Tinnitus can be a very difficult issue to cope with on a day-to-day basis, depending on the severity of the tinnitus symptoms. The short answer is yes, sometimes tinnitus goes away. However, most symptoms of tinnitus are not cured but rather successfully managed.

Millions of people are reluctant to seek help for tinnitus because it is either not affecting their lifestyle too badly, or they believe there is nothing that can be done to make it go away, or they prioritize other health needs. However, about 10M of the 21M+ tinnitus sufferers in the US do seek help and often find it.

Scottsdale Ear, Nose & Throat has a team of six ENT specialists to help you acquire a correct diagnosis and a tailored treatment plan to bring you to a place where your tinnitus is hardly noticeable.

Do You Have Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is the perception of sound when no corresponding external noise is present. While it is commonly described as a ringing noise, tinnitus can also sound like a clicking, hissing, or roaring. The sound can be consistent or intermittent.

Tinnitus can affect one or both ears, and it can vary in softness, loudness, or tone from one ear to the other. In rare cases, tinnitus occurs as an alternating rhythm of sound – often at the pace of a heartbeat.

Sometimes the sound can become so loud that it interferes with your concentration and sound perception. The sound is often worse when background music is low or when you are trying to sleep in a quiet room.

Tinnitus Causes

Tinnitus is not a condition itself – it is a symptom of an underlying condition.

There are many different causes of tinnitus, including hearing loss, earwax buildup, age-related changes to the hearing nerve, damage to the auditory nerve or the inner ear, head or neck injuries, and certain ototoxic medications.

Noise-induced hearing loss is one of the top culprits, with many people in careers in loud-noise or sudden loud-noise environments, such as the military, experiencing noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus.

Is Tinnitus Curable – Does It Ever Go Away?

In some cases, tinnitus goes away on its own. If the underlying cause can be identified and treated, tinnitus may go away also.

According to the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery: “If you are in the ‘new onset’ period of tinnitus (less than 6 months), you can be reassured that, for many, the natural course of tinnitus is to improve over time and most people do not go on to have persistent bothersome tinnitus.”

There are successful treatments that can help manage the symptoms if your tinnitus has not gone away. Tinnitus is viewed as chronic rather than acute if it is still present after two years.

Is Tinnitus Real or Is It in My Head?

No, tinnitus is not imagined. It is a real phenomenon that can be measured by objective means. However, the perception of tinnitus can vary greatly from person to person. Some people are barely aware of their tinnitus while others find it debilitating.

Find Relief For Your Tinnitus Through a Tailored Treatment Plan By An ENT Specialist.

How You Can Learn to Live with Tinnitus

The most important thing is to find a way to manage your tinnitus so that it does not negatively impact your quality of life.

Different people notice different triggers for their tinnitus. Some people find that their tinnitus gets worse when they are under stress or tired. Others find that their tinnitus worsens after smoking or drinking alcohol or coffee.

If you are seeking ways to treat or manage your tinnitus on your own, the following can help:

Sound therapy – This can help to mask the noise of tinnitus and make it less noticeable. If you have hyperacusis — a high sensitivity to sound — sound enrichment has been proven to help.

Avoid loud noise – Exposure to loud noise can worsen tinnitus. Ask us about hearing protection products we recommend.

Manage stress – Stress can worsen tinnitus, so finding ways to manage stress can help. Some relaxation techniques are more helpful than others, such as listening to soothing music, doing daily progressive muscle relaxation exercises, or trying visualization exercises.

Exercise – Exercise can help improve your overall health and well-being and help your body relax better at night, which also can contribute to getting more sleep.

Get support – There are many organizations and support groups available for people with tinnitus, such as the Tinnitus Talk Support Forum. Talking to others who understand what you are going through can be very helpful.

Despite the many self-help treatments for tinnitus, a treatment plan by an ENT specialist or audiologist can be the answer you seek in finding adequate relief.

The Tinnitus Treatment Options Scottsdale ENT Provides

Fortunately, there are many successful ways an ENT doctor can treat tinnitus and manage the symptoms to where they become minor rather than major.

Because one of the main underlying causes of tinnitus is hearing loss, the first step is to get a full hearing evaluation and begin hearing treatment if you are found to have a hearing loss. In some cases, this takes care of the tinnitus completely.

A Scottsdale ENT specialist treats any other factors that might be causing the tinnitus (such as ototoxic medications and medical issues) and examines your noise environment to see if hearing protection might help.

For some patients, tinnitus lessens with hearing aids, but it is still present. Fortunately, hearing aid technology has developed to where we can now treat tinnitus and hearing loss with tinnitus relief hearing aids – these can play gentle sounds or white noise to mask the tinnitus as a feature of the hearing aid or its app features.

Tinnitus hearing aids work best in conjunction with what is termed “habituation therapy,” which applies a therapeutic approach to treating tinnitus by retraining the brain to react differently to the sound and reframing the thoughts and emotions surrounding it.

Where to Find Tinnitus Treatment in Scottsdale, AZ

Scottsdale Ear, Nose & Throat understands how debilitating tinnitus can be, sometimes even to the point where it affects every aspect of your life.

Book your tinnitus assessment and/or hearing evaluation online or call us at 480-684-1080 to schedule.

Our goal is to help you find relief from your tinnitus, and if we cannot treat it to where it goes away, we can promise that we will help it become manageable so you can start enjoying life once again.

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Dr. Debra L. Hamila, Au.D., CCC/A

Debra Hamila received her master’s degree in audiology from Cleveland State University and her Au.D. from Arizona School of Health Sciences and has been a practicing audiologist for more than 33 years. She has worked in a variety of ENT offices, hospital, and clinical settings.
    You don’t realise you’re walking with a rock in your shoe until you’re able to hear again – Regina’s Story

    Regina has suffered from hearing problems since she was an infant, recognized as regular chronic ear infections. And, as with unfortunate events, she has experienced a multitude of audiology catastrophes.

    It was many years before Regina crossed paths with Scottsdale Ear, Nose & Throat; where her lifetime of hearing problems was addressed effectively and treated with the delicate care that she desperately required.

    Regina’s journey began when she was taken to a regular paediatrician by her mother from a young age. Her ears were, what we describe as an audiologists recipe for disaster, ‘flushed out’.

    This dangerous procedure caused a nasty infection, which spread to her mastoid bone and, at the age of 15, she underwent a tympanoplasty mastoidectomy to stop the infection spreading. This only forbade her future struggles with hearing loss. 

    As with poor diagnosis, Regina was faced with another canaloplasty which didn’t work. Soon after, she received a BAHA, which is a cochlear implant in her skull that acts as a sound processor that detects sound and transforms it into vibrations. 

    However, suffering from a history of poor hearing care, she was unaware of the former issues her ear presented.

    By now, this would be described as any audiologists nightmare. But, we’re proud to have helped Regina on her road to optimum hearing and reconnect her to her loved ones.

    When she arrived at Scottsdale Ear, Nose & Throat it was evident that she was losing hearing on her right side. At this point, she was fitted with a ReSound hearing device, which provided the catalyst to a new and improved hearing.

    The first thing Regina noticed was the indefinite sound she had been making whilst emptying the dishwasher, completely unaware of the noise she was making!

    “I mean, the detail that I can hear now it’s like, Whoa, I didn’t realize I was making that much noise. I need to be quieter!”

    Treated with professional care, Regina received a comprehensive hearing assessment with Dr. Debra Hamila.

    “I just love, love, love Dr. Hamila, she is such a professional and loving person. I was so impressed with the office and what she did with the ReSound, I just love her.”

    Like many others, it takes years for people to realize they have a hearing problem. Regina described this moment as life-changing.

    “You don’t realise you’re walking with a rock in your shoe until you’re able to hear again. Especially now I’m a full-time Grammy Nanny, I can hear so much more and it has enriched my life incredibly.”

    What advice would you give to someone who is deliberating on taking the first step towards better hearing?

    “My advice to them would be to have a hearing test. Especially as we age our hearing goes down. It’s really unfortunate that people carry their pride and are not willing to learn to walk with the rock in their shoe. You don’t realise you’re waking with a rock in your shoe until you’re able to hear again.”

    Regina is one of many patients who has been impacted by our audiological services and we are proud to have been able to provide the tool towards better hearing and a lifetime of many more memories.