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RINGING IN THE EARS
RINGING IN THE EARS
HOME / RINGING IN THE EARS

All the sounds, that are heard in the ears or in the head, are called ringing (tinnitus). This sound may resemble wind, thunder, cicadidae buzz or mechanical sounds. Millions of people in the world suffers from ringing. At a certain time in our lives, this noise group might be felt in our head or ears. When these ringings persist, people may end up leaving their jobs and even at some point it gets terribly difficult to lead a normal life. Ringing might be heard in either one or both ears. It is very disturbing when it’s contant. Sometimes, ringing in the ears might even be heard by people around. This type of ringing is called objective ringing. It usually occurs due to anomalies in veins or muscle spasms out of the ears. If the ringing is heard by the patient only, then it is called subjective ringing. It gets more frequent with the hearing loss due to aging. Usually, with the aging of the inner ear, destruction of fiber tips of auditory nerves, which provide hearing in the inner ear, shows itself with reduction in hearing and causes subjective ringing. Systemic diseases may specifically occur as a result of circulatory system diseases. In some situations, accumulation of putty-ish ear secretion (cerumen), which is called earwax by public, on the outer ear canal may also cause that. Some situations like being exposed to loud noise for long period of time or extremely loud noise for a short period of time, might cause auditory nerve destruction and ringing, at earlier ages. Some medications that affect inner ear nutrition, high dose aspirin consumption and some antiboitics damage inner ear nerves and cause ringing. In these cases, it would be enough to stop taking that medication to resolve the problem. Strikes to the head or neck might cause ringing either by causing destruction on inner ear nerves or by defecting middle ear tiny bone chain transmittance mechanism. The plaque accumulation, that increases with aging due to high cholestrol in the veins, causes ringing and impairs inner ear perfusion. Also stress, alcohol consumption, cafein intake and smoking which esclate high blood pressure, cause ringing by destructing inner ear perfusion. And even though seen less frequently, structural deformations in cappilaries and some head and neck tumors also might lead to ringing. Most ringings are harmless. When the ringing becomes continuous and other syptoms like hearing loss or dizziness emerges together, then the case requires an examination by an ENT specialist. Your doctor would teach you the techniques to deal with the ringing more easily and plan your treatment. Usually there is no permanent cure of ringing caused by aging.  Yet, it is possible to improve ringing by eliminating the other reasons we have mentioned. In regards to ringing caused by aging, you may relatively benefit from the masking methods and hearing aids which will be recommended by your physician and audiologist.

Possible Precautions For Ringing Besides Treatment
Avoid too loud and noisy places. Try to keep your blood pressure under control. Cut down your salt intake because salt affects blood circulation negatively. Stay away from coffee, tea, tobacco products and carbonated drinks. Caffein and nicotine affects blood circulation negatively; impairs oxygenation in inner ear. In order to provide better regulated blood circulation, plan daily routine exercises and rest well. Stop worrying about the noise and know that this sound in your head deteriorates your psychological state, so learn to live with it.

Treatment of Ringing
No treatment can fix ringing if it is related to loud noise and hearing loss due to aging. Your doctor will teach you what to do and how to do about decreasing the aggresiveness of the sound. If the ringing in your ears is related to another health condition, then your doctor would administer various treatments to reduce that ringing.
If the ringing is caused by the removal of earwax from the ear or a vascular disease, then it can be treated by eliminating that cause. If the ringing is caused by medications taken for some other cases, then it can be resolved by alternating or discontinuing the medications. There are some antidepressant medications which are used in ringing treatment. The results of these medications may vary. These medications are used rarely since they have side effects like mouth dryness, visual impairment and constipation. New medical researches show that some medications used for the treatment of migraine and alcoholism have positive effect on the ringing treatment of some patients. Yet, the results are disputable. There are also alternative methods used for ringing treatment which do not have exact proven results , such as acupuncture, hypnosis, ginko plant, electrical stimulation of the inner ear, antidepressants and muscle relaxers, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and zinc therapy. Your ENT specialist will inform you about the one that will help you.

Copyright @ 2018. Prof. Hasan Tanyeri, MD
The content in this website is intended for informative purpose only. It should not be directly perceived as doctor’s recommendations.