Tinnitus, specifically subjective tinnitus, is a symptom, not a disease, and is often present due to other hearing conditions or health concerns that might be present within the body. Around 80% of those with sensorineural hearing loss have tinnitus, too.
Sadly, as of yet, there is no cure for tinnitus. Instead, there are treatments and habits you can employ to help you cope with the noises in your ear and learn to live with the symptoms.
Get A Check Up
As mentioned, multiple conditions can cause tinnitus, and it could be a health condition or a hearing problem, so it’s best to consult your doctor or an audiologist who can assess your hearing. It might be that you need treatment for a condition that has tinnitus as a symptom, meaning the ringing in your ears or any other sounds you experience will go away once the cause is eliminated from your body. If it’s due to hearing loss, your hearing health provider can talk you through your options moving forward.
Identify Triggers
One effective strategy to manage the persistent noise of tinnitus is to identify potential triggers. Is it exacerbated by loud environments, weather changes, or certain foods and drinks like caffeine and alcohol? Once you’ve identified your triggers, you can take steps to minimize their impact or avoid them altogether. It could be that you eliminate any food and beverages from your diet to reduce triggers in your life. Or knowing that the weather can exacerbate symptoms so you learn how the weather influences it so you can be more prepared for seasonal changes.
White Noise
Essentially, using white noise is replacing the sound with a different one to distract from the ringing, whistling, or throbbing sound inside your ears. However, your tinnitus presents itself. It might not work for everyone, but it can provide noise in the background that masks the noise you hear in your ear.
Masking Devices
Masking devices are small devices like hearing aids that you wear on your ear. Similar to white noise, they produce sounds that make your tinnitus noises. The sound produced by the masking devices distracts the brain and helps it take us off the tinnitus and onto another, more pleasurable sound.
Hearing Aid
Lastly, if you have hearing loss, a hearing aid can help to minimize tinnitus and make things more bearable. Not only will you be able to hear sounds around you better, but the tinnitus might not be as prevalent. You can also use a hearing aid with a masking device to help you cover the sounds you don’t want to hear and make life more bearable.
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