' Her opinion is that since the tinnitus doesn't change with jaw changes, and when she blocked the femoral artery in my neck, the tinnitus is not related to my bruxism and jaw problems. She said that researchers basically gave up trying to treat tinnitus years back, when there were a bunch of studies that were not successful.
Teeth grinding can sometimes cause loss of hearing, possibly caused by spasms of inner ear muscles
While age and exposure to loud noise are the most common causes, hearing loss can sometimes be a symptom of another condition.
Teeth grinding
Grinding or clenching the teeth can cause problems with the jaw joint, putting stress on the muscles and making them inflamed.
Stress makes people more prone to this problem, known as temporomandibular syndrome (TMJ). The condition affects one in five people at some point, according to the NHS.
Often, the teeth grinding occurs at night, and you may be unaware of it until you develop pain or stiffness in the jaw in the morning.
It can also cause clicking or popping as you talk or chew, difficulty or pain opening the mouth, tension headaches (particularly on the side of the head, earache, ringing or buzzing in the ears (tinnitus) and sometimes loss of hearing in one or both ears, possibly caused by muscular spasms of the muscles of the inner ear.
The problem often resolves by itself. A short course of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is sometimes useful, and a mouthguard worn at night to keep the top and bottom teeth separated can ease the joint and allow the muscles to relax, according to Professor Andrew Eder, a specialist in restorative dentistry.
Viruses
Linked to hearing problems: It is not fully understood but kidney disease and deafness are connected
The common cold can often lead to conductive hearing loss — hearing loss caused by a blockage — due to a build-up of fluid in the Eustachian tube, which runs from the back of the nose to the middle ear.
Young children are more likely to suffer this type of temporary hearing loss because they have narrower Eustachian tubes, which mean they are more likely to become blocked.
Some viruses, including the mumps (Cytomegalovirus), shingles (Herpes Zoster) and simple cold and flu viruses, can damage the inner ear, causing deafness which is often permanent.
With the mumps virus, the damage can occur to the foetus if the mother catches it while she is pregnant.
Up to 6,000 adults a year in the UK are affected by idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, or unexplained hearing loss that can occur within days, sometimes as the result of an infection.
One year after sudden hearing loss, a third of patients don’t recover any hearing, a third recover fully and the remainder have some hearing loss.
Steroids are currently the only treatment option to help patients regain some hearing — they can help in some cases if taken within two weeks and are thought to do so by calming inflammation.
Steroids used to be given orally, but the latest thinking is to inject them directly into the eardrum.
Many earplugs are available to suit different needs. Lots of people don't wear them when they should
What distinguishes sensorineural hearing loss from the blocked-up feeling you get with a cold is that the hearing suddenly disappears completely, usually in one ear, but possibly in both.
A simple way for a GP to establish whether someone has sensorineural hearing loss is to use a tuning fork, which is positioned in the middle of the forehead.
The patient is then asked in which ear the sound is louder — if hearing is normal, it will be heard equally between the two.
Benign tumours
Obstruction of the ear canal due to benign cysts may cause hearing loss by effectively blocking sound.
Acoustic neuroma, a rare type of benign brain growth on a nerve that helps control balance and hearing can cause hearing loss, usually in one ear.
Symptoms can come on gradually and may also include dizziness or tinnitus, numbness down the side of the face and sometimes headaches and visual problems.
Usually the treatment is surgery, although radiotherapy can be used.
Treatment for cancer can also to lead to total or partial loss of hearing, as chemotherapy can damage the cochlea or the auditory nerve.
‘Some powerful chemotherapy agents can cause deafness that does not recover, as the hair cells are damaged and die,’ says Tony Wright, Emeritus Professor of ENT at University College London.
Obesity
Emerging evidence suggests a link between obesity and hearing loss, and it looks as if the risk starts early in life.
According to a study published in 2013 in the journal The Laryngoscope, obese teenagers are more likely than their normal weight peers to suffer from hearing loss and almost twice as likely to have one-sided hearing loss related to low-frequency sounds (such as that of a trombone).
One theory is that obesity-induced inflammation may contribute to hearing loss.
Why even a single handclap could send you deaf
The human ear is incredibly sensitive, able to distinguish a wide range of sounds, from the gentle whisper of a breeze in the trees to the roar of a plane taking off.
‘To put these differences into perspective the sound of jet aircraft is 1,000,000,000,000 (a trillion) times more intense than the quietest audible sound,’ explains Chris Plack, professor of audiology at the University of Manchester.
This is why if you were close up to a jet taking off, it could deafen you. But because sound intensity drops off with distance, if you are further away, the sound would obviously be less damaging.
Dangers of a handclap: The human ear is incredibly sensitive, able to distinguish a wide range of sounds, from the gentle whisper of a breeze in the trees to the roar of a plane taking off
SO HOW DANGEROUS ARE EVERYDAY SOUNDS?
Here we estimate their decibels and suggest how close you would have to be for damage to occur.
A toy pistol being fired can cause a burst eardrum
The higher the decibels, the more likely it is that even a single episode could cause permanent damage. Avoiding repeated exposure to decibels above 80 is important for preventing permanent hearing damage.
160 Toy pistol fired close to the ear. As well as damage to hair cells, the eardrum can burst.
140 12-gauge shot gun; personal safety alarm. Sounds with a decibel rating between 120 and 140 will not only cause damage but pain.
130 A single hand clap near the ears.
120 Jet taking off if you’re around 100m away; a firework display. These can damage hearing after just nine seconds of exposure a day. The World Health Organisation recommends that children should not be exposed to any noise above 120 decibels.
Burglar alarms can damage hearing after two and a half hours a day
110 Police siren at 10m; rock concert (probably anywhere in the venue); or someone shouting at maximum effort around 1m away. All three can damage hearing after 1 ½ minutes’ exposure per day.
100 Nightclub; diesel truck at 10m; MP3 player or Walkman played at maximum volume. These can damage hearing after 15 minutes’ exposure a day.
90 Fire alarm or burglar alarm at 10m. Can damage hearing after 2½ hours a day.
Standing at a busy city intersection, listening to screaming children close by; operating a lawnmower; maximum volume of a TV; typical volume of an MP3 player. Can damage hearing after 2½ hours a day.
85 Average factory floor; electric shaver. Can damage hearing after eight hours’ solid exposure.
80 Hairdryer; alarm clock. This is the safe maximum decibel level, so anything below this will not damage your hearing, but you may find the noise irritating.
Leaves fluttering produce around 20 decibels
75 Dishwasher.
70 City street; noisy restaurant; vacuum cleaner.
60 Conversation; tumble dryer, normal piano practice; TV sound at home when being watched by people with normal hearing.
45 Refrigerator hum; noise level in public library.
30 Whisper in ear.
20 Leaves fluttering.
0 Hearing threshold. Humans can hear sounds between 0 and 140 decibels. 0 doesn’t mean there isn’t any sound, it’s just that we can’t hear it.
The maximum safe level for a sound near you is 80 decibels. A decibel is a complicated measure of the intensity of a sound based on its frequency and its effect on our hearing.
A more intense sound, i.e. higher decibels, can start damaging the delicate hair cells and nerves in the inner ear.
‘Damage depends on the length of time you are exposed to the noise and the intensity of that noise [the decibels),’ says Professor Plack. ‘The greater the volume, the shorter the exposure time before damage occurs.’
A single exposure to an ear-splitting sound can cause immediate and permanent hearing loss. However, lower — but still damaging — decibels over 80 dB can cause more gradual loss if you are repeatedly exposed to that level.
This hearing loss can initially be hard to detect. ‘But if your ears are ringing afterwards, it is a sign that the hair cells are traumatised,’ says Professor Plack.
The hair cells can recover after short exposures but repeated daily exposures will result in cell death and permanent damage.
Pour oil in your ear to clear out wax
Getting bunged-up
All mammals have cerumen — or wax — in their ears, which helps protect against bacteria, fungi, insects and water.
Tips: The things doctors do to protect their hearing
Produced by sebaceous glands and sweat glands in the outer portion of the ear canal, cerumen also picks up dead skin flakes, which move out along the ear canal.
Ear wax is natural and ideally should be left to work itself out of the ear, says Dr Piers Dawes, a lecturer in audiology at the University of Manchester: ‘Using cotton buds to try to extract the wax is a bad idea which can actually compact it against the ear drum, making the problem worse and potentially leading to infection.’
Some people get excess ear wax, as a result of ageing. It can also occur if someone has a perforated ear drum, causing wax to get ‘stuck’ in the middle ear, or wears ear plugs regularly, blocking natural migration of ear wax out of the ear.
To remove it safely, Dr Dawes suggests using a few drops of warm olive oil every month to soften the wax and get it back on the move. You can buy ear drops that are meant to soften the ear wax.
These often contain hydrogen peroxide and glycerine and sometimes preservatives which can be irritating to the skin. If in doubt, consult your GP first.
Ringing or buzzing noise
Around 10-15 per cent of adults in the UK will suffer from tinnitus at some point. It is the sensation of a constant noise in one or both ears when there is no obvious outside source.
‘The noise may be low, medium or high-pitched; there may be a single noise or two or more components, and it may be continuous or it may come and go,’ says ENT expert Professor Tony Wright.
The sensation can frequently be cured or made tolerable by a range of techniques including ‘masking’ devices (which are like hearing aids but play distracting sounds in the ear), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and mindfulness — a form of meditation.
Tinnitus can be triggered by a number of factors, including agerelated hearing loss and noise-induced damage. Occasionally it’s caused just by wax pushing on the ear drum.
Glue ear (a common childhood condition when the middle ear fills with fluid), a perforated ear drum, stress or a middle-ear infection can also cause tinnitus. It can ease when the causes are treated.
Ear wax is natural and should be left to work itself out of the ear, says a university lecturer in audiology
But, for some, it’s a lifelong condition.
‘Anything that upsets the auditory system can generate tinnitus,’ explains Professor Wright. ‘If you put normal people with normal hearing into a silent chamber, within 90 seconds they all get tinnitus, which goes away when you put them back into a normal room.
‘What is happening is that they are starting to hear the mechanism working within their own ears, in the absence of any external sound.’
When it’s related to noise damage, one possible cause is that the hair cells in the cochlea are damaged by the pummelling of sound waves. The brain then exaggerates and amplifies signals from the cochlea that are still getting through, creating the ‘ringing’ of tinnitus.
A new drug, AM-101, is being trialled and could be available within five years. It blocks the signals
between the hair cells and the auditory nerve to try to stop it becoming a chronic condition.
Nasty infections
Ear infections can muffle sounds trying to pass through the ear canal and the middle ear to the inner ear because they lead to fluid and pus build-up. This type of hearing loss, which tends to affect children more than adults, is usually temporary.
‘Most middle-ear infections in childhood, known as otitis media, are caused by a viral infection, like a cold,’ says Professor Wright. ‘These result in a build-up of mucus which can occasionally become infected by bacteria.’
Viral infections usually pass within a few days. But if symptoms persist and there is a fever and pain, see a doctor.
Inflammation of the ear canal — known as otitis externa, or swimmer’s ear — can be caused by water entering the ear canal which leads to infection.