Listening to loud music through headphones or at a concert may also produce temporary symptoms of tinnitus. Medication use can also cause tinnitus and hearing damage, called ototoxicity, in some people. Drugs that may cause tinnitus include:.
Your doctor will examine your ears and conduct a hearing test to diagnose tinnitus. An audiologist will transmit sounds through a set of headphones to one ear at a time.
Your doctor may be able to diagnose the cause of your tinnitus by comparing what you can hear to what people of your age and sex should be able to hear. Your doctor may also use imaging tests, such as CT or MRI scans, to see if you have deformities or damage to your ears.
Your doctor will address any blood vessel abnormalities and remove any excess earwax. If medications are contributing to your tinnitus, your doctor may switch your prescriptions to restore normal hearing. Drug therapy can also help reduce the sounds you hear in your ears.
Tricyclic antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications , including Xanax, amitriptyline, and nortriptyline, can lessen the ear sounds in some cases.
However, not everyone responds to drug therapy and the side effects can be bothersome. Noise-suppression machines can help dull the ringing, buzzing, or roaring by providing relaxing noises to mask your ear sounds. You can also take steps to manage your tinnitus by reducing stress.
Engage in a hobby or talk with a trusted friend or family member to reduce stress in your life. You should also avoid exposure to loud noises to lessen the severity of your tinnitus. Hearing aids can be beneficial for some people with tinnitus. Sound amplification can help those who have trouble hearing normal noises due to their tinnitus. Cochlear implants to restore lost hearing may also be effective.
A cochlear implant is a device that allows your brain to bypass the damaged part of your ear to help you hear more effectively. A microphone implanted just above your ear works with an electrode set inserted into your inner ear. The implant sends your auditory nerve the signals you need to process sound. Cochlear implants use electrical stimulation to help your brain interpret sounds properly.
Protect your ears from loud noises to help prevent tinnitus. Keep a close eye on the volume levels of your television, radio, and personal music player. Wear ear protection around noises louder than 85 decibels , which is the level associated with average heavy traffic noise. You should also avoid medications that may cause your tinnitus symptoms to recur and schedule regular hearing tests with your doctor to promptly detect any problems with the structure of your inner and middle ear.
Learn about ways to treat and stop tinnitus symptoms. Certain cancer drugs, including cisplatin Platinol and vincristine Oncovin, Vincasar. Loop diuretics when given intravenously in high doses , including bumetanide Bumex , furosemide Lasix , and torsemide Demadex.
Tricyclic antidepressants such as amitriptyline Elavil, others , clomipramine Anafranil , and imipramine Tofranil. If you develop tinnitus, it's important to see your clinician. She or he will take a medical history, give you a physical examination, and do a series of tests to try to find the source of the problem. She or he will also ask you to describe the noise you're hearing including its pitch and sound quality, and whether it's constant or periodic, steady or pulsatile and the times and places in which you hear it.
Your clinician will review your medical history, your current and past exposure to noise, and any medications or supplements you're taking. Tinnitus can be a side effect of many medications, especially when taken at higher doses see "Some drugs that can cause or worsen tinnitus".
Musculoskeletal factors — jaw clenching, tooth grinding , prior injury, or muscle tension in the neck — sometimes make tinnitus more noticeable, so your clinician may ask you to tighten muscles or move the jaw or neck in certain ways to see if the sound changes. If tight muscles are part of the problem, massage therapy may help relieve it. Tinnitus that's continuous, steady, and high-pitched the most common type generally indicates a problem in the auditory system and requires hearing tests conducted by an audiologist.
Pulsatile tinnitus calls for a medical evaluation, especially if the noise is frequent or constant. MRI or CT imaging may be needed to check for a tumor or blood vessel abnormality. Your general health can affect the severity and impact of tinnitus, so this is also a good time to take stock of your diet, physical activity, sleep, and stress level — and take steps to improve them. You may also be able to reduce the impact of tinnitus by treating depression, anxiety, insomnia, and pain with medications or psychotherapy.
If you're often exposed to loud noises at work or at home, it's important to reduce the risk of hearing loss or further hearing loss by using protectors such as earplugs or earmuff-like or custom-fitted devices. American Academy of Audiology www. American Tinnitus Association www. In addition to treating associated problems such as depression or insomnia , there are several strategies that can help make tinnitus less bothersome. No single approach works for everyone, and you may need to try various combinations of techniques before you find what works for you.
If you have age-related hearing loss, a hearing aid can often make tinnitus less noticeable by amplifying outside sounds. There is no FDA-approved drug treatment for tinnitus, and controlled trials have not found any drug, supplement, or herb to be any more effective than a placebo. That includes ginkgo biloba, which is sometimes promoted for this purpose. Some patients believe that acupuncture helps, but it too has been found to be no better than a placebo.
The most effective approaches are behavioral strategies and sound-generating devices, often used in combination. They include the following:. Cognitive behavioral therapy CBT. CBT uses techniques such as cognitive restructuring and relaxation to change the way patients think about and respond to tinnitus. Patients usually keep a diary and perform "homework" to help build their coping skills.
Therapy is generally short-term — for example, weekly sessions for two to six months. CBT may not make the sound less loud, but it can make it significantly less bothersome and improve quality of life. Tinnitus retraining therapy TRT. This technique is based on the assumption that tinnitus results from abnormal neuronal activity see "What's going on? The aim is to habituate the auditory system to the tinnitus signals, making them less noticeable or less bothersome.
The main components of TRT are individual counseling to explain the auditory system, how tinnitus develops, and how TRT can help and sound therapy. A device is inserted in the ear to generate low-level noise and environmental sounds that match the pitch, volume, and quality of the patient's tinnitus.
Depending on the severity of the symptoms, treatment may last one to two years. When TRT was developed in the s by neuroscientist Dr. Pawel Jastreboff, it was designed to be administered according to a strict protocol.
Today, the term TRT is being used to describe modified versions of this therapy, and the variations make accurate assessment of its effectiveness difficult. Masking devices, worn like hearing aids, generate low-level white noise a high-pitched hiss, for example that can reduce the perception of tinnitus and sometimes also produce residual inhibition — less noticeable tinnitus for a short time after the masker is turned off.
Even though tinnitus is often benign, there are some specific symptoms that should alert people to seek medical evaluation:. If you experience tinnitus with any of the symptoms above, it is important to discuss them with your doctor or an otolaryngologist, who is a specialist in diagnosing, managing, and treating medical conditions of the head and neck, including the ears. The most important thing you can do about your tinnitus is discuss it with your physician.
Often you will be sent for a hearing test, because most tinnitus is associated with some degree of hearing loss. The hearing test will often provide additional information to the physician about whether further tests are necessary.
If it is determined that tinnitus is caused by any of the conditions previously noted, treatment aimed at those conditions may offer relief. If there is hearing loss, hearing aids may help both hearing and tinnitus. Distraction techniques such as a white-noise machine or background noise may also help, particularly during sleep. One of the challenges in treating non-pulsatile, benign tinnitus is that there are few medications that reliably resolve symptoms. It is also difficult to find medical therapies for tinnitus, because we are still working to identify a specific location where tinnitus originates.
Despite this challenge, there is new research showing effective non-medication approaches to tinnitus, One example of this is neural stimulation techniques , which have shown promise in appropriate patients. The most effective treatment for non-pulsatile, benign tinnitus is cognitive behavioral therapy. Specific behavioral therapy, called tinnitus retraining therapy, has consistently been shown to reduce tinnitus compared to other treatment modalities.
This can also aid in addressing any underlying stress or anxiety about the condition. Ultimately, tinnitus is a very challenging condition for both patients and physicians. Being informed is important in helping you manage this condition. If you feel that tinnitus is interfering with your life or causing you significant stress, ask your physician about your options.
As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. I find turning of the TV and radio and also remembering to use hearing protection when using power equipment really helps. Try it for two weeks.
I have had worsening tinnitus for many years and now my middle-aged son has it as well. We both suffer from nasal problems such as allergic rhinitis, sinus problems, colds always worse than normal, etc etc. Has any research been carried out into this area? We would very much like to know. I have severe intrusive tinnitus. I have tried many types of treatments with minimal relief.
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