Are you experiencing ringing in your ears that’s driving you mad? Find out what causes tinnitus and whether you may have inherited it.
What is tinnitus?
A ringing, buzzing, or droning in the ears with no external cause of the noise is a condition called tinnitus. The term tinnitus translates to “ringing like a bell.”
How will tinnitus affect my everyday living?
Tinnitus can disrupt personal connections in numerous aggravating ways. It’s normally an indication that you have damaged hearing or some root health condition and not a disease in and of itself. You may hear tinnitus in one ear or both ears and it can hinder your ability to concentrate.
Tinnitus is always disruptive regardless of how it’s manifesting. impact your sleep and even trigger anxiety and depression.
What causes tinnitus?
Tinnitus can be enduring or it can come and go. Temporary types of tinnitus are usually brought on by prolonged exposure to loud sounds, such as a rock concert. Tinnitus has been known to manifest with a few different medical conditions.
Here are a few conditions that typically go along with tinnitus:
- The ear bone has changed
- Inner ear cell damage and irritation of the sensitive hairs used to transport sound, causing random transmissions of sound to your brain
- Sustained exposure to loud sound
- Excessive earwax accumulation
- Injuries that affect nerves of the ear
- A benign tumor, called acoustic neuroma, grows on cranial nerve
- Infection of the inner ear
- Depression or anxiety
- Age-related hearing loss
- Various medications
- Teeth grinding (bruxism) related to a TMJ disorder
- Trauma to the neck or head
- Meniere’s Disease
Is it possible that my parents may have passed down the ringing in my ears?
In general, tinnitus isn’t an inherited condition. But the symptoms can be affected by your genetics. You can, as an example, inherit a tendency for your ear bone to change. These changes are a consequence of irregular bone growth that can be handed down through family lines. Some of the other conditions that can lead to ringing in the ear might be inherited from your parents, including:
- Being prone to inner ear infections or wax build-up
- Predisposition to anxiety or depression
- Specific diseases
The ringing in your ear is not directly inheritable, but you may 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 evaluate your hearing.