Are you going crazy with that tinnitus in your ears? Discover whether your tinnitus is inherited or what the cause may be.
What is tinnitus?
A ringing, buzzing, or droning in the ears with no outside cause of the noise is a condition called tinnitus. The direct translation of the term tinnitus is”ringing like a bell”.”
How will my day-to-day living be impacted by tinnitus?
Tinnitus can be annoying and can interrupt intimate interactions. It’s not a disease in and of itself, but it’s a symptom of other ailments or circumstances in your life like hearing loss or damage. Your concentration can be seriously disrupted when you begin to hear tinnitus in one or both ears.
Tinnitus is always disruptive regardless of how it’s manifesting. Tinnitus can affect your sleep and even trigger anxiety and depression.
What causes tinnitus?
Tinnitus can be persistent or temporary. Short term varieties of tinnitus are typically brought on by extended exposure to loud sounds, like a rock concert. Tinnitus has been documented to co-occur with several different medical issues.
A few of the circumstances that could play host to tinnitus include:
- Age-related hearing impairment
- Depression or anxiety
- Exposure to loud noise for extended periods of time
- Different medications
- Infection of the inner ear
- Meniere’s Disease
- Teeth grinding (bruxism) caused by a TMJ disorder
- Excessive earwax accumulation
- Inner ear cell damage and irritation of the fragile hairs used to transport sound, causing random transmissions of sound to your brain
- Head or neck injuries
- Injuries that affect nerves of the ear
- Changes in the structure of the ear bone
- Acoustic neuroma where a benign tumor grows on the cranial nerve going from the brain to the inner ear
Is it possible that my parents could have passed down the ringing in my ears?
Tinnitus isn’t directly inherited. But the symptoms can be affected by your genetics. You can, as an example, inherit a tendency for your ear bone to change. Irregular bone growth can trigger these changes and can be handed down through family genes. Some of the other conditions that can lead to ringing in the ear may be passed down from your parents, including:
- Predisposition to anxiety or depression
- Specific diseases
- Being prone to inner ear infections or wax build-up
The ringing in your ear isn’t directly inheritable, but you might have been genetically predisposed to the conditions that are breeding grounds for tinnitus.
If you have a history of tinnitus in your family, it’s really in your best interest to schedule an appointment with us so we can assess your hearing.
