Do You Know the Cause of Your Tinnitus?

[on64]

As the question goes, how can we know what's causing our tinnitus?
I went yesterday to the doctor and she told me that I was hearing noises because of an earwax buildup, but unfortunately she was wrong as the sounds persists even after my ear has been cleaned.
Did you have to go to multiple doctors in order to get a diagnosis of your tinnitus?

 

[Kazue]

Just have to do process of elimination and find out what you've been doing for the past months that could cause tinnitus. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that can cause T, from earwax to pleasuring yourself....Maybe the earwax is on the eardrum, causing a noise. Maybe your brain is making phantom sounds from your preexisting T.

 

[Mahr]

A GP and an ENT. Had some tests. Conclusion: cochlea damage. And then my brain made the sound I cannot hear anymore. So as Kazue said, it is a phantom noise. A bit sad is the fact that more tones occur and the t went to the other ear also. (or the audible cortex is playing games with me..)

 

[Zeneth]

Just have to do process of elimination and find out what you've been doing for the past months that could cause tinnitus. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that can cause T, from earwax to pleasuring yourself....Maybe the earwax is on the eardrum, causing a noise. Maybe your brain is making phantom sounds from your preexisting T.

How does pleasuring yourself cause T XD

 

[Kazue]

How does pleasuring yourself cause T XD

I have no idea. But I heard of this causing T multiple times.

 

[on64]

can we stop the stupid brain from making phantom noises?

 

[GregCA]

As the question goes, how can we know what's causing our tinnitus?

http://www.tinnitusresearch.net/images/files/migrated/TRI_Tinnitus_Flowchart.pdf

 

[Hopeful1]

You dont need to go to ENT. Chances are his/her knowledge of T will be elementry.

Damage to the synapse that connects haircells to the sensory neurons causes T....these are most vulnerable parts of the auditory system...they need be damaged upto 90% to cause hearing loss. But for T and H that much damage is not needed, partial damage is sufficient. This explains our normal audiograms. But the richness of the sounds we hear decreases with loss of synapses and we dont hear properly in noisy environment. This is called hidden hesring loss.

Loss of synapse means less input to the auditiory nerve....once this happens the neural changes that occur in brain like SFR(spontaneous firing rates) increase and increased central gain causes T and H respectively.

There is window of oppurtunity betweem few months to even years where synapses can recover as the haircells and sensory neurons remain intact during this window. This explains why certain people ( ex. @attheedgeofscience ) benefitted from stem cell treatment while others did not. Maybe he was lucky enough to get the stemcells before haircells stopped firing.
There is also a guy whose T went away after months , but he was young(in his teens).. check the below link.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-personal-story-about-tinnitus-gone.5979/

Source: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep24907

 

[Zeneth]

You dont need to go to ENT. Chances are his/her knowledge of T will be elementry.

Damage to the synapse that connects haircells to the sensory neurons causes T....these are most vulnerable parts of the auditory system...they need be damaged upto 90% to cause hearing loss. But for T and H that much damage is not needed, partial damage is sufficient. This explains our normal audiograms. But the richness of the sounds we hear decreases with loss of synapses and we dont hear properly in noisy environment. This is called hidden hesring loss.

Loss of synapse means less input to the auditiory nerve....once this happens the neural changes that occur in brain like SFR(spontaneous firing rates) increase and increased central gain causes T and H respectively.

There is window of oppurtunity betweem few months to even years where synapses can recover as the haircells and sensory neurons remain intact during this window. This explains why certain people ( ex. @attheedgeofscience ) benefitted from stem cell treatment while others did not. Maybe he was lucky enough to get the stemcells before haircells stopped firing.
There is also a guy whose T went away after months , but he was young(in his teens).. check the below link.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-personal-story-about-tinnitus-gone.5979/

Source: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep24907

I'm 13 and have had T for 5 months, anything I can do to possibly help it go away

 

[Kazue]

can we stop the stupid brain from making phantom noises?

I personally have experienced phantom noises where my T went away temporarily but my brain kept hearing it. I thought I was going crazy and maybe I didn't have T. Maybe it was just my brain creating phantom noises because it's used to hearing the crickets all day. Eventually it went away and my actual T came back. Just don't listen for it.

 

[DirM]

Most people on this forum had to go to multiple doctors and many still don't know what the cause is. In my case I saw three doctors before I got to an ENT who diagnosed me correctly (TMJ). In my case I am "lucky" since my T is somatic and not nerve damaged based. But it took the ENT to figure that out.

 

[Jason C]

100% caused by exposure too a powerful external alarm sounder.

Tinnitus, hearing loss, hyperacusis, balance (vestibular) problems.

 

[Marie79]

My initial one started with an ear infection but because I became so crazy about it and listened so much in the early days I started to hear other tones in my other ear. At least I think the stress caused me to notice the other tones. I wonder if MAYBE it was the first few days of having T from the ear infection that I wore ear buds on decently loud to get to sleep that did it? I don't know.

 

[Jason C]

You dont need to go to ENT. Chances are his/her knowledge of T will be elementry.

Damage to the synapse that connects haircells to the sensory neurons causes T....these are most vulnerable parts of the auditory system...they need be damaged upto 90% to cause hearing loss. But for T and H that much damage is not needed, partial damage is sufficient. This explains our normal audiograms. But the richness of the sounds we hear decreases with loss of synapses and we dont hear properly in noisy environment. This is called hidden hesring loss.

Loss of synapse means less input to the auditiory nerve....once this happens the neural changes that occur in brain like SFR(spontaneous firing rates) increase and increased central gain causes T and H respectively.

There is window of oppurtunity betweem few months to even years where synapses can recover as the haircells and sensory neurons remain intact during this window. This explains why certain people ( ex. @attheedgeofscience ) benefitted from stem cell treatment while others did not. Maybe he was lucky enough to get the stemcells before haircells stopped firing.
There is also a guy whose T went away after months , but he was young(in his teens).. check the below link.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-personal-story-about-tinnitus-gone.5979/

Source: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep24907

90% damage too cause hearing loss??

How does that explain different levels of hearing loss then??

 

[ThreeS]

An anxiety attack, forty days and counting.

 

[Alue]

Yep. An acoustic trauma caused by a coworker.

 

[Hopeful1]

90% damage too cause hearing loss??

How does that explain different levels of hearing loss then??

Various level of hearing loss = various levels of hair cell loss.

Various levels of Tinnitus = various levels of synapses loss.

Simples.

 

[Tim Hogan]

Initial was minor from bad Flu then Catastrophic caused by Acoustic Reflex Test by an ENT.

 

[RudyL90]

My tinnitus is 100% stress/anxiety related. Started during an anxiety disorder (I was kind of a hypochondriac). My anxious reaction to it made it worse. Started with one tone in the left ear, now I have a false orchestra in both ears.
But I am feeling much better than when it all started and am confinced that one day I will no longer suffer from it.