Tinnitus

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Specialty Physician Associates - - Ear, Nose & Throat Doctor

Specialty Physician Associates

Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctors & Facial Plastic Surgery located in Bethlehem, Allentown, Quakertown & Wind Gap, PA

If you hear ringing even when there’s no noise at all, you could be suffering from tinnitus. This common issue affects up to 20% of all men and women today, and for many sufferers, it’s distracting and frustrating enough to affect your quality of life. The team of expert ENT doctors at Specialty Physician Associates in Bethlehem, Allentown, Quakertown, and Wind Gap, Pennsylvania, can help you overcome tinnitus so you can put that ringing behind you. Use the online scheduler or call the office closest to you to book now.

Tinnitus Q & A

What is Tinnitus?

Tinnitus means that you hear ringing or other persistent noises. Tinnitus is a symptom rather than a condition of its own. If you suffer from tinnitus, you might hear very intrusive noise, very soft noise, or anything in between.

Tinnitus is usually sporadic but it can be continuous. Tinnitus is categorized in two general ways: subjective and objective.

  • Subjective Tinnitus: By far the most frequently occurring kind of tinnitus, subjective tinnitus causes ringing or other noises that only you can hear. It's usually directly related to ear problems like age-related hearing loss, but can also be connected to auditory nerve problems in the part of your brain that processes nerve signals as noise. Certain medications can cause tinnitus, too.
  • Objective Tinnitus: Objective tinnitus is unique and rare because your doctor can hear the ringing or other noise when they examine your ears. Circulatory system issues like atherosclerosis or vascular malformations can cause objective tinnitus as can inner ear muscle spasms.


Regardless of what kind of tinnitus you have, your Specialty Physician Associates doctor can diagnose the problem and prescribe effective treatment.

How Can I Recognize Tinnitus?

If you hear noise when there's no noise in your environment, it could be tinnitus. While ringing is the most common noise heard, others include:

  • Buzzing
  • Humming
  • Hissing
  • Roaring
  • Clicking


You might experience the noise in only one ear, but it's usually in both ears.

What is the Treatment for Tinnitus?

Because tinnitus is a symptom itself, your Specialty Physician Associates doctor works to uncover its root cause. For example, if you have sinusitis, the resultant middle ear pressure could trigger tinnitus. By treating the sinusitis, the tinnitus stops.

Treatment can include many different things, depending on the cause and your symptoms:

  • Hearing aid for age-related hearing loss
  • Inner-ear masking devices that issue soft white noise
  • Neuromonics® sound therapy that reprograms your brain to decrease tinnitus
  • White noise devices for your home


Although there’s no FDA-approved tinnitus medication yet, depression and anxiety medications appear to help in some cases.

The Specialty Physician Associates team can help you hear without all that background noise, so book your appointment online or by calling the office nearest you today.

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