Causes of Tinnitus

Tinnitus is one of the conditions for which there is simply too little known to be able to pinpoint causes. And there are only theories and assumptions about the possible remedies, medicines or therapies. Simply put: they don't know what causes it, nor how to get it out of the way. What is known about it can be found on this website. That does not mean that the tinnitus patient should despair. On the contrary, there are many known cases where certain remedies have helped with certain types of tinnitus, and it is up to you, as a tinnitus patient, to navigate this maze and maximize your chances of a cure. Tinnitus House also tries to help you with this.
There are two types of tinnitus: subjective tinnitus and objective tinnitus. Subjective tinnitus is the most common type and is the experience of sound without the actual sound being present and is only perceived by the patient. Objective tinnitus is less common and occurs as a result of sound passing through specific areas near the ear. The causes of objective tinnitus are usually fairly easy to detect by examining in the hospital.

It is of course important to quickly find out whether you have subjective or objective tinnitus. See also See also the description of subjective and objective tinnitus.. As indicated under What is Tinnitus In subjective tinnitus, only the patient can hear the sounds in the ear. When the doctor listens to the ears of these patients, he hears nothing. But the person who suffers from it does hear it. It is therefore much more difficult to determine the cause of subjective tinnitus than with objective tinnitus. However, it is known that this form of tinnitus is often associated with hearing loss, especially with hearing loss caused by a hearing damage Because the cause is so difficult to determine, this form of tinnitus is difficult to treat.
Below we list the most common known suspected conditions, for both objective and subjective tinnitus.

Otological

The most well-known suspected cause of tinnitus is hearing loss due to age-related deafness or external noise. Notorious is the "buzzing" that lasts for days after visiting a pop concert. Furthermore, there are working with noisy machines, otoschlerosis, middle ear infections, wax build-up, sudden deafness, Meniere's disease and other causes of hearing loss.

Pulsating

With pulsating tinnitus, the sounds originate somewhere in the body, for example in the ear or in the skull. It is common in this form of tinnitus to hear the blood flow through the vessels. Causes can include a narrowing of the carotid artery, an abnormality of blood vessels, a heart valve defect (often the aortic valve), an increased heart rate, for example due to medicines, anemia or an overactive thyroid gland. Once the cause is found, this form of Tinnitus can often be cured.

Anatomical

Anatomical Tinnitus manifests itself as a fast rhythmic clicking sound. This may be due to the involuntary contraction of the muscles attached to the ossicles (tiny middle ear bones). Other causes of this type of objective tinnitus are: head injury, whiplash, multiple sclerosis, vestibular schwannoma (also called acoustic neuroma), or bridge angle tumor.

Spontaneous

Spontaneous tinnitus can develop as a consequence of, for example, a middle ear infection, Lyme disease, meningitis, syphilis, or other infectious diseases that can affect hearing.

Neurological

Head injury, whiplash, multiple sclerosis, vestibular schwannoma (also called acoustic neuroma), bridge angle tumor.

Infection

Infectious tinnitus is tinnitus due to a middle ear infection, Lyme disease, meningitis, syphilis, or another infectious disease that can affect hearing Spontaneous tinnitus can develop as a result of, for example, middle ear infection, Lyme disease, meningitis, syphilis, or other infectious diseases that affect impair hearing.

Medication

Well-known Tinnitus triggers are aspirin, NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) such as Ibubrufen, certain antibiotics, diuretics (water tablets) and cytostatics (chemotherapy).

Other causes

Jaw (Temporo-mandibular) joint problems and some dental abnormalities can also cause tinnitus.