Can You Get Rid of Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is the term used to describe the symptom of experiencing sounds that aren’t available to anyone else. Sometimes the sounds are heard through the ears, but they are also heard directly in the head. A common question amongst those who experience tinnitus is whether or not they can get rid of it.

Understanding Tinnitus

Rather than being a medical condition in and of itself, tinnitus is a symptom that is tied to many potential causes, including hearing loss, exposure to loud noises, ear infections, Meniere’s disease, and more. People experience tinnitus in various different ways. It can be intermittent, frequent, at different volumes, and it can sound different for every individual. This can make it difficult to treat tinnitus without understanding underlying causes, and, in some cases, even when the causes are treated, tinnitus can remain.

Can You Get Rid of It?

The majority of cases of tinnitus are very short-term. For instance, after experience a loud noise, someone might have a ringing in their ear that lasts for a couple of days but goes away after that. There is no consistent way to get rid of tinnitus in these cases except to wait for symptoms to pass. If you begin to experience it for longer than 48 hours, it may be time to talk to an audiologist.

Chronic Tinnitus

A lot of people experience tinnitus as a chronic or permanent symptom. It can remain with a person for years but, at the same time, it can at some point go away on its own. Chronic tinnitus is more often linked to long-term issues such as hearing loss and head injuries. There is no guaranteed way to get rid of chronic tinnitus, but there are steps you can take to treat it.

How an Audiologist Can Help You Treat Tinnitus

If you experience the symptoms of tinnitus, the audiologist will first look at any potential causes affecting you and treat those causes. This can include removing impacted earwax, performing a hearing test and recommending hearing aids if you have hearing loss, and so on. Otherwise, they can make recommendations, such as using white noise machines or tinnitus-masking devices (or hearing aids with tinnitus-masking features) to help you acclimate to the noise so that it’s easier to ignore it.

Factors that Can Affect Tinnitus

There are also lifestyle factors that you can change that may be able to affect your experience of tinnitus. For instance, high blood pressure and stress are linked to tinnitus bouts, so treating those issues may help. Similarly, protecting your hearing, especially if you work or spend time in loud environments, can help prevent tinnitus from getting worse, too. Getting rid of tinnitus may not be a simple matter, but your audiologist can certainly help you manage it. Get in touch to learn more about what they can do about tinnitus and book an appointment to get started so that you can find the solutions that offer relief.