• Question: Why do people hear ringing in their ears

    Asked by loki514 to MarkF, Mark, Michael, Panos, Sarah on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mark Fogg

      Mark Fogg answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Unless you’ve woken up in a church bell tower, it can be due to damage in the ears.
      I have slight ear damage from being too close to speakers at live gigs when I was younger, they ring a bit all the time.

      Ringing in the ears and noises from no external source are known as Tinnitus. It’s usually as a result of damage to sensory structures, but can be due to pressure from a blocked ear or High Blood pressure. The sensory structures, called ‘stereocilia’ in the inner ear, send signals to the brain that are interpreted as sounds. If there’s damage, they can send signals all the time, even when there’s no sound. It manifests itself as the typical ringing in your ears.
      If you listen to music on an iPod too loudly for too long, it can cause permanent damage to your ears!

    • Photo: Sarah Burl

      Sarah Burl answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      This is called Tinnitis. It can be caused by the hairs in your ears that create sound being damaged (this can happen by loud music for as a result of infections). the hairs start to move spontaneously and create sound. there are many levels of Tinnitis and differerences in what people hear and so it is difficult to measure.

    • Photo: Panos Soultanas

      Panos Soultanas answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hello loki514,

      Personally I don’t hear any ringing in my ears but usually ringng in the ears come about by anything that would stimulate/excite your eardrums and/or the sensors in your ear.

    • Photo: Mark Travis

      Mark Travis answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      The medical term for this is tinnitus, and can be caused by lots of different things, including exposure to very loud noise and infection of th ear

    • Photo: Michael Loughlin

      Michael Loughlin answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      many many reasons from illness to exposure to loud noise..
      hope this link helps you research it further

      http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Tinnitus/Pages/Introduction.aspx

      it can be a symptom of a perforated eardrum for instance

      http://www.nhsdirect.wales.nhs.uk/encyclopaedia/p/article/perforatedeardrum/

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