@Bill1939 and @Jonesn4burgers – Tinnitus is like a headache – a single symptom that can have a myriad of causes. For the majority of people, it is a byproduct of inner ear damage. The latest research suggests the it is similar to the ‘phantom limb’ effect, where the body experiences a loss of information from a body part, but the nervous system higher up is still expecting that input – like when someone loses an arm, but can still “feel” their fingers. This is why it is so common with noise-induced hearing loss, because the acoustic trauma is to the cochlea, but the auditory nervous system still functions normally.
However, there are types of tinnitus that are generated by other inner ear disorders, like Meniere’s Disease, which appears to be due to a breach in the membranes that separate the endolymph and perilymph that creates a charge which results in dysfunction of the inner ear and all kinds of mixed signals going to the brain. Similarly, in cases of head or neck injury, there might be microfractures in the inner ear, or damage to the auditory nervous system. Some people with musculoskeletal problems are actually hearing the spasms in the neck and jaw muscles. When the tinnitus appears to be caused by a medical condition or strong medication, it is hard to know which is the exact site of lesion, and it could be a combination of things.
Currently, some people are working on a combined treatment protocol for those who are severely impacted by their tinnitus with mental health professionals. It seems that for many of them, there are emotional associations with the events that brought the tinnitus, so the tinnitus itself brings those (sometimes subconscious) emotions to the surface.
Most of my patients fund that when we correct for the hearing loss – even mild losses that have minimal communication impact – they feel some relief from their tinnitus. For some, there are hearing instruments hat will also generate a masking sound, with or mirth out hearing loss correction. The newer devices allow us to really fine-tune the masker to the patient’s preferred tone and volume. The autumn releases may bring some new developments there, also (although the manufacturer’s are very tight-lipped on what’s being developed, this is just a gut feeling I have).