Ringing Of The Ears
Ringing of the ears is a condition commonly known as tinnitus. It is a condition in which a person perceives a sound in his ear that no one else can hear. It usually comes in the form of a high pitched ringing or humming noise.
It can either be present all the time or intermittent. It is a fact that nearly 36 million Americans are tinnitus sufferers at certain points in their lives. There is another form of tinnitus which is known as the pulsatile tinnitus where the patient can hear his heartbeat within their ear.
This ringing of the ears or tinnitus has two different types. It can be in form of objective and subjective tinnitus.
Objective tinnitus would be like if a patient has a heart murmur and the pulse is transmitted to the ear and that pulsating sound can be heard by the doctor with the aid of a stethoscope. Subjective tinnitus is the more common type of tinnitus and it is the type where only the patient can hear the ringing. It can either be in a form of a ringing noise or a pulsation of one’s own heartbeat.
This condition is usually caused by deterioration of the hair cells which are the cells that permits the person to hear and convey the noises to the nerves and to the brain. For some people this condition is a minor irritant while it can significantly impair some people.
This depends on the level of the ringing and the loudness. There are some patients who just ignore it while some need medical attention. It is a fact that 2 million Americans are so debilitated by tinnitus that they cannot function normally.
A remedy for tinnitus can be in the form of medications.
This includes anti-depressants that helps balance the chemical response in the brain of the patient and helps reduce the tinnitus. Masking technique is also another form of remedy where they use maskers which look like hearing aids and it matches the pitch of the ringing to cancel it out. It is a fact that there is no known cure for tinnitus but it can be taken care of and the sound can be silenced.
Occasionally the tinnitus is constantly present but the patient has a hearing loss so they welcome the noise more if they have a hearing aid. That way they can hear ambient noises at a louder volume while the tinnitus sound is sort of masked out.
To prevent ringing of the ears or to lessen its severity there are home remedies that a patient may try like turning on your radio in between stations so you hear that buzzing noise that drowns out the ringing noise.
You can also leave the television on to an empty station so that the noise drowns it out at night when the tinnitus sound is at its loudest. It is however best to see your physician so that if you have a hearing loss they can prescribe a hearing aid that will help mask tinnitus as well.
