You may have a common reaction when you first notice that ringing in your ears: pretend everything’s ok. You go through your day the same as usual: you have a conversation with family, go to the store, and prepare lunch. While you simultaneously try your hardest to dismiss that ringing. Because you feel sure of one thing: your tinnitus will fade away by itself.
You begin to worry, though, when after a couple of days the buzzing and ringing is unrelenting.
This scenario happens to other people as well. At times tinnitus stop on its own, and at other times it will linger on and that’s the reason why it’s a tricky little condition.
When Tinnitus is Likely to Go Away on Its Own
Around the globe, nearly everyone has had a bout of tinnitus because it’s very common. In almost all cases, tinnitus is basically temporary and will ultimately vanish by itself. The most prevalent example is the rock concert: you go see Bruce Springsteen at your local arena (it’s a good show) and when you get home, you discover that there is ringing in your ears.
The kind of tinnitus that is linked to temporary damage from loud noise will often subside within a couple of days (and you chalk it up to the cost of seeing your favorite band on stage).
Naturally, it’s exactly this kind of noise injury that, over time, can cause loss of hearing to move from temporary (or acute, as they say) to chronic. Too many of those types of concerts and you may end up with permanent tinnitus.
Often Times, Tinnitus Doesn’t Just go Away
If your tinnitus continues for over three months it’s then classified as chronic tinnitus (but you should have it examined by an expert long before that).
Around 5-15% of people around the world have reported signs of chronic tinnitus. While there are some recognized close associations (like hearing loss, for example), the causes of tinnitus aren’t yet really comprehended.
Usually, a fast cure for tinnitus will be unidentifiable if the triggers aren’t obvious. If your ears have been buzzing for more than three months and there’s no recognizable cause, there’s a strong possibility that the sound will not go away by itself. But if this is your situation, you can safeguard your quality of life and deal with your symptoms with some treatment options (such as noise canceling devices and cognitive behavioral therapy).
The Reason For Your Tinnitus is Significant
It becomes much easier to mitigate the symptoms of tinnitus when you can recognize the root causes. If a bacterial ear infection is, for instance, the reason for your tinnitus, you can regain a healthy ear and clear hearing by treating it with antibiotics.
Here are some potential causes of acute tinnitus:
- Loss of hearing (again, this is often associated with chronic tinnitus)
- Eardrum damage (such as a perforated eardrum)
- A blockage in the ear or ear canal
- Meniere’s disease (this usually has no cure and is often associated with chronic tinnitus)
- Chronic ear infections
The Big Question…Will my Tinnitus Ever go Away?
The bottom line is that in almost all cases, yes, your tinnitus will go away by itself. But the longer it lingers, the longer you hear reverberations or humming or whatever the sound happens to be, the more likely it becomes that you’re experiencing chronic tinnitus.
You feel that if you just forget it should go away on its own. But eventually, your tinnitus might become unpleasant and it could become difficult to concentrate on anything else. And in those situations, you may want a treatment plan more thorough than crossing your fingers.
In most situations, however, as a matter of fact, throughout most of your life, your tinnitus will often subside by itself, a typical response to a loud environment (and your body’s way of letting you know to stay away from that situation from now on). Whether that’s chronic or acute tinnitus, well, we’ll only know over time.