Why Do My Ears Make Noise
The Nerve From Ear-to-Brain Is Damaged
You are not alone with tinnitus. At Intermountain Audiology, it’s our specialty!
Tinnitus (tin-it-us or ti-night-us) is most commonly caused by damage to your hearing and auditory system; including the nerve which transfers sound from your ear to your brain.
For some, experiencing a ringing, whooshing, or buzzing sound is the early warning sign that something is breaking down in your hearing system. This type of damage to the neural structures can result simply from aging; or, perhaps from noise exposure, toxic medications including chemotherapy, a virus, as well as other factors.
Your powerful brain does its best to instinctively make up for the missing sound signals, thus creating a false perception of sound often referred to as tinnitus.
For more than 90% of people living with tinnitus, this ringing/whooshing/buzzing is directly attributed to the progressive and degenerative loss of nerves connecting the ear to the brain, aka hearing loss.
One of the most common statements we hear from tinnitus patients is, “I have tinnitus, but I don’t have a problem with my hearing!” While this is true for some patients, you should know that it is possible to have "normal" hearing with an auditory ear-to-brain nerve that is up to 50% damaged.
Unfortunately, tinnitus is a precursor of what’s to come due to the damaged nerve, and early treatment is a crucial part of slowing down the symptoms of tinnitus that will worsen over time.
If not treated, tinnitus will get worse.