Tinnitus — Your Advice Please

Dear Dr Nagler,

My name is Tim and I have tinnitus.

If possible, i'm looking for some remedies specific to the cause of my particular type of tinnitus.

I'm wondering if you might please advise:
- the medical name of the problem I have (what type of tinnitus do I have)
- the best recommended treatments for my specific cause of tinnitus

This is how I got tinnitus. I used ear plugs for sleeping, I pushed them in too deeply into my ear, then I slept on my side. The weight of my body on my earplug pushing against the sensitive inner ear parts is what caused my tinnitus.

I saw an ENT doctor who confirmed I have no damage to my ear drum. As well, he did a hearing test, my hearing is good.

Already, I do things like avoid caffeine, chocolate, avoid stress as much as possible, get good sleep, take gingko tablets, take 'clear tinnitus" tablets, use white noise. These are all "generic" ways to reduce tinnitus and have helped reduce the severity. Though, I would like to go for some specific treatments that address the root cause of my tinnitus, of pushing ear plugs too hard into my ear canal, in the hope that I can further reduce the tinnitus.

Within the next few weeks I am also going to try ear wax removal (manual tool, not ear suction or water syringe).

I am very grateful for any answers and advice that may be given.

Sincerely,
Tim

 

Tim, I do not know a medical name for your problem other than tinnitus. I mean, even if your tinnitus was caused by the way you slept on your earplugs (which is as best I can tell purely an assumption on your part), it's not like you can "unsleep" on your earplugs - so in that sense, the cause is really irrelevant.

As to recommended treatments, as I see it that would depend on how long you have had your tinnitus and to what extent it bothers you. I do not have that information in your case, so I am sorry but I really cannot be of any help there.

If you stay tuned to my Doctors' Corner forum over the next few days, I will soon be posting my response to a question about various obstacles to habituation. Perhaps that piece will shed some light.

All the best -

Dr. Stephen Nagler