As many as 15% of U.S. adults have tinnitus, which can sound like a ringing, buzzing, whistling or humming in the ear, according to Dr. Jane Weida, a family medicine physician at University Medical Center.
Tinnitus, common among older adults, is the perception of sound in the ears when there is no external source. What’s important to know about tinnitus is that “it is a symptom of something going on in the ear; it is not a disease,” Weida said.
During a Mini Medical School lecture in October, she explained that tinnitus is a symptom of a problem in a person’s auditory system. Mini Medical School is a collaboration of UMC and UA’s OLLI (Osher Life-Long Learning Institute) Program and the lectures are given by UMC health-care providers.
Tinnitus is often caused by health conditions, including age-related hearing loss, medications and earwax blockage, said Weida, who is also a professor of family medicine with UA’s College of Community Health Sciences. CCHS operates UMC.
She explained how the ear hears. The outer ear collects sound waves, channels them into the ear canal and they travel to the ear drum. The middle ear receives the vibrations from the ear drum, which set three ossicles, or small muscles, into motion. The sound waves then enter the fluid-filled cochlea in the inner ear and the fluid moves in response, setting 25,000 nerve endings in motion to message sound to the brain.
“What the ear does is really complex,” Weida said.
Hearing loss can happen as one ages or is regularly exposed to loud sounds. If the tiny hair cells in the inner ear, which move when sound waves are received and trigger electrical signals the brain interprets as sound, are bent or broken, they can produce random electrical impulses to the brain, causing tinnitus.
When ear canals become blocked with earwax or fluid that causes an infection, pressure in the ear can change causing tinnitus, Weida said.
Medications, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), certain antibiotics, cancer drugs and diuretics, among others, can cause or worsen tinnitus, she said, but often tinnitus disappears when use of the medications is reduced or stopped.
Weida said people can take precautions to help prevent tinnitus – use ear protection when exposed to loud sounds and amplified music. “Prevent work or recreational hearing loss from noise exposure,” she said. “Use ear plugs and lower the volume.”
People suffering with tinnitus might also benefit from tinnitus retraining therapy, which involves listening differently to the noise caused by tinnitus and using sound machines to help reduce or mask tinnitus sounds.
Can tinnitus be cured? “It depends on the cause,” Weida said. “If it’s caused by an ear infection, it can likely be cured. But if we can’t find a cause, it will be harder to cure.”