What causes ringing in the ears?
It’s no secret that exposure to loud noises can cause ringing in the ears and hearing loss. But ringing in the ears, or tinnitus, also can be associated with other conditions.
What causes ringing in the ears? Begin, says Dr. Jerold Boyers, a Las Vegas otolaryngologist, with noise-induced hearing loss, which “definitely can damage the (ear’s) hair cells, and that can cause tinnitus. Like, after a concert, you’ll have that ringing that lasts several hours. But if you constantly do that, you can create longer-lasting or permanent ringing.”
Also, some older people will develop tinnitus in connection with presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, Boyers says.
Then, “one thing we’re always concerned about is tumors,” Boyers continues, particularly in cases in which the person notices a difference in hearing from ear to ear.
“We’re concerned (that), do we have a tumor pressing against a nerve, creating ringing in the ears? The typical tumor is called an acoustic neuroma. It grows on the eighth (cranial) nerve, which is the hearing nerve, and eventually it’ll knock hearing all the way out and can cause pressure on the brain. This can take place over years and it can be very insidious, very slow-growing.”
Then, Boyers says, multiple sclerosis, head trauma and some neurological conditions can be associated with tinnitus. Also, some drugs and medications, including chemotherapy drugs used in treating cancer and even such over-the-counter anti-inflammatories as aspirin, can cause tinnitus or can make the tinnitus louder, he says.
The ringing that patients with tinnitus hear can vary. But, Boyers says, “the most common thing is, people tell me it sounds like cicadas, those bugs that make a high-pitched noise.”
With pulsatile tinnitus, patients hear a sound that corresponds to their own pulse.
“This could be related to the flow of blood in their neck or face,” Boyers says, and could be associated with a vascular tumor in the middle ear.
There’s no cure for tinnitus. “It’s always multiple treatments, and there’s not one good answer,” Boyers says.
Fortunately, he adds, only a small percentage of patients with tinnitus are affected to the point “where it really, tremendously bothers them.”
Patients might seek counseling, he says. Some may find relief through devices that create white noise to help mask the sound in their ears, and some patients find that hearing aids offer some relief by increasing the level of ambient noise they hear.
