Tinnitus is ringing in the ears. According to my doctor, it's caused by continued, sharp, loud noise and there is no cure or medication for it. In my case, it was probably caused by 30 years in the construction business without ear protection.
What is tinnitus, and what are it’s causes and remedies?
Like Hippy said , it's a constant ringing or buzzing in one ear or both. Mine is caused by having Meniere's disease in my left ear. I've tried everything there is to stop it with no luck. I guess I've just gotten used to it after so many years and it doesn't bother me so much now. Be best to see your Doctor and have him run some tests to possibly see why it bothers you. I have to have an MRI today to see if the Meniere's has went bi-lateral and I may never fly again because of that.
My Oldest had these ringing/buzzing issues. We set him up with an ear doctor when he came home from college during spring break, and his small ear canals, made for a great place for wax to accumulate but not dissipate. The doctor had to schedule an initial cleaning that removed a LARGE amount of wax . . . And I mean large. My son said it was painful but so worth it. Then we had drops we put in them every night for two weeks to finish . . . Ringing and buzzing is now gone. We have to stay on top of it since his canals are very small.
Star Trek's William Shatner has / had a severe case of tinnitus.
Some years ago I recall reading that he said that he had found a treatment that had given him a significant amount of relief.
That's all I know about the situation, but I've kept that in mind in case I ever had the need to find out more about tinnitus.
(Wow, that's a lot of "thats.")
The word “tinnitus” comes from the Latin tinnire, “to tinkle,” and is described as a “sound in the ears not caused by any external stimulation.” According to The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, it may be a “buzzing, ringing, roaring, whistling, or hissing quality or may involve more complex sounds that vary over time. It may be intermittent, continuous, or pulsatile.” The volume of this noise can range from hardly audible to disturbingly loud. And it is a sound that sufferers cannot turn off. The unrelenting noise can thus trigger a host of side effects: Emotional distress, sleeping problems, pain, concentration difficulties, fatigue, communication problems, and depression.
As yet, no real cure for tinnitus is on the horizon. So tinnitus is a noise you may have to learn to live with. Says the book Living With Tinnitus: “I and my colleagues now strongly believe that the normal response to tinnitus is the gradual development of tolerance.”
Yes, you can teach your brain to ignore the sound, to view it as something not worth paying attention to. Do you live in a noisy neighborhood? Or do you run a fan or an air conditioner? At first, those noises may have irritated you, but after a while you simply ignored them. In fact, you may even have learned to sleep with those noises! Similarly, you can learn not to pay too much attention to your tinnitus.
Tinnitus can also be aggravated by insomnia. The study revealed that the severity of tinnitus worsened among patients who suffer insomnia.
Other factors known to worsen tinnitus include loud noises, ear wax buildup, ear or sinus infection, head and neck trauma, fibromyalgia, Lyme disease, and thoracic outlet syndrome.