Surgery for symptoms of tinnitus

When you suffer from tinnitus, you find yourself hearing noises which no one else can hear, since these do not come from the outside at all. Your doctors and people close to you may find grasping this fact too hard, doing their best to rule this condition out and prove that this is all in your head. Tinnitus can often be a mysterious condition and surgery for it is frequently left as a last resort.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Apart from hearing ringing in your ears, tinnitus may manifest through many other unwanted sounds. Namely, buzzing, scratching, cracking and clicking are just some of these pestering emissions, making it impossible for you to concentrate on living life carelessly.

As far as treatment is concerned, cracking and clicking noises are the easiest to deal with. Through special medical analysis procedures, your doctor may hear the same sounds from the inside of your head, created by muscle spasms or blood flows. If these sounds are indeed present, gamma knife surgery can help you remove them. Alternatively, your surgeon may protect the cochlea of your ear with Teflon, removing the annoying noises as well.

Surgery vs Tinnitus

Sometimes, tinnitus cannot be cured either by hearing aids or other alternative approaches like specially recorded music CDs. Then, surgery is the only option.

In modern medicine, the unknown manifestations of tinnitus are treated by electrode implants which are placed in the ear of the patient. The electrodes produce minor electric bolts, reducing or erasing tinnitus sounds. Yet, this treatment is risky because the electrode may destroy the living tissue around it, leading to hearing loss and the necessity of surgery.

Also, surgically dividing the hearing nerve inside the inner ear can be an effective approach in about 50% of cases.

Alternatively, if the tinnitus is triggered by a tumor located somewhere in the ear, the removal of this growth is bound to restore one's normal hearing. Removal of certain barriers which have been created in the ear can lead to removal of tinnitus too.

Surgeries are only an option when there are no other possible solutions. Any kind of surgery for tinnitus requires high degrees of technical skill. Therefore, tinnitus surgeries are only performed in major teaching hospitals or university centers with specialized departments.

Finally, there are numerous sound therapies, involving exposure to specific sounds which help you ignore the noise in your ears. Additionally, diet modification, acupuncture and some herbal medications are known to be helpful in some cases of tinnitus.