You do not have to live with ringing in your ears.
We have in-office appointments available for new and existing patients.
What is Tinnitus?
Tinnitus is the term for hearing noises in the ears or in the head. It is often described as a buzzing, ringing, whistling, hissing, or other type of sound. Tinnitus can be constant or episodic, high pitched or low pitched, steady in volume or fluctuating in volume. It can even change throughout the day in the type of sound you hear. Tinnitus is a natural phenomenon experienced by 50 million Americans. Persistent tinnitus, which can become debilitating, affects approximately 30 million Americans.
Causes of Tinnitus
It’s important to know that tinnitus itself is not a disease, but rather a symptom of another underlying condition. There are a number of causes of tinnitus, including:
- Exposure to loud noise
- Certain medications
- Head or ear trauma
- Stress
- Hearing loss
- Eardrum blockage
- Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ)
Tinnitus Treatment
Although there is no cure for tinnitus, there are a few treatment options that can help alleviate the ringing in your ears. We will work with you to identify potential causes for your tinnitus and discover a way to reduce the impact tinnitus has on your daily life. Even with professional help from an audiologist who specializes in tinnitus, it may be necessary to try different approaches separately or in combination.
At The Hearing and Tinnitus Center of Dallas-Fort Worth, we offer a few tinnitus treatment options to help stop ringing in the ears. Our solutions include:
Tinnitus Masking Hearing Aids:
These hearing aids have a special built-in feature that will play soothing sounds in your ears to help distract your brain from tinnitus. If you have hearing loss in conjunction with tinnitus this is a good option for you.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy:
A therapeutic process in which we specialize and have given relief to many of our patients. Our process is a combination of sound therapy and counseling, which alters the brain’s neural signals and weakens the perception of tinnitus.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT):
A type of counseling that helps change the body’s emotional reaction to tinnitus by altering negative thought patterns and helping relieve stress.
Tips for Tinnitus Relief
Here are a few helpful tips that can alleviate constant ear ringing that you can try at home.
- Avoid and protect against loud noise exposure
- Get plenty of sleep
- Watch for medication side effects and interactions
- Limit your caffeine intake
- Reduce stress levels
- Continue to engage in the activities you love
Tinnitus FAQs
Yes, tinnitus has been shown to be connected to stress. If you are experiencing tinnitus your stress levels may raise and as your stress increases so will your symptoms of tinnitus. It is a cycle that should be addressed as soon as possible. Practicing mindfulness and finding ways to manage tinnitus is a good way to help lower your stress and decrease the ringing in your ears.
If you suffer from spring and summer allergies, you may experience bursts of tinnitus. When the small blood vessels in your inner ear swell due to allergies, you can experience symptoms of tinnitus. Often times tinnitus caused by allergies is only temporary and should go away on its own.
Diabetes can cause tinnitus. The inner ear is dependent on glucose metabolism in the bloodstream and can be impacted by high blood sugar. Tinnitus can also be caused by high levels of insulin. If you have diabetes, it’s important to schedule regular hearing evaluations because your chance of hearing loss is higher.
Schedule an Appointment
Our Office
7410 N MacArthur Blvd
Irving, TX 75063
Hours:
M-F, 9am-5pm
Lunch hours 12pm – 1pm
