- May 19, 2024
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Tinnitus is the perception of a sound that has no external source. Patients will report “ringing”, “humming”, “buzzing”, and “crickets”. It can be constant or come and go, it can be soft some-times and loud other times. Although there is no external source for tinnitus, it is not a phantom sound- there is real neural activity in your brain that you are hearing as your tinnitus. While tinnitus typically begins with a hearing loss, it is not exclusively an auditory problem. It is a result of neurological changes within the auditory system and within the parts of the brain that influence conscious attention and emotional state. No single explanation applies to all cases, but the process outlined below describes one of the more commonly accepted theories about what causes tinnitus. When the natural balance is upset by a hearing loss, the neurological activity is altered, and this altered activity is then interpreted by the brain as sound. This results in whistling or ringing sounds commonly known as tinnitus.
Tinnitus most commonly results from hearing loss caused by exposure to excessive or loud noises, however, it can also be caused by aging, ototoxic drugs, temporal-mandibular joint disorder (TMJ), depression, anxiety, Lyme disease, thyroid disorders, ear infections, or even wax in the ear. Normally, back-ground neurological activity in the brain is covered up by everyday sounds. Neurological changes may then cause the perceived sound to be more noticeable and disturbing. For some people, the presence of tinnitus is troubling, and so the brain treats it as a threat and focuses on it, increasing awareness. This “increased awareness” can lead to stress, resulting in further enhancement by the emotional centers of the brain, and further amplification of the tinnitus.
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