Are you experiencing ringing in your ears that’s driving you crazy? Learn 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 sound is a condition called tinnitus. The term tinnitus translates to “ringing like a bell.”
How will tinnitus affect my everyday living?
Tinnitus can interrupt personal connections in many frustrating ways. It isn’t a disease in and of itself, but it’s a symptom of other conditions or conditions in your life such as hearing loss or injury. You may hear tinnitus in one ear or both ears and it can impede your ability to concentrate.
Tinnitus is always disruptive regardless of how it’s manifesting. Sleep loss, anxiety, and even depression can also be triggered by tinnitus symptoms.
What are the causes of tinnitus?
Tinnitus can be long lasting or it can come and go. Temporary varieties of tinnitus are typically caused by prolonged exposure to loud sounds, like a rock concert. There are a number of medical issues that tend to go hand-in-hand with tinnitus.
Here are several situations that typically accompany tinnitus:
- Depression or anxiety
- Prolonged exposure to loud noise
- Buildup of excessive earwax
- Various medications
- A benign tumor, called acoustic neuroma, grows on cranial nerve
- Age-related hearing loss
- Changes in the composition of the ear bone
- Teeth grinding (bruxism) caused by a TMJ disorder
- Infection of the inner ear
- Injuries that impact nerves of the ear
- Inner ear cell damage and irritation of the delicate hairs used to transport sound, causing arbitrary transmissions of sound to your brain
- Injuries to the neck or head
- Meniere’s Disease
Is it possible that my parents may have passed down the ringing in my ears?
Generally, tinnitus isn’t a hereditary condition. However, your genetics can play a part in this symptom. You can, for instance, inherit a tendency for your ear bone to change. Irregular bone growth can trigger these changes and can be passed down through genes. A few of the other conditions that can lead to ringing in the ear may be passed down from your parents, including:
- Specific diseases
- Being prone to inner ear infections or wax build-up
- Predisposition to anxiety or depression
You can’t directly inherit tinnitus, but there are conditions that become breeding grounds for tinnitus which you may have inherited.
If your family has a history of tinnitus, you should certainly come in for an assessment.