07/31/2025
Why do my ears ring and is there help❓🛎️🛎️🎼
👂Ringing, called tinnitus (pronounced Tin-ah-tiss by the way!), is a very common perception. I actually have a fairly high-pitched tinnitus myself. It can take many forms including ringing, buzzing, or static-type noise. The most common cause of tinnitus is hearing loss. Even a mild loss can trigger tinnitus as ultimately hearing loss is typically damage to the very delicate inner ear cells we term “hair cells.”
An analogy I often use is that if a dog chewed on a speaker wire, we might expect the sound from that wire to be affected or have unwanted artifact. If our brains are not getting a clean conduit of the sound, tinnitus can be a common symptom. For this reason, tinnitus many times is more brain than ear related. Other exacerbating factors include stress, blood pressure, and diet. In any case, a hearing exam is a good next step when tinnitus is noticed.
Is there help for tinnitus❓ Yes - but a cautious yes as this is not to say there is a cure for tinnitus. There are many miraculous (and at times silly) claimed cures for tinnitus, however the first question you should ask is “Where’s the evidence?!”. For those with hearing loss, appropriate hearing aids do have evidence to provide relief though not a cure for tinnitus. Other evidence-based approaches include noise-maskers at night, relaxation and breathing exercises, and cognitive-retraining therapies.
At Audiology Associates, we love, love, love to educate! I highly recommend having a hearing evaluation if you or a loved one experience tinnitus perceptions.
-Dr. AL
