For the past six months, INDATA’s Outreach and Education Lead Nikol Allee has been hearing a constant ringing noise. It’s a sound her husband, INDATA Demo and Loan Lead Blake Allee, isn’t picking up in his own ears. But Nikol is far from alone — she’s among the roughly 1 in 5 people with Tinnitus.
In light of Tinnitus Awareness Week earlier this month, let’s take a deep dive into this surprisingly common condition.
The Sources Behind the Sounds
Tinnitus can come from a wide variety of sources. For instance, Nikol’s doctor suggested her case could be the result of Nikol grinding her teeth, which puts pressure on the temporomandibular joints located directly in front of the ears.
“I know from past dental appointments that I definitely grind my teeth,” Nikol said. “I have even been told in the past to get a mouth guard to help with this.”
Other possible causes of Tinnitus include:
Hearing loss: Due to age or regular exposure to loud sounds, the hairs inside your inner ear that move amid sound waves can bend or break, leaking random electrical impulses to your brain — such as the ringing noise from tinnitus.
As the American Tinnitus Association states: “People often mistake that loud tinnitus, rather than hearing loss, interferes with their hearing. It is therefore critical to have one’s hearing evaluated since as many as 90 percent of people who experience chronic tinnitus also have hearing loss.”
Ear canal blockage: Whether it’s fluid from an infection or earwax, this kind of blockage affects the pressure in your ear, thus causing tinnitus.
Head or neck injuries: These injuries can affect hearing nerves or parts of the brain responsible for hearing function.
Chronic conditions: Diabetes, lupus, migraines, rheumatoid arthritis, and thyroid issues have been linked to tinnitus.
Certain medications: Antibiotics, antidepressants and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are known to cause tinnitus — especially high doses.
Alcohol, caffeine and nicotine: Heavy use of these substances causes abnormal blood flow to the ears, thus leading to tinnitus.
How Assistive Technology Can Help
Just as there are many causes of tinnitus, there are also many tools to cope with it. One such piece of assistive technology is the Beltone Tinnitus Calmer™ app for Android and iOS. In addition to a wide selection of soothing sounds to drown out ear-ringing, the app includes links to information about tinnitus as well as breathing exercises, guided meditation, and a list of “pleasant activities” for distraction — such as chatting over coffee with a friend or hiking among the sounds of nature.
In regard to the app’s library of sounds, you can even stream them directly into your hearing aids, speakers or headset.
The Flare Calmer is a small in-ear device made from the softest possible silicone that reduces ear resonance — or the natural amplification of certain sound frequencies — without blocking or muffling sound. By doing so, it drastically decreases stress response to noise — one of the main symptoms of tinnitus.
As the Flare Calmer website states: “Calmer alters the internal shape of our ears to reduce ear resonance at certain frequencies. They feature a flat surface inside a hollow soft silicone design to improve how sound reflects inside our ears.”
Hearing aids: As the American Tinnitus Association states: “Hearing aids can be classified as a type of sound therapy because they augment external noise. Augmenting the reception and perception of external noise can often provide relief from the internal sound of tinnitus.”
The American Tinnitus Association also has this helpful visual representation of how hearing aids help with tinnitus:
As the website directs, “Imagine the cricket represents a person’s tinnitus, and the background image represents background sounds. In Picture A, the person has a hearing loss. The background sound is indistinct, and the cricket (tinnitus) is very clear. In Picture B, the person has been fitted with a hearing aid, and the background is clear and rich in detail. Although the cricket (tinnitus) is still present, it blends into the background. The listener’s attention is diverted to other aspects of environmental sound. The success of hearing aids in managing tinnitus depends on how well background sounds can be made to blend with tinnitus.”
To manage her tinnitus, Nikol is currently using a white noise app at bedtime. This condition is still quite new to her, so she’s unsure of how well she can manage it. Fortunately, as she knows from firsthand experience, the world of assistive technology solutions is always growing.
Tinnitus Awareness Week image courtesy of the American Tinnitus Association (ATA).
ATA image courtesy of ATA.
Beltone Tinnitus Calmer App image courtesy of INDATA.
Flare Calmer image courtesy of FlareAudio.com.
Cricket and waterfall image courtesy of ATA.