4 Test Your Doctor May Suggest To Find The Cause Of Your Tinnitus
When you continually hear a ringing sound in your ears that is not coming from an external source, you are experiencing the symptom known in the medical field as tinnitus. Tinnitus is seen as a symptom and is not seen as its own disease. Doctors believe that tinnitus is generally always linked to a larger disease and does not appear without some underlying cause. Unfortunately, tinnitus is a symptom for a large number of different diseases and disorders, which means that your audiologist will have to run a battery of tests to determine what the underlying cause is behind your tinnitus. Here is a quick rundown of the four most common tests that your doctor may run on you to figure out what is causing your tinnitus.
Blood Pressure Test
High blood pressure is one of the driving causes behind tinnitus. Luckily, this is an easy test and a part of most routine checkups that your doctor can perform very quickly in their office. If you have high blood pressure, your doctor will then work with you to determine what is behind your high blood pressure. High blood pressure is often caused by things such as smoking, being inactive, stress, or kidney disease. Your doctor will need to work backward and figure out the cause of your high blood pressure, then work on eliminating that cause with you to reduce your blood pressure and thus your tinnitus.
Movement Test
Your doctor may ask you to do some simple movements such as moving your eyes, head, arms, and legs as well as clenching and relaxing your jaw. While you perform each movement, your doctor will ask how that movement affected your tinnitus. If any of those movements worsened or lessens your symptoms, your doctor will then have to do further investigative work to determine the underlying cause. For example, if clenching and relaxing your jaw has an effect on your tinnitus, you may be clenching your jaw in your sleep or have an impacted tooth that is causing your tinnitus. Your doctor will use information from the movement test to more accurately pinpoint the area of your body that is producing your tinnitus symptoms.
Hearing Test
Next, your doctor may send you to an audiologist for a formal hearing exam. During your hearing exam, headphones will be placed over your ears and you will be expected to inform the audiologist of what you hear in each of your ears.
Sometimes, tinnitus is just a side effect of hearing loss. If you have hearing loss, your audiologist may be able equip you with hearing aids that will lessen your tinnitus symptoms.
CT or MRI
If your doctor cannot figure out the root cause of your tinnitus with the tests above, they may request that you get some advanced image testing done of your brain to determine if there is a neurological reason for your tinnitus.
It may take multiple tests and visits to your doctor, but hopefully they will be able to figure out the underlying cause of your tinnitus and help you find relief from it.
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