It’s not uncommon for individuals to have ringing in their ears, also called tinnitus. Some estimates suggest that 10 percent of people have tinnitus at one point or another, making it one of the most common health conditions in the world. The condition is experienced as a sound in the ear that isn’t really there, typically, it’s a buzzing or ringing, but tinnitus can manifest as other sounds too.
While the preponderance of tinnitus might be evident, the causes are frequently more opaque. Some of the wide array of tinnitus causes are temporary, while others can be more permanent.
This is why environmental factors can Have a major impact on tinnitus symptoms. If the background sound of your particular environment is very noisy, you may be harming your hearing. This environmental tinnitus may sometimes be long lasting or it might sometimes respond to changes to make your environment quieter.
Why do so many individuals experience tinnitus?
Tinnitus is a condition in which you hear a sound that isn’t really there. For the majority of individuals, tinnitus manifests as a ringing or buzzing, but it could also present as rumbling, humming, screeching, or other noises as well. Usually, the sounds are consistent or rhythmic. Tinnitus will normally clear itself up after a short period of time. In less common cases, tinnitus may become effectively permanent, a condition known as chronic tinnitus.
Tinnitus is so prevalent for a couple of reasons. The first is that the environmental factors that play a role in tinnitus are also relatively common (more on that in a bit). Root conditions and injuries can contribute to tinnitus symptoms and that accounts for the second reason. And there are a wide variety of conditions and injuries that can result in tinnitus. Tinnitus is rather common for these reasons.
How is tinnitus affected by environmental factors?
There are a wide variety of factors that can bring about tinnitus symptoms, including ototoxic chemicals and medications. However, when the majority of people talk about “environment” when it comes to tinnitus, they actually mean the noise. Some settings, such as noisy city streets, can get really loud. Likewise, anybody who works around industrial equipment all day would be at risk of their environment worsening their tinnitus.
These environmental factors can be incredibly significant when considering your hearing health.
As with hearing loss, noise-associated damage can eventually trigger tinnitus symptoms. When tinnitus is a result of noise damage, it’s usually chronic and often permanent. Some of the most common noise and environment-related causes of tinnitus include the following:
- Noise in the workplace: It may come as a surprise that lots of workplaces, sometimes even offices, are pretty noisy. Whether it’s industrial equipment or gabby office neighbors, spending eight hours a day around continuous workplace noise can eventually lead to tinnitus.
- Traffic: Traffic in heavily populated places can be a lot louder than you might expect it to be. And you may not even realize that your ears can be damaged at lower volumes than you might expect. Tinnitus and hearing damage can be the outcome of long commutes in these loud locations.
- Events: If noise is loud enough, even over short intervals, tinnitus can sometimes be the result. Shooting a gun or going to a rock concert are examples of this kind of noise.
- Music: Listening to music at high volumes is a pretty common practice. Doing this on a regular basis can frequently cause tinnitus symptoms.
People frequently mistakenly believe hearing damage will only happen at extreme volume levels. Because of this, hearing protection should be utilized at lower volumes than you might expect. Hearing protection can help prevent tinnitus symptoms from developing in the first place.
What should I do if I’m experiencing tinnitus?
So, does tinnitus resolve? Well, in some cases it could. But your symptoms might be irreversible in some instances. There’s no way to identify which is which at the beginning. If you have tinnitus because of noise damage, even if your tinnitus does go away, your risk of having your tinnitus come back and become chronic is much more likely.
Individuals tend to underestimate the minimum volume that damage starts to occur, which is the most significant contributing factor to its advancement. If you experience tinnitus, your body is telling you that damage has already probably happened. This means that there are a number of things that you should do to alter your environment so as to prevent more permanent damage.
Here are a few tips you can try:
- Prevent damage by using hearing protection like earplugs or earmuffs. Noise canceling headphones can also be a benefit in this regard.
- Reducing the volume of your environment when possible. If you have any machinery that’s not in use, turn it off, and shut the windows if it’s noisy outside, for instance.
- Limiting the amount of time you spend in noisy environments without giving your ears a chance to recuperate.
How to handle your symptoms
The symptoms of tinnitus are often a big distraction and are really uncomfortable for most people who deal with them. This prompts them to attempt to find a way to ease the intensity of their symptoms.
You should give us a call for an appointment if you’re hearing a persistent ringing or buzzing in your ears. We can help you determine the best way to manage your specific situation. For the majority of cases of persistent tinnitus, there’s no cure. Here are a number of ways to manage the symptoms:
- Relaxation techniques: Tinnitus symptoms can sometimes be worsened by high blood pressure. Your tinnitus symptoms can sometimes be eased by using relaxation techniques like meditation, for example.
- Hearing aid: This can help amplify other sounds and, as a result, drown out the ringing or buzzing produced by tinnitus.
- Masking device: This is a device that fits similarly to a hearing aid and plays sounds to mask your symptoms. Your device will be specially calibrated to mask your tinnitus symptoms.
- Retraining therapy: You can sometimes retrain your ears with the help of a specialist, which will slowly retrain the way you process sound.
- White noise devices: Using a white noise device around your house can help you tune out your tinnitus in some cases.
Tinnitus is not curable. A good first step would be to protect your hearing by controlling your environment.
But addressing and managing tinnitus is possible. We’ll be able to develop a specific treatment plan according to your hearing, your tinnitus, and your lifestyle. For some, dealing with your tinnitus might simply mean making use of a white noise machine. In other cases, a more extensive approach may be needed.
Learn how to best manage your tinnitus by making an appointment right away!