“How do you confirm having tinnitus?”
I am a 47 year old male and I have ringing in my ears. How do you confirm having tinnitus?
2 Answers
Over 98% of the time, tinnitus is a subjective sensation, meaning there is no way for a health professional to objectively verify that you are having that issue. There are many questionnaires geared toward quantifying the impact that tinnitus is having on you (ex: Tinnitus Functional Index, Tinnitus and Hearing Survey). There are also measurements that an audiologist can perform to assess various aspects of your tinnitus (pitch and loudness matching, residual inhibition, etc.). It is normal to have some tinnitus, especially in quiet environments, but it is a problem that needs to be addressed when it starts to interfere with sleep on concentration, causes anxiety or depression, or effects your relationships with friends and family.
There is no objective way to measure tinnitus yet. A clinician will determine if it's tinnitus based on your description of it. If it's a constant sound in ears/head, it's tinnitus. If it comes and goes, lasts seconds to a few minutes, that's not tinnitus. That's normal.
