Tinnitus 101 – What You Need to Know About Tinnitus

If you ever experience ringing in your ears, it might be from a condition called 
tinnitus. While not a medical condition on its own, tinnitus is a term used to determine 
if there is another condition of your ears you need to be concerned about. In the 
coming pages, you will learn about tinnitus and what can be done about it.

What is Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is the medical term for phantom ringing you hear in your ears. This means 
that the noise is not happening in your environment. For instance, no one can hear 
the ringing but you. Tinnitus is common because it affects about 1 in 5 individuals. 
Although it affects your ears, it is not a medical condition. It is classified as a 
symptom resulting from an underlying medical condition. An underlying medical 
condition is classified as a disease, infection or disorder of some type. 

If you have tinnitus, you may suffer from one of two types of the medical symptoms: 

subjective and objective tinnitus. Subjective tinnitus can only be heard by you. 
Subjective tinnitus is the form of tinnitus people commonly develop. 
It can develop because you had medical problems with your inner, middle or outer 
ear. In addition to problems hearing, your auditory nerves may also be affected. Your 
auditory nerves, located in your brain, is responsible for interpreting the nerve signals 
that you hear into sounds. 

Objective tinnitus is phantom noise your physician can hear while they are examining 
your ears. This is a rare form of the condition. It is often caused by issues with your 
blood vessel, muscle contractions or a medical condition in your middle ear bone. 

The ringing in your ears is bothersome. However, it is not serious and is not fatal. 
There is no cure for tinnitus. With treatment and identifying the underlying cause of 
tinnitus, you may notice improvement in symptoms. 

1. Signs and Symptoms

The most obvious symptom of tinnitus is the ringing in your ears. You may not 
experience ringing in the ears, but a different sound such as buzzing, clicking, 
humming, roaring and hissing. The noise may occur intermittently. 

This means you may hear the ringing in your ears, then it will stop just as suddenly 
as it started. You may experience throbbing and pain in your ears. The sound is a 
high-pitched sound that is continuous. Decreased hearing may also occur when you 
have tinnitus. 

You may experience symptoms that are not directly related to the buzzing or ringing 
in your ears. These symptoms include depression, anxiety, difficulty sleeping and 
lack of concentration.

2. What Causes Tinnitus?

Researchers cannot find the exact reason why Tinnitus occurs. However, numerous 
health condition can worsen the ear problem. From what researchers have gathered, 
inner ear cell damage is the common cause of tinnitus. The delicate, small hairs 
located in your inner ear sway according to the pressure of the sound waves you 
hear. 

Your ear cells are triggered to release the transmitted electrical signal to your 
auditory nerve and then to your brain. Your brain is responsible for interpreting the 
electrical signal as sounds. 

Any time the delicate, small hairs in your inner ear become broken or bent, they do 
not work properly. Instead, they create electrical impulses that are randomly sent to 
your brain. Your brain is responsible for interpreting these sounds. This is how you 
hear ringing or buzzing in your ears when no one is ringing a bell. 

The most common causes include: 

1. Being in an environment with extremely loud noise. A concert, listening to music 
too loud and heavy equipment can cause tinnitus when you are exposed to loud 
noise. 

2. Hearing loss that occurs because of age. Loss of hearing typically starts when you 
are 60 years old. 

3. Changes in your ear bone. Your ear bone in your middle ear can stiffen and 
changes the way you hear. 

4. Earwax blockage. Earwax blockage occurs because of wax buildup in the ear. 
The next leading cause of tinnitus is medications. Certain medications can either 
cause the condition or make it worse. What happens is the higher the dosage of 
medication, the worse the ringing in the ears become. The phantom noise tends to 
disappear when you stop taking the medication. 

Some medications are known to cause tinnitus or make it worse. For instance, some 
antibiotics and antidepressants may cause or worsen tinnitus. Taken in high doses, 
aspirin cause tinnitus or make tinnitus worse. Quinine medications and water pills, 
called diuretics, often cause tinnitus. Certain cancer medications like vincristine and 
mechlorethamine cause ringing in your ears. 

Some medical conditions may cause this condition, but it does not occur very often. 
For example, head or neck injuries can cause damage to your brain and hearing 
nerves. The damage usually causes tinnitus in only one ear. Acoustic neuroma, a 
noncancerous tumor in your cranial nerve, can cause ringing in one ear. 

Blood vessel disorders are also the cause of tinnitus. However, this link between 
blood vessel disorders and this condition is rare. Some vessels disorders that cause 
ringing in your ears include atherosclerosis, high blood pressure and turbulent blood 
flow.

3. The Risk Factors Associated with Tinnitus 

Any person can develop tinnitus in one or both ears. However, certain factors can 
increase your risk of developing the condition. For instance, exposure to loud noise 
can increase your chances of developing tinnitus. Cardiovascular problems, such as 
high blood pressure or atherosclerosis, can increase your risk of developing this 
condition. Smoking and age can both increase the risk of developing tinnitus. Men 
typically develop tinnitus at a higher rate than women. 

4. Possible Complications

Every medical condition has complications. Tinnitus is no different. These 
complications can be serious because the affect individuals differently. In fact, it may 
change your quality of life. Some complications that can occur if you have tinnitus 
include, but are not limited to memory problems, stress, fatigue, problems sleeping 
and fatigue. You may feel irritable for no reason. 

Treating the underlying condition that caused tinnitus can relieve the symptoms that 
develop because of the complications. 

5. How Tinnitus is Diagnosed

If you believe you have Tinnitus, do not self-diagnose. Instead, schedule an 
appointment with a physician. Your physician will determine if you have the condition 
and the underlying cause of the tinnitus. During your physical examination, your 
physician will look at your neck, ears and neck for possible signs of the condition. 

You may undergo an imaging test such as a CT scan. The physical examination may 
include a movement test to determine if an underlying cause of the ringing in your 
ears is due to a disorder that needs treatment. You will move your neck, arms and 
legs. You will clench and unclench your jaw. 

You will also look in various directions without turning your head so your physician 
will determine if you have an eye problem. An audiological examination, or hearing 
test, may also be ordered.

The type of sound you hear will help your physician identify the possible cause of the 
sound in your ears. 

For example, a clicking sound means that your muscles around and in your ears are 
making that noise. A low-pitched ringing in your ears in one ear may indicate 
Meniere’s disease. The disease may be the underlying cause of the ringing in your 
ears if it is accompanied by a moving or spinning sensation. 

The source of high-pitched ringing in the ears is exposure to loud noise. You may 
have suffered a blow to the ear. The physician may determine it is acoustic neuroma. 

6. What You Should Know About Treatment

If you are diagnosed with tinnitus, your physician will find the underlying condition. 
This medical condition, disease or disease will be treated first because it may be 
associated with Tinnitus symptoms. Your physician may take measures to decrease 
the phantom noise you hear.

Removing the Earwax

For example, your physician may remove the earwax from your ears. This will 
decrease your tinnitus symptoms. If medications you are on is causing your tinnitus 
symptoms, your physicians will change the dosage to decrease your symptoms.

Blood Vessel Disorders

Another treatment option is to treat your blood vessel disorder, if that is the cause of 
your ear condition. This is an underlying vascular condition that may require you to 
undergo surgery or take medication to treat the condition. 

Once the underlying medical condition, disorder or disease has been diagnosed, 
your physician may treat your tinnitus symptoms. This may help you avoid 
complications and severe symptoms associated with the condition. 

Medications

For instance, you may take tricyclic antidepressants. These antidepressants, which 
includes nortriptyline, has successfully decreased tinnitus symptoms. However, they 
do have severe side effects of their own. The medications’ side effects include 
blurred vision, dry mouth heart problems and constipation. 

Alprazolam, different type of medication, can be used to reduce the severity of 
tinnitus symptoms. The side effects of the medication such as Xanax includes 
nausea and drowsiness. It may become addictive. 

Lifestyle Changes You May Need to Make Based on a Tinnitus Diagnosis

Tinnitus typically cannot be treated. The best outcome with treatment is to decrease 
the severity of the symptoms. However, you can make some lifestyle changes to help 
lessen the tinnitus symptoms. 

One change to make is reduce your alcohol intake. Alcohol increases the amount of 
force your body uses to push blood through your blood vessels. This causes an 
increased about of flow to areas such as your inner ear. 

Another change you can make to reduce tinnitus symptoms is to reduce the amount 
of noise in your environment. Keep things like the radio, television and fan at the 
lowest speeds to help decrease your symptoms. Also, manage stress and avoid 
irritants like nicotine, caffeine and loud noise. All three things can cause your tinnitus 
symptoms to become more severe.

You may be wondering about the use of alternative medicine to treat tinnitus. 
Research shows little evidence that alternative medical treatments like acupuncture, 
hypnosis and zinc supplements actually cure or treat tinnitus. 


Is Tinnitus Ever a Medical Emergency?
Yes. If you have tinnitus symptoms that occur suddenly or without a cause, contact 
your physician immediately. Another medical emergency that needs immediate 
medical attention is if you have dizziness and hearing loss along with tinnitus 
symptoms. These are two situations that may have a serious underlying cause. 

Contact your physician if you develop tinnitus that hasn’t gone away in a week after 
developing an upper respiratory infection. 
Can Tinnitus be Prevented?
No. In many situations, you cannot avoid developing tinnitus because you have a risk 
factor that contributed to the condition. However, you can try to decrease the 
chances of developing hearing issue by doing certain things. For example, turn down 
the volume while listening to music and television. Both contribute to the 
development of tinnitus. If you work in an environment with loud noise, use hearing 
protection. Also, focus on your cardiovascular health to reduce the risk acquiring this 
condition. Exercise and eating healthier will decrease your chances of developing 
blood vessel disorders that will lead to tinnitus. 
Tinnitus is a serious symptom of a medical condition, disorder or disease. It causes 
ringing, buzzing and other phantom noises that only you can hear. You want to 
determine the cause of the symptom as soon as possible. Contact your physician to 
find out if you have tinnitus and what specific treatments are available to you to 
decrease your symptoms.
