Glenn Knox hears constant noise in both his ears. It sounds like a smooth whine, and it’s louder in his left ear than his right.
He has tinnitus, a condition that causes a person to hear sound that isn’t there. Knox is a University of Florida associate professor, but before that he was an ear, nose and throat doctor for 40 years.
While in medical school, Knox said he attended a rock concert where he was exposed to loud noise, which caused his left ear to start whining. Then 18 months ago, someone yelled in his right ear at a wedding and caused a softer noise to begin in that ear.
“It was quite distressing for a while and then finally I got used to it,” Knox said.
Tinnitus is caused when the brain makes up for a lack of stimulus by inventing “phantom sound,” as Ocala audiologist Evans Pemba puts it.
“The part of the brain responsible for processing those signals is like, ‘I should be hearing something,’” Pemba said. “Some people hear trains, some people hear music, some people hear wind whooshing, some people hear chirping, crickets. So everybody's tinnitus is unique to them.”
Pemba said he’s seen a slight increase in the number of his patients asking about tinnitus, and he attributes this to a recent study from researchers at the University of Michigan.
The study, a collaboration with Apple, surveyed over 160,000 people. Researchers found that almost 78% of participants had experienced tinnitus at some point, with 15% experiencing it daily.
Knox said noise trauma can be a big factor in tinnitus onset, and the study confirmed over 20% of people cited noise trauma as the cause of their tinnitus.
“We live in a noisy environment and it’s getting noisier and noisier,” Knox said.
Although loud noises can cause tinnitus, it’s not the only cause. Pemba said anything from excess ear wax to brain tumors can cause it. Even some medications like aspirin or certain chemotherapy drugs can cause the brain to invent noise that doesn’t exist.
Knox and Pemba both said anyone with tinnitus should see a doctor, but especially if the noise suddenly appears or suddenly gets louder, or if it’s one-sided. These could be the signs of a serious medical condition.
Knox attributes the increase in cases of tinnitus to the increase in availability of treatment options, with more people becoming aware of their options and new research coming out all the time.
“It used to be in the past that a patient would come into your nose and throat office and they would just say, ‘Well, you're ringing in your ears. There's nothing we can do about it,’” Knox said. “But now we have plenty that we can do for it.”
Some treatments include hearing aids, noise machines and over-the-counter vitamins.