Do you have ringing in your ears that’s driving you mad? Discover whether your tinnitus is inherited or what the cause might be.
What is tinnitus?
A ringing, buzzing, or droning in the ears with no external cause of the noise is a condition known as tinnitus. The term tinnitus translates to “ringing like a bell.”
How will tinnitus impact my everyday living?
Tinnitus can interrupt personal connections in several frustrating ways. It isn’t a disease in and of itself, but it’s a symptom of other ailments or circumstances in your life like hearing loss or damage. Your concentration can be significantly interrupted when you begin to hear tinnitus in one or both ears.
Regardless of the way in which you’re experiencing tinnitus, it is always disruptive. influence your sleep and even trigger anxiety and depression.
What are the causes of tinnitus?
Tinnitus can be enduring or it can come and go. Temporary types of tinnitus are typically brought on by prolonged exposure to loud noises, like a rock concert. Tinnitus has been known to manifest with several different medical conditions.
A few of the conditions that might play host to tinnitus include:
- Hearing impairment related to aging
- Trauma to the neck or head
- Bruxism, more commonly known as teeth grinding stemming from temporomandibular joint problems, or TMJ disorder
- The ear bone has changed
- Anxiety or depression
- Accumulation of excessive earwax
- Acoustic neuroma where a benign tumor forms on the cranial nerve going from the inner ear to the brain
- Infection of the inner ear
- Various medications
- Injuries that affect nerves of the ear
- Inner ear cell damage and irritation of the delicate hairs used to conduct sound, causing arbitrary transmissions of sound to your brain
- Prolonged exposure to loud noise
- Meniere’s Disease
Could I have inherited this ringing in my ears from my parents?
In general, tinnitus isn’t an inherited condition. However, your genetics can play a part in this symptom. You can, as an example, inherit a tendency for your ear bone to change. Irregular bone growth can cause these changes and can be handed down through family genes. A few of the other conditions that can result in ringing in the ear may be passed down from your parents, including:
- Being prone to inner ear infections or wax build-up
- Certain diseases
- Being predisposed to depression or anxiety
The ringing in your ear isn’t directly inheritable, but you might have been genetically susceptible to the conditions that are breeding grounds for tinnitus.
If your family has a history of tinnitus, you should certainly come in for an assessment.