The AudioNotch Tinnitus Treatment Blog

Please note: the following information does not constitute professional medical advice, and is provided for general informational purposes only. Please speak to your doctor if you have tinnitus.

If you have occasional, regular or constant ringing in your ears, you are not alone. Up to 15 percent of American adults have this condition, and it has serious impacts on about 1 percent of the population. Tinnitus can make it hard to carry on a conversation, listen to a professor, watch television or conduct a meeting with your boss or colleagues. In most cases, tinnitus is related to damaged hearing without hearing loss.

Audiograms and the Detection of Hearing Loss
When a person has tinnitus, the first stop is often an audiologist’s office. An audiologist conducts tests known as audiograms. The audiogram is a type of hearing tests that measures the lowest frequency and highest frequency that you can detect from each ear. Having tinnitus can make it difficult for you to participate in an audiogram because the sound of the tinnitus can interfere with the tones played by the audiologist.

The Relationship between Tinnitus and Hearing Loss
In most cases, tinnitus is related to damage to your ears. However, not all noise damage causes hearing loss. This is one reason why an audiogram may not be able to find the cause of your tinnitus. People with normal audiograms may actually have an undetectable type of hearing loss. This type of undetected hearing loss is usually related to noise damage. Ear damage from loud noise has a strong relationship with tinnitus, as most people who have tinnitus also report a history of multiple exposures to loud sounds.

How You can Have Noise Damage Without Hearing Loss
You can have tinnitus and noise damage without hearing loss because your brain has different neurons that detect high volume sounds. These neurons are not tested during a pure tone audiogram. The damage to these neurons directly affects your perception of sounds. People with this undetected hearing damage have symptoms such as tinnitus and hypersensitivity to sounds. Degeneration of these neurons can result from a single exposure to an extremely loud sound or from frequent exposure to moderately loud sounds. This kind of noise damage without hearing loss is progressive and tends to worsen with age.

If a pure tone hearing test does not identify that you have a hearing loss, you could still have noise damage to your auditory system. Taking action to prevent further damage to your ears may also help to lessen the frequency and severity of your tinnitus symptoms.