Unveiling the Top 5 Causes of Tinnitus

The cause 

Your hearing works by the tiny, delicate hairs in your inner ear – or cochlea – vibrating in response to sound waves. This movement triggers an electrical signal which travels up your auditory nerve to your brain, which then interprets the sound. 

All pretty cool stuff. However, as you get older these hairs can become bent and broken, which then causes them to leak random electrical impulses to your brain – causing tinnitus. 

Cumulative noise exposure can also contribute to age-related hearing loss. In other words, exposure to loud sounds throughout your lifetime can damage your hearing, which can – in turn – cause tinnitus. As the small hairs in your ears can become broken over time simply due to age, they can also be damaged or destroyed due to prolonged exposure to loud noises.

Essentially, the longer you’re exposed to high levels of noise throughout your life, the greater the risk of hearing damage and tinnitus as you get older.

So, how to prevent it?

Many people have tried, but unfortunately there isn’t a way to prevent aging…yet. Until that fateful day comes, we’re just going to have to accept that we’re all going to get older and our hearing won’t be as sharp. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t protect your hearing in the meantime.

Can a buildup of wax cause tinnitus? Absolutely. 

Your ears are self-cleaning. Whenever you move your jaw, the wax inside your ear canal moves towards the opening where it’ll either fall out, dry up, or flake. However, you can still get a buildup of wax through an ear infection, or just if your ears are producing more wax than your canal can shift. You can also have a foreign body get trapped in your canal, or an infection can cause your canal to fill with liquid.  

When this happens, the blockage can cause a change of pressure inside your ear, which can be one of the major causes of tinnitus. 

Besides normal hygiene habits and not sticking strange things into your ear, it may be difficult to avoid an infection or a foreign body. However, you can prevent a buildup of wax by completely avoiding cotton swabs, otherwise known as Q-tips. 

While these swabs may be branded as a method of cleaning your ears, they actually do far more harm than good. Pushing anything into your ear will likely cause the wax to be pushed further into your canal and become compacted against your eardrum, leading to hearing loss and tinnitus. 

So while it’s good hygiene practice to clean around the outside of your ears, let nature take care of the inside.

Your ears are sensitive. And because of this, they are susceptible to a number of infections, diseases, and disorders, such as:

• Ménière's disease: This inner ear disorder is characterized by episodes of vertigo, losing your balance, fluctuating hearing loss, tinnitus, and a feeling of pressure in the ear. 
• Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Disorders: The TMJ connects the jawbone to the skull, and if there’s a problem with this joint, it can cause tinnitus.
• High blood pressure (hypertension): High blood pressure can damage the blood vessels in the inner ear, which can trigger tinnitus symptoms.

Many of these diseases and disorders are caused by issues beyond our control. But often, with the right treatment, you can reduce the symptoms. You may need to take medications to manage Ménière's disease or hypertension, or undergo physical therapy for TMJ disorders – both of which may help to relieve your tinnitus symptoms/

If you believe you are suffering from any of these conditions, make sure to visit your physician at the earliest convenience.