“Why am I hearing a ringing noise in my ears?” “Why won’t that noise stop?”
You could be dealing with tinnitus, a common hearing affliction that manifests noises in your ears that nobody else can hear, if you find yourself making these kinds of remarks. This is more common than you might think. Tinnitus is a disorder that affects millions of individuals.
Ringing, buzzing, pulsing, or whistling are the noises that most people describe.
Ringing in the ears might seem harmless, depending on its severity. But there are absolutely times when you shouldn’t disregard it. Tinnitus symptoms can often be a sign of something more significant happening in your body.
You should take the following 6 symptoms seriously.
1. Your Quality of Life is Being Affected by The Ringing in Your Ears
Some studies indicate that 26% of tinnitus sufferers experience that ringing on a nearly constant basis.
This annoying, ever-present noise can result in all kinds of relationship issues, insomnia, anxiety, and even depression.
It can be a battle between the tinnitus sound and something as basic as attempting to hear your friend give you a recipe over the phone. The constant ringing has stressed you out to the point where you snap at a member of the family who asks you a question.
A vicious cycle can be the result of this continuous ringing. The ringing gets louder as your stress level rises. And you get more stressed the louder the noise is and on and on.
If tinnitus is leading to these kinds of life challenges, it’s time to deal with it. It’s real, and it impacts your quality of life. There are treatment options that can considerably reduce or get rid of the noise in your ears.
2. The Noise in Your Ears Starts After You Switch Medications
Doctors might try several different medications to manage the same condition whether you have chronic pain or cancer. You might ask for a different option if you start to experience significant side effects. If your tinnitus began or got significantly worse after you started a new drug, look at that list of side effects and speak with your doctor.
Tinnitus might be caused by some common medications. Here are a few examples:
- Opioids (Pain Killers)
- Antibiotics
- Loop Diuretics
- Over-the-counter painkillers (Tylenol, Aleve, Advil, and even aspirin) when taken several times a day for an extended period of time.
- Chemo
3. It’s Accompanied by Headache, Blurred Vision, or Seizures
This normally means that your tinnitus symptoms are being triggered by high blood pressure. When you have hypertension, the blood circulation to your inner ear is compromised. High blood pressure that goes unmanaged is also dangerous for your general health. Age related hearing loss, over time, will get worse because of this.
4. You Only Hear it When Leaving a Concert, Gym, or Work
If you leave a noisy place like a bar, concert, factory, or fitness class, and you start to hear tinnitus noises, you were probably exposed to unsafe levels of noise and that’s more than likely the cause of these noises. If you disregard this episodic tinnitus and don’t start to safeguard your ears, it will most likely become constant over time. And it’s frequently accompanied by hearing loss.
If you love a noisy night out, take precautions like:
- At least once an hour, go outside or into the restroom to give your ears a break
- Wearing earplugs
- Not standing too close to the speakers
If you work in a noisy environment, follow work rules pertaining to earmuffs and earplugs. They’re made to protect you, but they only work if you wear protective gear correctly.
5. You Also Have Facial Paralysis
Whether you have ringing in your ears or not, you should never ignore facial paralysis. But when you have paralysis, nausea, headaches, and you also have tinnitus, it’s possible that you might have an acoustic neuroma (a slow growing benign brain tumor).
6. You Experience Fluctuating Hearing Loss With it
Do you have hearing loss that seems to get worse, then get better, then worse again? Do you feel dizzy off and on? When accompanied by tinnitus, this suggests you need to be screened for Meniere’s disease. This makes your ears get a fluid imbalance. If left without treatment, it often gets worse and might increase your risks of serious falls caused by lack of balance.
Hearing loss is frequently signaled by tinnitus. So if you’re experiencing it, you should have your hearing examined more frequently. Call us to set up an appointment.