Hello

Hi, I’m here to introduce myself to the forum as a memeber with slight tinnitus that has only affected me in the last 6 months, and also to ask a few questions.

Around October last year, I thought that something electrical was making an inconsistently timed beeping noise, I searched for it until I realised that regardless of what I did, it was always present in my ear. I realised I had mild tinnitus. It is inconsistent and I notice it only at night when I try to sleep, however some nights such as tonight, I simply do not have it. (5 minutes have passed since writing that and I suddenly have the tinnitus in my right ear)

My questions are:
1) Could my tinnitus be brought on by stress, as this supports my belief that it occurs when I’m increasingly stressed?
Or...

2) Could my tinnitus be caused by ear-wax build up? In the past I have had issues with my ear wax being viscous and essentially blocking my ear canal, having to have my ears irrigated multiple times

And 3) Can my tinnitus progressively worsen simply due to the fact that I have it? Or would it only worsen if a factor such as noise exposure made it worse.

I would like to thank anybody who does take the time to reply to my questions, it would be greatly appreciated. I may sound very uninformed and that is simply because I am, I was only made aware of tinnitus around a year ago when a family friend committed suicide due to the severity of their tinnitus.

Thank you again
- Ben.

 

1 : Tinnitus is usually caused by hearing loss or neck/jaw muscle disorders. Stress combined with some degree of hearing loss seems to trigger it in a lot of people.

2: Yes, because ear wax causes temporary hearing loss. Remove the ear wax and your tinnitus should improve or abolish within a months time in many cases.

3: Loud noise exposure that leads to more hearing damage can make it worse

 

I've been under the impression most tinnitus--perhaps as much as 80%--results from hearing loss. I'm a bit confused, though I hope you're correct.​

 

Thank you for your reply, really helpful. I wasn’t aware that it was the loss of hearing itself that caused tinnitus, I always assumed it was some form of physical damage caused to the ear that caused it. Really helpful, thanks!

 

There is still lots of research going on for the causes of T. I am not sure there are concrete causes or %'s. You can Google some studies but that show some of this but that is NOT the only research being done.