tinnitus
- Related Topics:
- human ear
- ear disease
tinnitus, ringing or buzzing in the ears. An estimated one-third of adults experience tinnitus at some point in their lives, and some 10 to 15 percent of individuals are afflicted by chronic tinnitus. There are two types of tinnitus: subjective, which is the most common form, and objective, which is relatively rare. In subjective tinnitus, only the person with the condition can hear the noise. In objective tinnitus, a physician can detect the ringing, buzzing, or clicking sound.
The perceived ringing sound in the ears that characterizes tinnitus may be caused by any of a number of ear conditions, including the clogging of the external auditory canal with earwax (cerumen) or inflammation of the eardrum membrane, the middle ear, or the inner ear. Tinnitus may also result from exposure to noise, from taking high doses of certain drugs (such as aspirin or the malaria drug chloroquine), or from excessive use of the telephone. It may accompany hearing loss, particularly in the high-frequency range. Tinnitus can also be caused by hypertension (abnormally high blood pressure), atherosclerosis (the accumulation of fat and cholesterol in the inner layer of arteries), and tumours of the cranial nerve (acoustic neuroma) or tumours that place pressure on blood vessels in the head or neck. Ringing in the ears sometimes accompanies vertigo (dizziness). Despite these known factors, there is no cause identified for the majority of persons with tinnitus. Tinnitus may become more pronounced when the affected individual is fatigued, and it is often more obvious at night than during the day.
Treatment of tinnitus may involve simply removing excess earwax or terminating the use of medications that can cause the condition. Surgery may be needed to correct vascular disorders that give rise to tinnitus. Hearing aids, noise suppression devices, and similar approaches may be used to mask the obviousness of the ringing or buzzing sound. Music therapy, in which a patient listens to music that lacks notes equivalent in frequency to the ringing sound the patient hears, has been shown to alleviate the perceived loudness of chronic tinnitus in some individuals. In severe cases, drugs such as alprazolam and amitriptyline may be prescribed to reduce the symptoms of tinnitus.
