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Noise in the ears, which in medical terminology is called tinnitus, is characterized by some kind of atypical sound in the head. For treatment with the appointment of drugs, the patient must first undergo a diagnosis in order to find the causes of the pathology. It is not worth it to independently figure out what to do when a patient has constant noise in one or both ears at the same time, but it is better to trust an experienced doctor.
Attempts to determine why such a condition has come through reviews on thematic forums, and folk remedies therapy usually blur the overall clinical picture. Even for an experienced doctor, it is difficult to diagnose ringing, crackling, humming, stuffy ear canal, if there are no external manifestations of the disease. Adding to the complexity is the fact that the soundtrack is a subjective assessment of the patient.
When noises are pathological
Regardless of whether the ear is blocked in the elderly, the child, a visit to the doctor should not be postponed. Only a specialist will be able to identify whether there is a progressive ailment of various origins, which is reflected in the form of pulsating sounds. Also, the doctor will find out whether there is a unilateral or bilateral lesion.
When the patient does not have any other disturbing symptoms along the way, such as dizziness, neck pain, severe weakness, and drops in blood pressure, then this may turn out to be a normal physiological noise. This is the name of the subjective perception of the movement of blood during a heartbeat, the process of which began to be well heard in the inner ear with many small vessels. You can hear the sound of a heartbeat in a state of complete rest with absolute silence. In such a scenario, you won’t have to look for how to treat the deviation, because it is within the normal range if it proceeds without pain.
Pathology begins when chronic diseases such as the pathology of the auditory nerve become provocateurs, which can cause pain. You will need to take medicine for those who began to listen to something “extra” due to diseases of the middle or inner ear.
Occasionally, the catalyst for sharp sounds, as if the pulse is beating, becomes intoxication with poisons of natural origin. Then the person’s temperature still rises, dizziness, vomiting, vascular spasm, numbness of the extremities, shortness of breath, sometimes it comes to loss of consciousness. It even happens that the prescribed pills produce the indicated side effect. Here you will have to consult with your doctor about whether they can be replaced with an analogue, or look for how to get rid of the periodically occurring sound effect.
According to statistics, most of the diseases that have the presented symptoms belong to the category of narrow-profile – typically ear. But about a quarter of all clinical cases are related to brain dysfunction. A patient suffering from a lack of cerebral circulation most often receives such a “reward” due to:
- age-related changes;
- nervous overload;
- mechanical damage;
- increased arterial, intracranial pressure.
Increasingly, people with lesions of the cervical spine are becoming hostages of noise. We are talking about a condition with cervical osteochondrosis, when it leads to the pathology of the vertebral arteries. In such patients, ringing in the ears, pulsing in the temples, not only in silence. Will advise how to remove such an annoying list of unpleasant symptoms, only the attending doctor after the final verdict on the diagnosis.
The risk group of those who do not have sound accompaniment for a long time includes people over forty years old. Moreover, men usually experience loud crackling in the ear canals more often than the fairer sex. The reason lies in the fact that men are more often exposed to industrial noise due to the characteristics of a number of professions. But this does not mean that women during pregnancy or adolescents cannot experience a sudden attack of sound noise without a reason. An otolaryngologist will help determine what the deviation means, who will first eliminate the possibility of hearing injury and sulfur plugs.
Official medicine does not recommend using homemade recipes for therapy, which often provoke hearing loss even with normal pressure. Moreover, only a qualified doctor will be able to recognize when the feeling is within the normal range, and when you need to look for how to cure the pathology. The latter is often accompanied by a number of unpleasant signs like:
- anxiety, fears;
- insomnia;
- increased fatigue;
- reduced performance;
- inability to concentrate, to hear the words of others.
When sounds are haunted on an ongoing basis, the person quickly becomes depressed. It is not for nothing that many who complain that water is pressing inside the ear canal, along the way, turned to psychologists for help.
Standard noise classification
If frequent bouts of incomprehensible sounds are repeated during a cold, after the flu, then you should seek help from an ENT. It is likely that a person has a complication in the form of otitis media – inflammation of the middle ear. During epidemics of diseases that are activated when it is cold, in addition to the respiratory organs, the eyes and ears suffer, where a secondary infection usually settles with insufficient quality treatment for the first time.
Schematically, all the sounds that make themselves felt when bending, or just in the evening, are divided into two categories:
- monotonous;
- complex.
In the first case, we are talking about whistling, as happens with gusts of wind, wheezing, buzzing, ringing, squeaking. The second option provides for voices, music, the ringing of a bell, which are attributed to the consequences of drug intoxication, psychopathology, and auditory hallucinations.
In addition to the fact that doctors use schematic degrees of severity of the disease for diagnosis, they first have to figure out whether the symptom refers to:
- objective;
- subjective.
The objective format provides the doctor with the opportunity to hear the sounds disturbing the patient himself at the time of the examination. This happens if an insect gets into the ear canal, which buzzes or squeaks, trying to get out. Here, only a doctor can tell you how to get rid of a foreign body right on the spot. The faster the foreign object is removed, the higher the chances of a successful recovery.
The doctor will be able to recognize initially poorly heard noises if their source is a failed hearing aid.
The subjective variant is more common, manifesting itself after anesthesia, when you go to bed and hear the movement of blood through the artery, immediately after sleep. In this situation, no plugs, exercises help. The source of why the periodic noise appeared may include psychosomatics. She is characterized by the manifestation of only sound effects, when along the way it does not darken before her eyes, does not clench her jaw, there is no tingling along the spine, drowsiness, fatigue. When all of the listed types of adverse symptoms take place, this signals a serious deterioration in well-being at the stage of exacerbation.
Another separation format according to medical terminology involves sorting into two groups:
- vibration;
- non-vibrating.
The vibrational format provides for mechanical sounds that are produced by the auditory organ, or its structure. We are talking about neuromuscular, vascular structures that can be heard even by an outsider. Dealing with treatment with this clinical picture will turn out pretty quickly, even if the disease was chronic in adults.
But more often there are non-vibrational variations, which are caused by irritation of nerve endings:
- central auditory pathways;
- inner ear;
- auditory nerve.
With non-vibrational genesis with subjective perception, patients even complain about a peculiar breathing sound, noting that the knock appears as suddenly as it disappeared. Constant background accompaniment provokes irritability, insomnia.
The most common sources of noise
In most cases, noises are complained by people who tried to treat inflammation of the hearing aid on their own by pouring oil, decoctions of medicinal herbs, garlic juice inside. These factors, along with many others, provoke the overlap of the ear canal. This option is indicated by the defeat of only one ear.
The patient is haunted by a faint noise, which is often supplemented by:
- congestion;
- soreness;
- a decrease in the quality of perception of the environment.
The problem begins with the fact that dust and foreign objects get inside, which is especially characteristic of small curious children. Adults experience discomfort after relaxing at sea, when it seems as if something is constantly gurgling, because drops of salt water got inside.
If you do not follow personal hygiene, then the likelihood of the formation of sulfur plugs increases, which rapidly grow against the background of an abnormally large release of a substance due to illness, or a narrow ear canal. No methods will help here, and in order for the annoying symptom to disappear, you will have to rinse the cavity with a special solution with special tools. It is forbidden to independently eliminate the sulfuric lump, since you can inadvertently touch the eardrum, harm the activity of the auditory nerve.
In the latter case, a person can bring himself to self-treatment attempts to sensorineural hearing loss, or provoke a tumor. The disorder can make itself felt both slowly and suddenly after a stroke, surgery. A health-threatening syndrome develops as a result of damage to the nerve cells that are responsible for converting sound vibrations into impulses for transmission further. The exact degree of the anomaly will be determined by the neurologist, who, based on the examination and the results of the examinations, will tell you about the necessary treatment to improve the condition.
The leaders in the ranking of the root causes of auditory perception disorders are a couple of varieties of hearing loss:
- professional;
- senile.
The first occurs as a result of labor activity in conditions of hazardous production. Here, along the way, you can earn many other diseases. The main ways to protect yourself from the echoes of occupational hearing loss include earplugs, as well as taking vitamins.
Senile hearing loss manifests itself in old age. For some women, it begins with menopause. The main danger lies in the fact that the failure of receptors is almost always irreversible. To figure out how far the disease has progressed, doctors send their patients to do an examination.
One of the most dangerous ailments, the name of which is neurosyphilis, proceeds more vividly, starting rapidly. The deviation affects not only the auditory nerve, but also the meninges, reaching even the roots of the spinal nerve.
Against this background, the patient is faced with:
- skin dystrophy;
- paresis;
- loss of sensitivity;
- constant noise.
Some ordinary people confuse its signs with oncological tumors of a malignant or benign nature with localization in the nervous tissue, for example, neuroma. Her typical alarm beacon is a perverted perception of loudness.
Diseases of the outer, middle, inner ear
It is quite normal if unpleasant clicks can be traced when the nose is stuffy with ARVI, or after anesthesia. But it is completely unacceptable to ignore the disorders of the outer ear, which is represented by the shell itself and the immediate auditory meatus. As soon as a barrier is formed in them, a person ceases to perceive the sounds of the environment normally.
The most common diseases of these two parts of the hearing system include:
Name | Description |
---|---|
otitis externa | Inflammation of the skin due to infection with infectious pathogens such as streptococcus, Staphylococcus aureus. It is characterized by a pronounced noise, which is complemented by a strong pain syndrome and periodic purulent discharge, redness. If you do not provide assistance as soon as possible, the infection quickly moves to the eardrum. It is usually diagnosed among ordinary people with reduced immunity, which is typical for those taking hormonal drugs, HIV-infected, those who live under the yoke of constant stress. |
Furuncle | The boil always needs to be removed, as it quickly causes complications in the form of septicemia. This is signaled by a rise in body temperature, weakness, loss of appetite, dehydration. |
Mycosis of the external ear | The defeat involves the entry of a fungal infection. With laboratory diagnostics, it becomes clear that mycosis has become the primary source, due to which a milky-white liquid constantly oozes from the hole. |
Exostosis | The growth of bone tissue in the ear canal, where it should not be. Deviation is quite rare, but if the problem is ignored, it always results in the hole becoming so narrow that it can no longer pass the wave. |
In order not to reach the point when prolonged noise will cause irreversible consequences in the outer ear, dumping all psychosomatics, it is necessary to treat conditions with a runny nose, sinusitis in time. Otherwise, secondary infection can reach the ear canal, bringing with it the sensation of a short-lived echo.
But much more often the middle section becomes the source of various deviations, which is explained by its physiological structure. The zone is not protected by a muscular layer, but only by a thin membrane. As soon as it becomes inflamed with various negative influences, the state of health begins to deteriorate. Difficulties are added by the fact that the department is directly connected with the oral cavity. This explains why a sore throat often has to deal not only with a cough, but also with unbearable pain in the ear.
With various advanced colds, viral diseases, therapy almost always also involves instillation into the ear in order to eliminate the spread of pathogens. The situation worsens with diabetes mellitus, heart disorders, after childbirth, when the body is still being rebuilt, with unstable intracranial pressure. It all ends with the fact that the patient earns otitis in one of two forms:
- acute;
- chronic.
No homeopathy and propolis will help to correct the situation, if an otolaryngologist has not previously been consulted. When the doctor confirms that it was not poisoning, namely otitis media, assesses the degree of damage, he will be able to prescribe a course of treatment at home. But if hospitalization is required due to a sharp deterioration in health, when the applicant has chills, sweating, abdominal pain after eating or before, then she does not need to be resisted.
The acute stage of otitis media is activated after being “on the legs”:
- sore throats;
- nasopharyngitis;
- laryngitis.
A characteristic noise is an unpleasant shooting sound when you get up, when walking. If you start an acute form, trying to find on your own what to drip into the affected ear, you can add a diagnosis of chronic otitis media to the medical card.
One of the most difficult clinical cases is called disorders of the inner part of the ear, as they affect the vestibular apparatus. When such a deviation is found in adolescents, almost always the soundtrack will haunt them for life, even with successful treatment.
The situation is aggravated by hereditary predisposition, which is especially dangerous in otosclerosis, when the auditory ossicles of both hearing organs are fixed or the nervous apparatus of the inner ear is damaged. Many relatives of patients who have already been diagnosed with otosclerosis develop a panic fear against the background of a constant expectation of the development of the disease. And do not think that after alcohol, which is used as a sleeping pill at night, the situation will improve.
Infectious nature has a labyrinthitis. There, the lesion literally knocks, “emits” other signals, disrupts coordination of movements, and provokes nausea. If you try to eliminate the labyrinthitis by pouring fir oil inside, other strange folk methods, this will lead to rapid damage to the cochlear apparatus.
A contusion, which is often temporary, and Meniere’s disease are considered separately. Both clinical cases require careful diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
Other diseases that cause murmurs
In addition to direct damage to all parts of the hearing system, completely unrelated conditions can affect the formation of noise: after otitis media, with neuritis, hypertension, after the installation of dental implants, encephalopathy, sinusitis, rhinitis. If the body is subjected to an additional load, such as fighting cholesterol, trying to recover from stress, then the likelihood of sound effects increases.
Most often, from atypical catalysts for destabilizing the state, the following are distinguished:
- chronic disorders of cerebral blood flow such as atherosclerosis, during which plaques block the vascular lumen;
- vertebrobasilar insufficiency;
- osteochondrosis.
It is difficult to unambiguously answer what kind of noise is, because perception is subjective. Some even compare it to the chirping that grasshoppers make.
Incomprehensible noise is also capable of manifesting itself due to a number of other indirect factors that are not taken into account by far from all the inhabitants.
The most likely of them are:
- smoking;
- mechanical damage to the head, because of which, even when breathing, it seems that everything around is ringing;
- coffee abuse;
- severe emotional overload;
- staying in a room with strong external noise for a long time.
If the sound, rolling in waves, does not pass for a long time, and the results of the analyzes did not reveal significant deviations, then the root should be looked for in the toxic side effects of certain drugs. This applies to patients who take medication on an ongoing basis due to a number of chronic diseases.
Most often, antidepressants or any other drugs that have a negative effect on the central nervous system become the culprits. In such cases, a person will not only complain that something is pressing on the top of his head, but will also tell the doctor that he is starting to rapidly stall. The only protection against such serious consequences of taking antidepressants includes switching to other drugs that the body will perceive less aggressively. It is especially important to consider the problematic side effect of the sedative if the course lasts several years with minor interruptions.
In addition to drugs used in the treatment of neurological diseases, some anti-inflammatory drugs, cardiovascular drugs, antibiotics, diuretics, and even organic solvents are recognized as catalysts for a quiet buzz.
The latter, when in contact with an open area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe skin, also cause itching.
Diagnosis and follow-up treatment
Regardless of whether the unpleasant symptomatology is traced only when yawning, or its increase is noted when getting up, only at night or in the morning, the basic diagnostic mechanisms will remain identical.
The sooner the victim seeks help from an otolaryngologist, the higher the chances of a successful cure, which is confirmed by those who got rid of the nasty noise. In addition to taking into account the complaints of the applicant, the medical history and studying the features of genetic inheritance, the doctor will examine the external ear and tympanic membrane. Also, to understand why there is a decrease in the quality of perception of sounds, and a blowing wind “walks” in the ear canals, it will be necessary to involve otoscopy.
In some clinical cases, to determine the causes of a strange whistle in a horizontal position, it will be necessary to perform a pure tone threshold audiometry. Thanks to a detailed audiogram, it will be possible to narrow down the circle of suspected ailments that make themselves felt when the hearing organs are strained. The testing algorithm is based on the ability of the brain to perceive the loudest sounds selectively. The noise amplitude that the victim hears is measured according to the reproduction of different sound effects, sorting them by frequency and loudness.
But if this was not enough to understand where the squeak, swelling, migraine came from, you will need to resort to auscultation of the temporal region. For the procedure, you will need to use a phonendoscope. It is believed that it is auscultation that is the most effective diagnostic tool, if necessary, to confirm the presence of a venous pulsation extending into the ears.
Instead of continuing to self-medicate using camphor oil, dill seeds, hydrogen peroxide and even leeches, it is better to undergo an additional x-ray of the temporal zone. In addition, sometimes it is required to provide an image taken by a magnetic resonance tomograph, covering the cervical spine. The presented addition will seem especially relevant in case of suspicions of regularly repeated jumps in blood pressure, which gives off a knock on the head. Some patients even complain of lack of air, which quickly develops into shortness of breath.
If you suspect a relatively rare disease like eustachitis, you can not do without testing the functionality of the auditory tube. Upon request, they undergo an angiography of the cerebral arteries in order to figure out what to do against the background of general vascular insufficiency. If during the study a narrowing of the arteries is found in some places, which is the source of strange shooting clicks, you need to reconsider the daily routine. It is likely that the patient’s health worsened after a bath, massage, hard drinking just because of the negative impact of these activities. At an advanced stage of the course of the disease, the doctor may generally prohibit all the above-mentioned pastime items.
To remove unpleasant manifestations, the otolaryngologist almost always prescribes nootropic and psychostimulant drugs to the patient, or psychotropic drugs as a last resort. Complex therapy includes anticonvulsants, if during testing the hypothesis regarding clonic muscle contractions that provoke “rustling” was confirmed.
According to the circumstances, blockers of slow calcium channels, antihypoxic drugs, antihistamine tablets, and medications that encourage the restoration of cerebral circulation are prescribed.
Various physiotherapeutic procedures such as laser therapy, endaural electrophonophoresis, pneumomassage of the tympanic membrane help to correct the situation. With the development of deviations against the background of psychosomatics, one should not avoid appointments to visit a psychologist.
An integrated approach to solving the issue will allow you to quickly return to shape, again feeling like a completely healthy person.