TINNITUS SYMPTOMS 

A ringing sound in the ear is referred to as tinnitus.  Tinnitus is not a disease but a symptom of an underlying medical condition that often causes hearing loss.  The sounds or tinnitus symptoms that a patient hears is audible only to the patient.

The noises that a person with tinnitus hears are of a wide variety and it can come in forms of ringing, buzzing, humming, tinkling, roaring, ticking, etc.  The sound could either be continuous or intermittent and in can either be low pitched or very loud.  The tinnitus sound can also be either in one or both ears.  In the case of pulsatile tinnitus where the tinnitus symptoms is also heard by other people, the ringing sound can be heard simply by moving close to the ear of the person with tinnitus or utilizing a stethoscope to listen to the pulsing sound.  The quality of the sound can be low pitched or turbulent blowing which corresponds with the hear beat of the person.  It could also be in forms of singular rhythmic beats or multiple two-phased beats.

The intensity of the tinnitus noise can worsen when the environment is quiet.  This is the reason why a person with tinnitus often has problems falling asleep at night when it is seemingly quiet and the tinnitus sounds he hears seems louder and becomes an annoyance. 

Tinnitus is not equivalent to hearing loss and vice versa.  Tinnitus does not cause a person to loose his hearing nor does hearing loss cause the tinnitus.  There are patients who have tinnitus but have no problems with hearing.  There are times when tinnitus is caused by a blockage of in the auditory canal and removal of the blockage eliminates the tinnitus. 

People with tinnitus have various ways of adapting to the condition.  Some are able to live with it without being bothered while others are terribly annoyed and it can seriously distract them from their activities of daily living.  Tinnitus affects both men and women equally and it is almost always associated with auditory problems.

There is also a thing called as a temporary tinnitus.  This usually happens when a person is exposed to an extremely loud blowing sound like that of an explosion.  A temporary ringing is often heard in the ears but it subsides in a few minutes.

Aside from the ringing sound, there are also other symptoms that accompany tinnitus.  Symptoms like dizziness, headache, pain in the ears, and a sense of fullness in the ear to name a few.