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Treating Tinnitus: What You Can Do

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Ear

Tinnitus

The human ears are very vital in every individual’s activities of daily living. Any condition affecting ears can be very disturbing and its complications can be very fatal if diagnosis, treatment is not started early enough. So a lot of care should always be exercised in the treatment of any simple ear condition, ranging from the normal removal of the ear wax, cleaning of the ears, and removal of any foreign body inside the ears.

Tinnitus is one of the conditions of the ear, defined as the ringing sounds in the human ears, in the absence of any external sound. The condition has several causes, that range from simple to very complicated causes. Some of the causes of tinnitus are; Neurological damage/ injury, ear infections, foreign bodies in the ears, wax, fluid in the ears, acoustic shock, middle ear effusion, sensory hearing loss, lead poisoning, loud sounds, drugs such as benzodiazepines, systemic diseases such as meningitis, head injuries, and change in posture. Tinnitus is also a major side effect of so many medications, such as analgesics, aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, aminoglycosides, and tetracycline.

Tinnitus can either be objective or subjective. In Objective tinnitus, the clinician is in a position to perceive actual sounds such as bruits, from the patient’s ears while in subjective tinnitus, the clinician cannot perceive the sounds and he or she relies on the patients perception of the sounds. The causes of the two different types of tinnitus also vary. Objective tinnitus is mostly caused by atherosclerosis, carotid artery aneurysm, and idiopathic intracranial hypertension. Subjective tinnitus is very common and has so many causes such as drug ototoxicities, loud noises, sensory hearing loss, acoustic neuromas, and wax impaction.

The cost of treating tinnitus is always high so prevention is the best cure as far as tinnitus is concerned. The prevention measures taken for tinnitus are important in preventing the deadly complications associated with tinnitus such as hearing loss. Some of the preventive measures are; Ensuring that there is very minimal exposure to loud noises, avoiding excessive use of earphones, safe removal of ear wax, ensuring that the ear hygiene is kept to prevent ear infections, avoiding excessive use of certain medications including avoiding self-prescription of drugs. These simple techniques are very important in ensuring that tinnitus does not strike.

Sometimes is very difficult to prevent some people to visit the hospital only to be told that they have tinnitus. Some of the remedies available for tinnitus are; Radio-surgery for objective tinnitus, using neurostimulator, implants to shield the cochlea. Drugs and nutrients, melatonin, lidocaine, and benzodiazepines for the subjective tinnitus.