"Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?"

That's the title of Steven Tyler's rock 'n' roll memoir. When I first saw it, I was thinking, is he having tinnitus? Haha. With his 40+ year-old music career, it is highly likely that he has some level of hearing loss associated with tinnitus. But don't get me wrong, the book is definitely NOT about tinnitus! :)

Audiologist Gives Back to Family

How does an audiologist gives back to family?

By doing a hearing test on them.

Have I ever? Nope.

Well, I did test my parents... when they were subjects for my thesis! Hrmm... I'm sounding like I manipulated them. But anyhow, their hearing levels were within normal limits, which is awesome! I honestly think that both my parents have good genetic for hearing, hehe. Reason being, for every of their siblings that I tested, all of them qualified to be my subjects! Bravo to Abdul Rahims/Ibrahims family :)

(Suddenly I remembered a joke by my friend. He works with Widex. A friend of ours were saying something that she did well with a patient, and he commented saying "Bravo from Widex". I thought he was saying that, as in representing Widex. Apparently, he meant that it must be due to Bravo Widex that helped the patient. LOL!)

Besides my parents and my uncles and aunties, I also tested my niece. She complained of tinnitus when she was 7! And at that time, I was still unexperienced to deal with tinnitus cases... especially with pediatrics! That was and still is the first time I hear of that case actually. But now she's okay, she said she's just hearing it occasionally now. Last time she used to hear it all the time. I guess she's grown used to it. Don't worry peeps, I'm monitoring her!

Of course, I tested my hubby as well. He too has tinnitus! But I think it's most likely because of his sinus, and not the hearing, because the hearing is fine. He's now under follow up with the ENT Specialist.

Nobody else apart from the people above. And I have 11 siblings! None of which I tested. Plus 2 sister-in-laws, 2 nephews, 1 other niece, and now in addition to that - parents-in-laws, 2 brother-in-laws, 3 sister-in-laws and 1 nephew. Whoa. That's 25 people to test! And of course, I'll still need to check my parents' hearing again for monitoring purpose, since they're well over 40!

I suddenly felt guilty the other day when I was advocating for hearing tests from newborn itself, when I don't even do that to my own family. So I actually plan to start with the babies. I'm gonna make an appointment and make sure they come!

Let's hope I won't have to deliver any bad news to them!

The Phantom Sound

Have you ever experienced hearing sounds in your ears which you are so sure that nobody else is hearing it as well? It could be a ringing, buzzing, hissing, chirping, whispering, blowing of the wind sound, or to quote a patient, dengar orang mengaji dalam telinga (hearing someone recite the Quran). That last part was quite random, but for the other sounds, they are quite common complaints. In fact, my niece and partner are experiencing the ringing sounds.

This hearing symptom is called tinnitus. Tinnitus is sound heard in the ears which are not externally stimulated. It is a phantom auditory perception. Almost everyone has tinnitus; but it could either be normal tinnitus or pathological tinnitus.

Normal tinnitus is experienced by most people. It occurs less than 5 minutes, less than once a week and is not associated with hearing loss.

On the other hand, pathological tinnitus occurs more than 5 minutes, more than once a week and usually heard by people with hearing loss. The severity ranges from acceptable to unacceptable. By acceptable means that the sounds do not disturb you from doing tasks, while unacceptable means the sounds affect you to a point you have to stop doing whatever you are doing whenever it occurs. In this case, it is very frustrating for that person.

The duration of the tinnitus could be temporary, occurring only at a certain position and situation (e.g. when you're lying on your bed, preparing to sleep; when you're in a very noisy place). It could also be permanent, meaning it's there 24/7.

The causes of tinnitus varies: it could be due to noise exposure, Meniere's Disease, medication, food intake, lots of ear wax and idiopathic (unknown), even.

Usually, if the sounds heard are high pitched in nature, it is usually associated with high frequency hearing loss, while low pitch tinnitus relates to low frequency hearing loss. That's why if you are experiencing this symptom, it is advisable to immediately have your hearing assessed, as to ensure that your hearing is not affected and is not the cause of the tinnitus.

Referring to the pamphlet my coursemates did for our Audiology Seminar, there are several approaches for tinnitus management and treatment. They are:

1. Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) that includes directive/retraining counseling and sound therapy;

2. Masking of tinnitus using hearing aids (for those with hearing loss, of course), tinnitus maskers (apparently downloadable), tinnitus instruments;

3. Medication such as anti-depressant, anti-convulsant (tegretol, phenytoin, mysoline, depakene), anti-histamine (meclizine), vasodilators (gingko biloba, niacin);

4. Psychological treatment of cognitive therapy, cognitive restructuring, attention diversion techniques, imagery training, relaxation training, hypnosis;

5. Other treatments: TinniTool (developed in Switzerland, see picture below); Neuromonic; biofeedback; and electrical stimulation.



One particular treatment I would like to stress on would be the Sound Therapy as it is an easy, self-practised approach. The therapy facilitates tinnitus habituation by weakening the tinnitus signal. Patient is instructed to avoid silence and to enrich the background noise by listening to music, using table-top sound machines or wearable sound generators.

For the medication part, it is strongly advised to get them as medically consulted.

*Compliments to Chan Soon Chien, Suriya Mohamad, Tan Ping Meng and Ong Chun Suan @ the Purple Phantom :)