CAUSES OF TINNITUS

Causes and forms of tinnitus

The cause of tinnitus is still unknown today. Although many scientists have published various theses about the origin, correct scientific evidence is still lacking.
Some assume that there is a circulatory disorder in the inner ear, while others assume a nervous involvement, but also a strong psychological component is discussed in the mechanism of the development of tinnitus.

Read more on the subject at: Causes of ringing in the ears.

There are different ways to classify tinnitus.
First of all, tinnitus can be classified according to whether it is an objective mechanism of origin or a subjective mechanism of origin. In the objective development, there is an endogenous sound source close to the ear (vessels or nerves that run close to the ear and cause noise through pulsations, etc.) that triggers an ear noise. In the case of subjective tinnitus, a sound-triggering source cannot be found.

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Furthermore, a classification according to the place of origin can be carried out (outer ear, middle ear or Inner ear). With the help of the temporal course of the complaints, a division into:

acute (Symptoms last less than 3 months),

subacute (Duration between 3 months and 1 year) and

chronic (Duration longer than a year) be made.

The so-called secondary symptoms, i.e. the symptoms that can occur in addition to tinnitus, can also be used to carry out a classification. A distinction is made here between compensated courses in which the patient perceives the noise in the ear, but can handle it so well that it does not affect him further.
In the decompensated course, the patient's level of suffering is so high that his everyday life is in part massively impaired. These include, sleep disorders, depressions, Irritability, difficulty concentrating and anxiety.

Another classification relates to the type and strength of the noise in the ear. As one Grade 1 tinnitus is the name given to noises in the ear that do not exert any psychological stress and the patient has learned to live with the noise. Grade 2 tinnitus would describe a tinnitus that occurs mainly in silence and that bothers the patient especially in stressful or psychologically stressful situations. As Grade 3 tinnitus one would describe a tinnitus, which in part already exerts a severe impairment on private life. The patient's level of suffering is already increased. He also feels secondary symptoms such as irritability, sleep disorders and depression. Grade 4 tinnitus after all, denotes the completely decompensated state that affects all physical and psychological areas of daily life, sometimes massively. In extreme cases, it can also lead to thoughts of suicide