1. What is tinnitus?
Tinnitus is a ringing sound in your ears when no outside sound is involved. For example, there is no cicada chirping around you, but there is a cicada chirping sound in your ear. This is tinnitus.
2. How is tinnitus classified?
There are so many different ways to classify tinnitus that there is no single standard. It is usually classified according to the nature of tinnitus, the cause of tinnitus, and the location of the tinnitus lesion.
(1) According to the nature of tinnitus; physiological tinnitus, pathological tinnitus; subjective tinnitus, objective tinnitus; persistent tinnitus, fluctuating tinnitus or pulsatile tinnitus; monotonic tinnitus, polytonal tinnitus;
(2) Classification according to the etiology of tinnitus: pharmacotoxic tinnitus, post-sudden deafness tinnitus, Meniere’s disease, otosclerosis, and auditory neuroma.
(3) Classification according to the location of tinnitus: left tinnitus, right tinnitus, binaural tinnitus, cranial tinnitus; otogenic tinnitus and non-otogenic tinnitus; peripheral tinnitus and central tinnitus. Peripheral tinnitus refers to tinnitus caused by lesions in the outer ear, middle ear, inner ear and auditory nerve. Central tinnitus refers to tinnitus caused by lesions in the auditory pathway above the cochlear nucleus up to the auditory cortex of the brain. Non-auricular tinnitus refers to tinnitus caused by diseases unrelated to the auditory organs, such as hypertension, heart disease, hyperthyroidism, neurasthenia, hyperlipidemia, etc.
3. What is the difference between tinnitus and phantom hearing?
Tinnitus is a monotonous sound without any linguistic meaning. Phantom hearing, on the other hand, is a symptom of a psychiatric patient, who often hears someone talking to him/her, crying or laughing, or cursing from other people, but in fact there are no such sounds outside, because he/she is suffering from mental illness.
4. Do normal people have tinnitus?
Normal people also have tinnitus, which is called physiological tinnitus. For example, when you cover your ears with your hands or when your ears touch the pillow in a side-lying position, you can hear a buzzing sound in your ears. Once you let go of your hand or turn over, the tinnitus is gone. Another example is that when we walk into a well-sealed soundproof room or anechoic chamber, almost everyone, especially older people over 60 years old, will feel a buzzing sound in their ears. This physiological tinnitus is due to the sound of blood flow in the ear or in the tissues next to the ear or the sound produced by the tissues themselves being heard after the removal or isolation of external noise. Physiological tinnitus is generally below the threshold of hearing, cannot be heard under normal circumstances, and is of short duration.
5. What is pathological tinnitus?
Tinnitus caused by disease is called pathological tinnitus. Its loudness is usually 5-15dB above the hearing threshold and is easily masked by external noise. Most tinnitus patients complain that they cannot hear the tinnitus during the day or in a noisy place, but the tinnitus appears at night when people are quiet.
6. How many people suffer from tinnitus?
An epidemiological survey conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom found that the prevalence of tinnitus is 17%. If we take a conservative estimate of 10%, there should be 130 million tinnitus sufferers in China. This is a large number, equivalent to the total population of a larger country.
Of all patients, about 7% need medical help, 3.5% have their tinnitus seriously affect their life, work and social activities, and 0.8% are unable to carry out normal life, work and study due to long-term, severe tinnitus, and even think about suicide. The prevalence of tinnitus is even higher in the elderly, accounting for about 33% of people over 65 years of age. The above ratios respectively mean that 91 million tinnitus patients in China often seek medical treatment; 45.5 million tinnitus patients are seriously disturbed by tinnitus and their quality of life is seriously reduced; 1.04 million patients are unable to carry out normal life, work and study due to tinnitus, as if they are disabled; 39 million elderly people suffer from tinnitus. With the improvement of economic development and living standard, the change of diet structure, the aging of population and the gradual increase of environmental noise pollution, the incidence of tinnitus will gradually increase.
7.What are the dangers of severe tinnitus?
(1) Affects hearing: Very loud tinnitus can interfere with the content of what you hear, and you often hear sounds but cannot distinguish what others are saying.
(2) Affects sleep: Tinnitus is especially loud in the dead of night, making it difficult for people to fall asleep. Even if you do fall asleep, it is particularly shallow. Some people complain that they can be woken up by tinnitus when they are not sleeping deeply (tinnitus can wake up the owner just like outside sounds). Because the tinnitus still keeps ringing after waking up in the middle of the night, it makes people irritable and sleepless.
(3) Affects mood: Long-term severe tinnitus can cause mood changes such as distraction, worry, apprehension, anxiety, and depression. Some people would rather not hear than tinnitus, reaching an unbearable level. Some people even think of committing suicide because they are told that “there is no good cure” or “there is no good solution”.
(4) Affecting work: Because they cannot hear the speeches of others, especially leaders and teachers, and because they suffer from the great pain caused by tinnitus, they often cannot be understood, so their work efficiency decreases and they gradually lose interest in work and study.
(5) Affecting family life: Seeking medical treatment for a long time because of tinnitus brings financial loss and even leads to great financial pressure. If it is not understood by family members, it affects family harmony.
(6) Affecting social activities: Because of poor speech comprehension, you cannot hear other people’s speech, and you are nervous, irritable and bitter, so you are reluctant to participate in social activities for a long time.
8.Is tinnitus hereditary?
If tinnitus is caused by a hereditary disease, it is hereditary. If the tinnitus is not caused by hereditary disease, it will not be inherited.
9. Is chronic, severe tinnitus a terminal illness?
Tinnitus is not a terminal disease! Normal tinnitus, although it can continue to ring for months, years or even decades, will not endanger your life. In terms of time alone, the longer the tinnitus lasts, the less dangerous it is. If the tinnitus is sudden, or occurs within a short period of time, it is important to go to a regular hospital to find out the cause. If the tinnitus is caused by a serious disease such as intracranial tumor or cerebrovascular disease, the original cause should be actively treated.
10.What is the relationship between tinnitus and deafness?
Tinnitus patients often have deafness, and tinnitus is a sign of impending deafness. Tinnitus is a precursor of deafness. The frequency (pitch) of tinnitus is often similar to the frequency of hearing loss, therefore, the medication for tinnitus and deafness are generally the same.