How to Stop the Whistling In Your Ears

As many people may already know, a condition known as tinnitus that causes ringing, humming, whistling, or other sounds to be heard in one or both ears. This sound isn’t caused by an external sound, so other people cannot hear it.

Many people experience tinnitus at some point in their life. About 15% to 20% of people are affected, especially older adults. Tinnitus is often caused by an underlying condition, such as hearing loss from aging, ear injuries, or problems with the circulatory system.

Treatment for tinnitus usually relies on treating the underlying cause or reducing or masking the noise, so it’s less noticeable when it’s treated.

Signs of Tinnitus

The most common symptom of tinnitus is the sensation of a ringing in the ears, even when nothing external is happening. However, tinnitus can also be felt as a buzzing, roaring, clicking, hissing, whistling, or humming in your ears.

Tinnitus is most common in people with subjective tinnitus, or tinnitus you can hear only in your head. It can range from a low buzz to a high squeal, and it can come from one ear or both.

You may encounter tinnitus so loud that you have difficulty concentrating or hearing external sounds. The sound may be constant or intermittent.

A rare form of tinnitus occurs as pulsatile tinnitus when the sound waves pulse or whoosh synchronously with your heartbeat. If you suffer from pulsatile tinnitus, your doctor may be able to hear your tinnitus during an examination (objective tinnitus).

In about 10% of cases, chronic tinnitus interferes with everyday life to the point of requiring professional help. Sometimes the symptoms remain constant, and sometimes they worsen.

Can You Cure Tinnitus?

There’s no cure for chronic tinnitus, but the symptoms often become less noticeable and more manageable over time. It’s essential to educate yourself about chronic tinnitus – for example, by understanding that it’s not dangerous – to help ease the symptoms. Several methods are also available to help reduce the impact of noise.

Many people find it hard to reconcile and accept the reality of hearing loss. You nonetheless persevered and visited a hearing specialist to get an appropriate hearing aid fitted, knowing that’s what’s best for your health.

You probably realized immediately that wearing a hearing aid would benefit a person, including treatment for tinnitus, the ability to hear speech (even over the buzz of background noise), and the chance to reverse cognitive decline.

There is, however, one downside among all those life-altering benefits. You sometimes hear a loud whistling from your hearing aids, more commonly known as feedback that can be as annoying as tinnitus. You can quickly fix this problem by following the following guidelines. If your hearing aid is squealing, you should follow these steps:

Adjust the relative fit of your hearing aid

When you don’t fit the hearing aid properly, the sound can reverberate from the microphone through the earmold and get out of the ear. If you place the hearing aid improperly in your ear, you might notice some feedback.

Some hearing aid designs include a plastic tube to connect the hearing aid with an earmold to prevent sound leakage. The result can be intermittent or constant whistling, depending on how much sound has escaped.

You can fix the whistling that occurs when the plastic piece hardens, shrinks, or cracks over time by replacing it. This will keep the earmold in its optimal position over time.

Work on removing excessive earwax

Despite what we think, earwax is good for our bodies. The gooey substance serves as a protective barrier, preventing dirt and pollutants from entering our ears.

In addition to earwax production being managed by actions like talking and chewing, too much earwax can result in negative feedback. Feedback will not be avoided if your hearing aid is placed on top of too much earwax.

Since the sound is blocked by earwax, it cannot go anywhere, so it feeds back into the microphone. The sound is circling because there is no exit for the sound.

One way to get rid of a lot of wax from your ears is by running a warm shower into your ears. However, the best way to keep your ears from accumulating wax and subsequent whistling is to speak to a hearing specialist.

Make sure your microphone is not covered

Have you ever seen someone attempt to take a picture that doesn’t come out until they discover that the lens cap was still on? The most obvious solution is often the most effective. The same can usually be found with hearing aids.

This may occur if you cover the microphone with your hand or something else. A similar experience happens if you hug someone and put your ear on their shoulder. Uncovering the hearing aid should resolve the issue.

If you or someone you love is having an issue with tinnitus or hearing loss in the Las Vegas area, contact Hearing Associates of Las Vegas immediately. Rooted locally, we can help you figure out the cause of your hearing condition and help treat it with a dedicated team of professionals.