Tinnitus/Ringing-in-the-Ears in Kids

Many adults hear the constant noises of tinnitus (ringing in the ears), but few individuals realize it affects children too. Many kids also experience the symptoms of tinnitus. While adults can usually determine that the sounds they are hearing are abnormal, many children assume the noise is a regular part of life. If your child shows signs of tinnitus it is important to look into it to rule out any underlying condition.

Tinnitus is caused by a number of different conditions in both adults and children. Among the many potential causes are circulatory problems, hearing loss from damaging noise, a build-up of wax in the ear canal, a misalignment in the jaw joints, and trauma to the neck and head. Additionally, tinnitus can result from slow-growing tumors on nerves in the ears and face. Your family pediatrician can help rule out any specific ear problems. If your appointment does not uncover any obvious issues, your doctor will likely advise you to investigate further with an audiologist or ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist.

Should your child’s specialist find a specific issue that is causing the tinnitus, there is a good chance that the problem can be addressed and the condition eliminated. However, many kids and adults experience tinnitus without a clear cause. In this case, there is no way to eradicate the problem, so your focus should shift to helping your child cope with the sounds he or she is hearing.

Tinnitus can be distracting, making it difficult for your child to pay attention at home or at school. Background noise is an effective way to fight back against this problem. Run a fan or soft music in the background while your child is at home. If your child is suffering from hearing loss alongside tinnitus, a hearing aid can help her focus on important sounds and filter out distractions.

Tinnitus can cause some kids to experience psychological distress. In this case it is important to be supportive and reassuring about the condition. Explain to your child that tinnitus is a common condition that many other kids and adults experience. Ask your audiologist about how you can explain tinnitus to your child in a way that makes sense to them.Take steps to help your child deal with stressful situations, as many children find that stress can make their tinnitus symptoms much worse.

Always keep in mind that many kids outgrow their tinnitus without intervention, so it may cease to be an issue. While it may be a nuisance now, with time your child can overcome it.

Protecting Yourself from Noise Induced Hearing Loss at Live Concerts

If you have ever been at a concert and thought “This music is simply too loud,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve become too old for this sort of music. This reaction could be your body’s means of telling you that you are in danger of hearing impairment. If, after you’ve left the concert, and for the following few days you’ve had a ringing in your ears (tinnitus) or experienced difficulty hearing as well as usual, you may have experienced noise-induced hearing loss, or NIHL.

This can happen even after brief exposures to loud noises, and occurs because high decibel sounds can result in physical damage to the very small hair cells that receive auditory signals in the interior of the ear and transmit the signals to the brain, where they are interpreted as sounds. Typically, the NIHL resulting from a single exposure to very loud music or noise is short-lived, and will go away within a couple of days. However in the event that you continue to expose yourself to loud noise or music, it can cause tinnitus that doesn’t go away, or a long-term loss of hearing.

How much damage very loud music does to a person’s hearing is dependant upon a couple of things – how loud the music is, and how long you are exposed to it. Noise levels are measured on the decibel scale, which is logarithmic and therefore difficult for many people to understand; a rise of ten decibels on the scale means that the sound at the higher rating is two times as loud. Thus the noise of noisy city traffic (85 decibels) isn’t just a little bit louder than the sound of ordinary speech (65 decibels), it’s four times louder. A rock concert, at which the sound level is commonly in the range of 115 decibels, is 10 times louder than standard speech. In addition to precisely how loud the music is, the second factor that determines how much damage is done is how long you are exposed to it, the permissible exposure time. Hearing loss can occur from being exposed to sound at 85 decibels after only eight hours. In contrast, the permissible exposure time that you can be exposed to music at 115 decibels without risking hearing loss is less than one minute. Add to this the knowledge that the sound level at some concerts has been recorded at over 140 decibels, and you have a high risk predicament.

Projections from audiologists claim that by the year 2050 up to fifty million Americans will have sustained hearing loss resulting from exposure to very loud music. Bearing this in mind, many live concert promoters and concert venues have started supplying sound-baffling ear plugs to attendees for a minimal charge. One well known UK rock and roll band actually collaborated with an earplug manufacturer to offer them free of charge to people attending its concerts. Some concertgoers have reported seeing signs in the auditoriums that proclaim, “Earplugs are sexy.” Earplugs may, in fact, not be very sexy, but they could possibly save your hearing.

Any of our hearing specialists here would be pleased to supply you with information about earplugs. In case a noisy rock and roll concert is in your near future, we strongly suggest that you consider wearing a good pair.

Astonishing Hearing Loss Facts and Data

Do you have a family member or friend that needs a hearing aid (or at least a hearing test) but won’t go along with your suggestions? Chatting about some of the statistics related to the prevalence, causes and effects of hearing loss may finally get them to make that initial appointment. These facts and stats could help you persuade someone you care about that it is time to schedule a hearing evaluation:

  • The number of Americans with hearing loss has doubled in the last 3 decades.
  • More men than women experience hearing loss.
  • Approximately 36 million people in the United States have some sort of hearing loss, which is almost one out of every five people.
  • Roughly 13% of the population over age 65 will experience tinnitus – ringing in the ears.
  • Many more people could benefit from a hearing aid than in fact wear one. Some estimates say there are 4 additional people who could benefit, for every 1 actually using a hearing aid.
  • Ten million people have permanent loss of hearing due to noise, and 30 million more are exposed to dangerous noise levels every day.
  • Close to 13,000 adults and 10,000 children in the US have cochlear implants.
  • Research studies have indicated that those with hearing loss experience it as mild in 65% of cases, moderate in 30% of cases and severe in 5% of cases.
  • High frequency hearing loss caused by recurring loud noise exposure affects about 26 million people in the US (ages 20-69). This includes regular noise exposure from both work and leisure sources.
  • People with hearing loss wait close to a decade before doing anything about it. Don’t let this be you or someone you love!

What Exactly is Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) and What Types of People Can Benefit from It?

Tinnitus is sadly a common condition, affecting approximately 50 million Americans over 50. Those who suffer from tinnitus hear constant sounds that no one around them can hear. These sounds vary from high-pitched ringing sounds, buzzing or roaring, or rapid clicking sounds similar to crickets chirping. Many people “learn to live with” their tinnitus, considering it as an annoyance rather than a condition. However for other people, this constant ringing in the ears leads to additional symptoms of stress and distress, sleep disorders, fatigue, depression, and anxiety.

Some forms of tinnitus respond well to treatment with hearing aids which are programmed to filter and suppress the ringing or buzzing sounds. In this article, we want to introduce you to an alternative tinnitus treatment known as Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT). Using a combination of mechanisms, TRT “retrains” tinnitus sufferers and gives them the ability to reduce their perceptions of the noises they hear, so they no longer react to the sounds negatively, and thus eventually cease being bothered by them.

Discovered in the 1980s by neuroscientist Pawel Jastreboff, TRT challenges the assumptions of many audiologists that tinnitus is a physical disorder due to ear damage that cannot be fixed. Jastreboff has proposed an alternate model for tinnitus based on his background in behavioral neuroscience. Thus freed from the temptation to regard the problem as something that cannot be fixed, he set about developing behavioral modification techniques that could fix it.

According to Jastreboff’s model, tinnitus is not a disease or condition in itself, but a function of hyperacusis – the ability of some people to become aware of normal sounds generated by the auditory system that most people filter out or are unaware of. Jastreboff reasons that the true problem for tinnitus sufferers is the over-reaction and hyper-sensitivity to the ringing or buzzing sounds, not the sounds themselves. Tinnitus Retraining Therapy is a form of individualized counseling perform by people with special training and qualifications. The sessions are very precise to each individual’s needs and aim to teach tinnitus sufferers to mentally curb their reactions to undesirable sounds by focusing on the desirable ones.

Counselors trained in TRT have had remarkable successes helping patient eliminate their negative reactions to the sounds they hear, thereby relieving distress.

Tinnitus Indications and Warning Signs

Tinnitus is defined by The American Tinnitus Association as the condition in which a person hears sounds that most often no one else can hear. It is a condition that seems to be related to age (most cases appear after the age of 50), and is much more common in men than in women. An estimated 50 million Americans have tinnitus; for some reason more of them in the South than other parts of the country.

Tinnitus can be of different types, and those who experience it may hear very different types of sounds. Subjective tinnitus is the most common, and is defined as the person hearing sounds that no one else can hear; objective tinnitus is much more rare, and is indicated when a doctor or audiologist can also detect these sounds. Other less common types of tinnitus include 1) hearing low-frequency sounds, often mistaken for being actual sounds in the environment, 2) pulsatile tinnitus, in which the person hears rhythmic beats in time with their pulse, and 3) musical hallucinations, or hearing music that is not really present.

The most common symptom of tinnitus is a persistent, almost-always present, high-pitched ringing noise in one or both ears. Though this is the most commonly heard sound others hear buzzing, clicking, whistling, roaring and hissing that can increase and decrease in pitch and volume. If you have mild tinnitus, you might tend to notice it only in quiet environments, because the ambient sounds of noisy environments can mask the buzzing or ringing sounds. Some experience the symptoms of tinnitus more when they are lying down or sitting, as opposed to standing up. Although for most people tinnitus is more a nuisance than anything else, for some it has severe repercussions: they may suffer increased levels of stress, fatigue, anxiety, and depression. Some tinnitus sufferers have complained that the condition made it more difficult for them to concentrate or sleep.

Tinnitus can be diagnosed by one of our specialists by performing a short, painless examination. Scheduling an appointment is highly recommended, because sometimes tinnitus can be an indicator of serious disease conditions such as arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, and Meniere’s disease, or indicate more serious forms of hearing loss.

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