear more than one sound due to tinnitus. The sounds might come and go, or it can be continuous. As per the reputed ENT doctors, there can be situations when the tinnitus sound might get louder, like when you are excessively tired.
FAQ
What do ENT Specialists do for tinnitus?
The doctor will first find out the cause of the tinnitus and offer some particular treatment for reducing the noise. The treatment includes wax or hair removal from the ear canal, middle ear fluid treatment, treatment of arthritis in the jaw joint, and many more.
How ENT Doctors Treat Tinnitus?
There are different ways to reduce the tinnitus impact with the help of the following treatments.
- Sound Therapies
Tinnitus starts from the changes in the neural circuits due to hearing loss. According to some evidence, it is seen that exposure to some sound can help in silencing the tinnitus and reverse the neural changes. Sound therapies work by masking all the sounds in tinnitus, helping you grow accustomed to them or distracting the patient from them.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapies
It teaches the ways of identifying negative thoughts that might cause distress. The ENT doctors will try to alter your response from negative thoughts to positive ones to decrease the tinnitus impact on your life. According to various studies, this type of therapy improves the well-being of those who are suffering from tinnitus conditions.
- Tinnitus Retraining Therapy
In this treatment, the ENT specialists implement sound therapy and counseling for retraining the brain from the physiological and emotional point of view. In this way, the person affected by tinnitus will not notice it. The therapy helps to reclassify the tinnitus sounds as neutral with the help of the lower-level sounds from a device in the ear.
- Medicines
There are no particular medicines for treating tinnitus. However, anti-anxiety and antidepressant medicines might help you to sleep or improve your mood.
Conclusion
So, it is evident from above how tinnitus can negatively affect your functional health and other life qualities. It can be a continuous or intermittent sound in both or one ear. Thus, it is necessary to undergo a thorough examination under the supervision of the ENT specialist. They will understand the cause and specific treatment for tinnitus.
