Tinnitus Information, Assessment & Management

It has been a very productive couple of weeks for us at Island Hearing.

On Wednesday, 19th November, Tim attended a Tinnitus training event in Warrington, hosted by our partners at Phonak. After a short introduction by Phonak's clinical audiologist, Graham Hilton, a presentation was given by Doctor David Baguley from Cambridge Hospital.

The Scale of the Tinnitus Problem

"Tinnitus is a symptom of hearing loss, hearing loss is not a symptom of tinnitus"

The figures discussed show that almost a third of all adults have experienced the symptoms of tinnitus at some time, tinnitus being a 'subjective sensation of sound without an objective sound source', in other words hearing a sound that is not generated by our environment. Although tinnitus comes from the Latin word for 'ringing', this is only one of the sounds that sufferers report that they hear, other sounds can be described as; birdsong (chirruping), a rushing sound, pulsing or a high pitched whistling.

Tinnitus is hard to measure

Tinnitus is usually a subjective phenomenon and as such cannot be accurately measured, most sufferers can tolerate these sounds, but some experience difficulties with sleep, quiet activities and normal daily activities and this can cause them a huge amount of distress, also stress and fatigue are known to exacerbate the problem.

Not a disease, Tinnitus is a symptom

Tinnitus is not a disease, but a condition that can result from a wide range of underlying causes. The most common cause (around 90%) is noise induced hearing loss. Other causes include: neurological damage, ear infections, trauma, wax build-up, stress and certain medications. Tinnitus may be accompanied by sensorineural or a congenital hearing loss. If there is an underlying cause, treating it may lead to improvements, however there are no effective medications at this time.

Hearing Loss & Tinnitus

Where a hearing loss is associated with the tinnitus, a hearing aid is often found to be extremely beneficial, where hearing aids are not appropriate a low-level noise generator (a tinnitus masker) can help, along with being counseled to try and ignore the sounds rather than listening out for them.

Tinnitus Treatment with hearing aids

However, Dr Baguley explained that 85% of all tinnitus sufferers have a aidable hearing loss, as tinnitus is most commonly a symptom of hearing loss. Interestingly, tinnitus is known to be more severe at retirement age and less when retirement is accepted and can also become more severe when a person's lifestyle contracts. Also, females are more likely to suffer than men and left sided tinnitus is more common than right.

In conclusion, my advice would be that anyone with worries about their tinnitus, discussions about possible treatments and day to day management should contact us for any further information.