The ringing in your ear keeps worsening. At first, you could hardly notice it. But you’ve observed how loud and constant the tinnitus noises have become after an entire day on the job at a construction site. These noises can take many forms, such as ringing, buzzing, or any number of noises. You don’t know if you should contact us or how ringing in your ears could even be managed.
The source of your tinnitus symptoms will significantly establish what approach will be most suitable for you. But your own tinnitus treatment will share some common threads with others that can help you get ready.
What type of tinnitus are you experiencing?
Tinnitus is not uncommon. The ringing or buzzing (or any number of sounds) in your ear can be caused by a variety of root problems. That’s why tinnitus is often split into two categories in terms of treatment:
- Medical Tinnitus: Some tinnitus symptoms are caused by an inherent medical problem, like an ear infection, excessive earwax, or a growth, among other ailments. Managing the underlying medical problem will usually be the priority of your medical professional.
- Non-Medical Tinnitus: Tinnitus that is related to hearing damage or hearing impairment is typically referred to as “non-medical” tinnitus. As time passes, exposure to harmful noise (like the noise at your construction site) can cause constant, significant, and chronic tinnitus. It’s normally very challenging to manage non-medical tinnitus.
The type of tinnitus you have, and the root cause of the hearing ailment, will establish the best ways to manage those symptoms.
Treating medical tinnitus
Your medical tinnitus symptoms will usually improve when the root medical issue is addressed. Here are some treatments for medical tinnitus:
- Hydrocortisone: Certain kinds of infections will not respond to antibiotics. For example, antibiotics never work on viral infections. Hydrocortisone might be prescribed in these cases to treat other symptoms.
- Antibiotics: If your tinnitus is a result of an ear infection (that is, a bacterial ear infection), your doctor might prescribe antibiotics. Once the infection clears up, it’s likely that your hearing will return to normal.
- Surgery: Doctors might decide to do surgery to remove any tumor or growth that might be causing your tinnitus symptoms.
If your tinnitus is related to a medical issue, you’ll want to see us to receive personalized treatment options.
Treatments for non-medical tinnitus
In general, medical tinnitus is a lot easier to diagnose and treat than non-medical tinnitus. Non-medical tinnitus has no cure especially if it’s caused by hearing loss. Instead, treatment to improve quality of life by alleviating symptoms is the normal strategy.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy: You can obtain training that will help you learn to disregard your tinnitus sounds. This commonly utilized strategy has helped many individuals do just that.
- Medications: There are some experimental medicines available for dealing with tinnitus. For instance, steroids and anti-anxiety medication combinations can sometimes help reduce tinnitus symptoms. But before you make any decisions, you’ll want to talk to us.
- Noise-masking devices: These devices hide your tinnitus sounds by producing enough white noise to allow the buzzing or ringing to fade into the background. These devices can be attenuated to produce specific sounds designed to balance out your tinnitus symptoms.
- Hearing aids: A hearing aid can help if your tinnitus is becoming worse as your hearing worsens. When you are dealing with hearing loss everything externally becomes quieter and that can make your tinnitus noises seem louder. A hearing aid can help hide the sound of your tinnitus by amping up the volume of everything else.
Find what works
For most of us, it won’t be completely clear what’s triggering our tinnitus, so it’s likely you’ll have to attempt numerous approaches in order to effectively treat your own hearing problems. In most cases, tinnitus can’t be cured. But many different treatments are available that could reduce the symptoms. Finding the right one for you is the trick.
