Tinnitus is an annoying buzzing, ringing, squeaking, crackling noise that hampers normal functioning. They are subjective - only the person who suffers from them hears them. They can appear in certain situations or be permanent, affect one or both ears, or be present in the head. What are the causes of tinnitus and how to deal with it?

Tinnitusis not a disease, it does not affect the condition of hearing, it does not deteriorate or improve it. This is an acoustic phenomenon that can only be heard by the person concerned.Noise in the earappears without any sound source. However, it leads to a lot of anxiety, irritation, and in the end it can even cause depression.

A person suffering from tinnitus is unable to rest, relax, fall asleep and, consequently, also work. The intrusive noise heard constantly in the head causes some people to become so nervous that they cannot function normally. They isolate themselves from their surroundings, ruining their own and their families' lives. In addition, these people are afraid that the noise is a signal of a serious illness developing in the head. This fear is with them all the time. There are times when you have to take psychotropic drugs to deal with your anxiety.

Tinnitus: risk factors

Doctors emphasize that in many cases we could avoid noise if we followed a few important rules. Here are some recommendations:

  • avoid sudden and prolonged noises - for example, frequent listening to loud music through headphones is very bad
  • try to avoid strong stress, take care of mental rest
  • do not expose yourself to high cooling of the body
  • if you have a blocked ear, have the doctor check if it is not caused by, for example, a wax plug
  • do not pick your ear with any sharp "tools"
  • control blood pressure and take care of its proper level
  • perform a blood glucose (sugar level) and blood cholesterol (and its fractions) test periodically
  • if you have thyroid problems, be under medical care
  • do not abuse aspirin and other anti-inflammatory and painkillers
  • avoid taking antibiotics such as gentamicin,streptomycin, neomycin - report your doubts to the doctor who wants to prescribe them for you
  • do not take large doses of agents that cause rapid dehydration
  • if you like to dive, always slowly emerge from the depths of the water to equilibrate the pressure level in your head
Important

Tinnitus is becoming a social he alth problem - it affects many people regardless of age and gender. Statistics show that around 20 percent of adults worldwide periodically suffer from these ailments, and about 5 percent suffer from tinnitus continuously.

  • about 80 percent of cases are due to damage to the hair cells in the cochlea, e.g. due to noise or stress
  • they are a derivative of atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, kidney failure, thyroid diseases - because they affect the blood supply to the inner ear
  • it happens (rarely) that the cause is otosclerosis, chronic otitis media, as well as brain tumors

Home remedies for tinnitus

At the beginning - especially when the noise makes it difficult to fall asleep - you can try to eliminate ailments with home methods:

  • by going to bed, calm down and try not to think about stressful problems
  • do not fall asleep in complete silence, set the radio quietly, keep it playing all night
  • do not use stopwatches
  • if you need to take medications, start with the mildest ones, use strong pharmacological agents only after consulting a doctor and under his supervision
  • if you notice that any of the medications you are taking increases the noise, stop it, but consult your doctor

Where to treat tinnitus?

When the tinnitus lasts continuously or longer than five minutes, consult your GP or otolaryngologist. If the tests performed on the equipment available to them do not show anything specific, and the noise is still ongoing, you should contact the only ear noise clinic in Poland at the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing in Kajetany. Patients from all over Poland are admitted here, regardless of which branch of the National He alth Fund they belong to. All you need is a referral from an otolaryngologist. Unfortunately, uninsured people use the clinic for a fee.

Tinnitus treatment: habituation

Almost 80 percent of people treated at the clinic were freed from tinnitus-related complaints using the habituation method. All of us have habituation processes, although we are usually not aware of it.

Habituation means that we stop hearing repeated sounds from the environment over time. We do not hear the refrigerator, the ticking and chiming of a clock, no noise whatsoeverare caused by passing cars. These noises do not reach our consciousness - we only hear them when we want to or when we think about them. This very mechanism has been used to treat tinnitus. The Ear Noise Clinic is the only place where this method is used. It is expensive, and you have to wait several or even several months for the results. But it's worth it - the effectiveness of habituation reaches 80 percent. And even though the noise doesn't go away completely, it stops interfering with normal life.

Tinnitus treatment: broadband noise generator

If avoiding silence does not help much, then broadband noise generators turn out to be effective. They emit the so-called white noise that is so quiet that it does not drown out other sounds and cannot be heard by those around you. White noise teaches the subcortical hearing centers not to consciously perceive tinnitus. Patients wear generators behind the auricles (like hearing aids) for at least 8 hours a day. The first effects are felt after a few or several weeks. But the course of treatment is 18 to 24 months. In the case of people with poor hearing, properly adjusted hearing aids are used as generators. Before the patient undergoes therapy, the entire auditory pathway is examined - from the outer ear to the auditory cortex in the brain. If research shows that the tinnitus is of cochlear origin, and at the same time, for example, tumors or diseases of the middle ear have been excluded, then they can be successfully treated with the habituation method.

Tinnitus treatment: role of the psychotherapist

In the treatment of this ailment, it is very important to relieve the patient of the fear that noise is a signal of an insidious, serious disease in his head. Psychologists come to the rescue here, and a particularly effective method they use is group therapy. Thanks to it, patients can throw out all doubts and share their experiences.

Special rehabilitation camps organized by the clinic give very good results. Various forms of therapy are carried out there (e.g. learning about interactions, relaxation or sound technique). They improve the mental condition of patients who stop being afraid of the disease. Thanks to this, their dream to be able to hear silence again is slowly becoming a reality.

Tinnitus is a problem that affects 17% of people. adult Poles

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