Tinnitus: How to Deal with It

Ever wondered what that annoying buzzing or ringing noise was in your ear? The name for this sort of inner ear noise is called tinnitus, from the Latin term “tinnire” (to ring or tinkle). As an experienced ENT specialist in Singapore, we manage many patients with tinnitus in Singapore and help them to understand their complex tinnitus condition so that they feel better. Many people mistakenly assume that “there is nothing you can do” about tinnitus, but depending on the cause and severity of the tinnitus, we often are able to help patients deal with their tinnitus better.

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Some rare types of tinnitus may be objective and this means that the tinnitus can be heard by other people around the tinnitus sufferer. Tinnitus which is pulsatile in nature (“like a heartbeat”) is also a bit more worrying. These types of tinnitus definitely need further investigation with a CT or MRI scan to find out if the tinnitus might be originating from abnormalities of the blood vessels in the neck of head (such as an aneurysm, a weak dilated part of a blood vessel).

However, most patients with tinnitus in Singapore whom we see at our ENT clinic in Singapore, tend to have subjective tinnitus, the type of tinnitus which only the sufferer can hear. One of the most common causes of tinnitus in Singapore is due to underlying hearing loss which the tinnitus patient may not realise that he or she has. As we grow older, we usually tend to lose our high frequency hearing and this often is associated with tinnitus, as the inner ear hearing organ, the cochlea, undergoes age-related changes. Wearing a hearing aid can help alleviate the tinnitus and help with the hearing loss at the same time.

Another common cause of tinnitus in Singapore is inner ear damage due to previous noise exposure, which may have occurred ages ago. Tinnitus comes in all forms and some patients with tinnitus may even suffer more than one kind of tinnitus at the same time in one or both ears. Tinnitus can present as a whistling, rustling, crackling, popping, whining, humming, dripping, whooshing noise in the ear. Here’s the interesting thing: If the room is quiet enough, technically everyone will notice some sort of tinnitus!

Another interesting observation: Not everyone is bothered by tinnitus even though they have it! A small number of patients with tinnitus in Singapore do become severely disturbed by their tinnitus to the extent where they find it difficult to go about their usual activities and the tinnitus may prevent them from sleeping or wake them up. The common triggers to make tinnitus sound louder or worse include stress, fatigue and anxiety so it is important to manage the psychosocial aspects of this condition properly with specialised tinnitus counselling. Sometimes, we prescribe special medications to help our tinnitus patients sleep better and relax. In extremely severe cases of tinnitus who have poor hearing, then a cochlear implant may be an option.

https://www.drannabelle.com/ear-hearing-ent-specialist.html

Persistent tinnitus in one ear in Singapore is investigated with an MRI scan to rule out the rare cause of a benign inner ear nerve tumour, called an acoustic neuroma. Tinnitus may be the very first symptom of an acoustic neuroma but its loudness has no correlation with the size of any underlying inner ear tumour. The postnasal space (area behind the nose) should also be examined with a nasal endoscope as nose cancer may rarely present with tinnitus as a symptom.

Tinnitus patients in Singapore have to be managed with care as tinnitus is a complex condition, so identifying the cause and listening to the finer details is important in helping the tinnitus patient get better. Seeing an ENT specialist who has specialised experience in hearing, balance and tinnitus conditions is the key to getting the tinnitus patient better.

Dr Annabelle’s Tips for Tinnitus Patients:

1. Avoid being in a room that is too quiet. Some background noise is usually helpful in masking the tinnitus to prevent it from disturbing you e.g. whirring fan, humming air-conditioner, soft music playing in the background.
2. Make sure you get a hearing test done at a reliable centre. High frequency hearing loss often goes hand-in-hand with tinnitus but mild to moderate hearing loss may not be noticed yet by the patient.
3. See an experienced ENT specialist earlier rather than wait many years before doing so because it is always easier to manage the tinnitus at the early stage, before it becomes associated with anxiety or depression at later stages in some patients.

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