Tinnitus ear wax
The Tinnitus Ear Wax Info We All Need
Ear Wax Tinnitus
Did you know that ear wax is actually good for you? Many people aren’t aware of the important role that ear wax plays in ear health. Some people think that ear wax is a bad thing or a dirty thing that needs to be cleaned out or gotten rid of. But this isn’t true.
There are many different ways that ear wax works for your body and protects your ears and your hearing. For example, ear wax helps protect you from water in your ears. When you’re swimming or when you take a shower, ear wax works to make the water bead up and move out of the ear, away from the eardrum so it does not cause damage.
Ear wax also helps prevent fungal growth in the ears and without it, we would not be able to prevent ear infections. Basically, ear wax is a type of self-cleaning and protection system that the body produces. Most people won’t need any type of treatment to clean their ears from ear wax.
The wax will work its way to the outside of the ear and come off in normal showers and cleanings. While there are some people who make more ear wax than others, the average person will not even notice the ear wax. If you do have excess ear wax that builds up outside the ear, you can use a moist warm washcloth to clean it off.
You should never place anything inside the ear, including cotton swabs (Q-tips). These should be used to clean the out ear only and should never be inserted into the ear canal. If you have tinnitus, ear wax is important to help protect your ear and prevent future damage that can occur. If you believe that you might have excess ear wax that is uncomfortable or presenting a problem, talk to an ear specialist about possible removal options.
Pinpoint Origin of Tinnitus With New Technique
A New technique can pinpoint tinnitus
MEG (Magnetoencephalography) brain-scan
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measures electrical currents in nerve cells in the brain Using this technique it is possible to pinpoint the area of the brain that is activated when a person suffers from tinnitus, according to US doctors. Tinnitus is a condition where sounds are heard in one or both ears when there is no external source.
While doctors had thought tinnitus was generated by only ear problems, they now believe it is also generated in the brain. The team at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit used a special scanner to map the locations in the brain. They hope it will allow more targeted therapies to be developed.
The scan is called magnetoencephalography (MEG) and it measures the very small magnetic fields generated by intracellular electrical currents in the neuron cells in the brain.
The team at the Henry Ford Hospital have already tried using chips which generate electrical noise directly in the brain in two patients to try to interfere with the tinnitus signals.
They are presenting their findings to the annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology.
Scanning results
The doctors collected MEG results from 17 patients with tinnitus and 10 patients without. They played patients various sounds until they agreed that that was the sound they experienced and then scanned their brains while the sound was played. For patients with ringing in both ears, MEG revealed activity in both hemispheres of the brain, with greater activity appearing in the opposite side of the brain to the ear with the strongest perception of tinnitus.
The director of neurologic surgery at the Henry Ford Hospital, who led the work, said 2-4% of sufferers had really persistent tinnitus that they found impossible to ignore. He said: “Using MEG, we can actually see the areas in the brain that are generating the patient’s tinnitus which allows us to target and treat it.
“Another part of the brain that lights up is the limbic system which is supposed to govern how we react to things. “This may explain why some patients can fairly successfully ignore their tinnitus while others find themselves fixated on it.” Dr Seidman said imaging systems currently used to study tinnitus provide a general location compared to the sophistication of MEG.
He said: “It’s like having the lights on in only the city of Detroit, compared to having the lights on in the entire state of Michigan.” Dr Mark Downs, executive director at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People said, more than half a million people in the UK had their health seriously affected by tinnitus.
He said: “This work could potentially solve a further piece of the tinnitus puzzle. “It is a unique way to monitor how the brain is affected by tinnitus in real time, helping researchers to see how effective new treatments are.”
Source: BBC News
Loud Noise Tinnitus and the Workplace
One of the main causes of tinnitus is being exposed to loud noises. This is unfortunate considering the fact that most everyone is exposed to some type of loud noise throughout their life. After being around loud noises, your ears will usually begin to ring or buzz for awhile. Short term exposure may not do permanent damage but the longer you’re around loud noises the more likely it is that you’ll end up with some form of tinnitus.
One of the most common places where people are exposed to loud noises is the workplace. There are many jobs that involve using or being around machinery that makes lots of noises. You can wear earplugs when working in this type of environment but unfortunately many people don’t. They simply don’t realize how serious being around noise can be to your hearing. For this reason, many people don’t wear hearing protection or they don’t wear it properly.
Wearing ear protection can be uncomfortable when you’re trying to work. Certain types of earplugs can get tangled up interfering with your work and others can make your ears sore. However, when you consider the alternative, it would be better to be a little uncomfortable for awhile if it means avoiding ending up suffering with the discomfort tinnitus can cause.
The longer you’re exposed to loud noises in the workplace, the more risk you run of having permanent damage done to your ears that can result in hearing loss. The worse your hearing becomes, the more disturbing the tinnitus can be. To help protect your hearing and avoid tinnitus it’s vital that you wear hearing protection. If the ear protection provided by the company you work for is uncomfortable, then you can purchase your own.
Take the time to search for something that provides the highest amount of protection combined with comfort. It may cost you a little more but it’ll be worth it in the long run. After all, it’s such a small price to pay to protect your hearing.
Cochlear Implant Tinnitus
You may have heard about an implant that can help mask or eliminate the ringing sounds of tinnitus. What you’re likely thinking of is a cochlear implant. This is a device that is created for people with profound hearing loss in both ears. This implant consists of an electrode array that is placed via surgery into the inner ear, a small microphone as well as a speech processor.
Together, this device is meant to restore hearing to people who are clinically and functionally deaf. Tinnitus is a common thing in deaf people of all ages. When the cochlear implant is successful and it allows the deaf person to hear some external sounds, it usually reduces tinnitus symptoms for that person.
Tinnitus often occurs with people who are deaf either completely or partially. If even some level of hearing can be restored, it usually improves the tinnitus for the person who is suffering. If you just have tinnitus with no hearing loss, it is not likely that you would be a candidate for a cochlear implant as this is not what the implant is designed for.
In fact, it is only a small percentage of people with tinnitus who qualify for the use of these implants. However, there is good news because there are other types of treatments and devices that can help such as hearing aids, sound generators or maskers and also combination units of maskers and hearing aids together.
Much research is still being done in the field and to help create new devices and possible future implants that can help tinnitus sufferers. For now cochlear implant for tinnitus is mainly only used for certain special cases with severe hearing loss. So as you can see, cochlear implants are not for everyone but there are still other options you can and should consider if you suffer from tinnitus with or without hearing loss.
Do You Need a Tinnitus Hearing Aid?
As you may already know, tinnitus that goes untreated can lead to hearing loss. This is why many people end up with a tinnitus hearing aid. You may be asking yourself whether or not a hearing aid will help with your tinnitus. First it’s important to know whether or not you have hearing loss with your tinnitus. If you catch tinnitus early enough and begin treatment for it, then it’s not likely you will need a hearing aid.
However, if you already have some level of hearing loss, then a hearing aid might help relieve your tinnitus as well as help you hear. You will need to be seen and examined by a professional to find out if a tinnitus hearing aid will assist you in your tinnitus problem and hearing loss.
When it comes to tinnitus and hearing loss, there are hearing aids, maskers and combination hearing aids made especially for tinnitus sufferers that include a hearing aid and masker in one device. So then before we move on, let’s discuss what a tinnitus masker is.
Tinnitus maskers are devices that look very much like hearing aids and they fit inside the ear to help cover up the sounds of tinnitus so that they are less bothersome to the sufferer. The characteristics of your tinnitus such as what sounds and pitches you hear will help determine the sounds the masker needs to make to help you.
Many people find external noises like this to help relieve their tinnitus symptoms. It’s like white noise except it’s used in a device that other people around you won’t be able to hear. Maskers are useful for some but not all people who suffer with tinnitus.
When you have hearing loss along with your tinnitus, a combination device is usually used. This is meant to help with the hearing loss while also masking the sounds of the tinnitus. With the two working together, it can be very helpful for many people who suffer from this condition but again, not everyone will find relief.
A tinnitus hearing aid or tinnitus instrument is a small electronic device that fits inside the ear. It sits behind the external flap of the ear and has independent volume controls of hearing and masking of the tinnitus. Research is still being done on these combination units and how they can be improved.
For many people, tinnitus instruments have helped relieve tinnitus symptoms in many people. If you’re looking for help with your tinnitus, you can consider a tinnitus hearing aid today. Make sure you talk with a qualified expert with experience in these types of cases to get an expert opinion on whether or not one will be helpful to you.
