Neuro Equilibrium BD

07/07/2024

01/05/2023

Vertigo is a symptomatic disorder due to problems of the inner ear or the brain. When the inner ear gets affected due to an injury, infection or any other cause, the person experiences vertigo or unsteadiness.

Inner Ear Problems That Cause Vertigo

1. Meniere’s Disease: This is caused by the excess fluid build up in the inner ear that may cause hearing loss and blocked ear feeling along with vertigo. It usually affects one ear.

2. BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo): In this medical condition, calcium carbonate crystals called otoconia get displaced in the semicircular canals of the inner ear causing vertigo. Older people are more prone to this disease. It is also common after injuries.

3. Vestibular Neuritis: This is caused by a viral infection on the inner ear which leads to vertigo.

11/04/2023

Alternative Treatments for Tinnitus
What else can you do to handle tinnitus better?

1. Quit Smoking: Smoking ci******es is injurious to health! It’s worse if you have tinnitus. Smoking causes narrowing of the blood vessels to the sensitive auditory nerves cells that help you hear and also stimulates your body. This action heightens sounds that you hear in your ears.

2. Play Soft Music: If your tinnitus is too bothersome, playing soft music at the backdrop will help you immensely. It distracts you from focussing on tinnitus and help you concentrate on your daily activities.

3. Avoid the Triggers: Many tinnitus patients observe that their tinnitus or ringing in the ear condition worsens when they take certain foods, beverages, or medications. It is best to avoid such triggers to keep the sounds in your ear less bothersome.

4. Guard Your Ears: If you are in a noisy place (concerts/pubs) or doing work that generates noise (using power drilling tools/factories/vacuum cleaners that make a loud noise); wear earplugs or cover your ears.

09/04/2023

Devices to Treat Tinnitus:

1. Hearing Aids: A well-fitted hearing aid can reduce the distracting sounds in the ears and helps in effective hearing.

2. Masking Devices: Also called as noise suppression devices these devices are similar to hearing aids. This device plays an added sound to distract the patient from focussing on ringing sound caused by tinnitus. The doctor sets the frequency of the instrument after loudness and pitch matching tests so that the pitch in the device matches that of a perceived sound of the tinnitus experienced by the patient.
3. Tinnitus Instruments: It is a combination of a hearing aid and masking device.

4. Tinnitus Retraining Therapy: It is a habituation therapy that helps the patients to perceive the annoying inner noise in the ear to be normal at the subconscious level so that the conscious mind does not get disturbed by the sounds in the inner ear. There are two stages in TRT –
• Using a tinnitus instrument
• Conducting counselling sessions by an experienced doctor.
This treatment is very effective in treating tinnitus and takes around a year or two to show results.

5. Biofeedback: It is a relaxation method that helps patients to control and manage their stress reactions to inner ear noise. Many tinnitus patients find it helpful in addressing their problem.

6. Cognitive Therapy: An intensive counseling of the patients along with the use of a masking device and medications has proved to be very beneficial in treating tinnitus in the patients.

7. Cochlear Implants: The device emits electrical signals to the brain to treat severe to profound deafness. If the tinnitus patient has severe hearing loss, this treatment can very efficiently provide lasting relief to the patient. However, if the patient has only tinnitus and not hearing loss, this implant is not recommended.

8. White Noise Generating Machines: The patient can be advised to play background music of falling rain, the sound of the sea, river or similar kind of sounds to keep themselves distracted from the noises in the ear.

02/04/2023

Effective Ways to Treat Tinnitus
It is important to try to ascertain the underlying cause of tinnitus.

1. Tinnitus caused by excess ear wax build-up: Wax is produced in the ear to protect and lubricate it. Cleaning with ear-buds can push the wax further inside causing blockage of the ear canal. Instead, the patient should be encouraged to go to their nearest ENT doctors for ear wax removal.

2. Tinnitus caused by an ear infection: The doctors will prescribe antibiotics to reduce infection in the ear.

3. Tinnitus caused by TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint) Disorder: Any undue pressure or injury may harm the joint and cause tinnitus. An orthodontist, dentist or ENT doctor can treat this condition successfully.

4. Medications to Treat Tinnitus: Patients are advised to stay in a sound-rich environment.

5. Anti-anxiety or antidepressant drugs: Anti-anxiety or antidepressant drugs are often prescribed by doctors to treat tinnitus.

16/03/2023

Tests to Diagnose Tinnitus

1. Visual Analogue Scale: The patient is asked to rate the loudness of the internal noise in the ear on the scale of 0 – 10. The patients perceive their ringing-in-the-ear sound louder than it is, due to subjective tinnitus. Checking the loudness on the decibel scale of 0-10 helps the doctors to understand the severity of the tinnitus.

2. Audiometry: To assess the hearing of the patient. If there is a hearing loss – the type of hearing loss and its severity is gauged.

3. Tinnitus Matching: Sounds with different pitches are played to the patients and are asked to select the close one in the set that resembles the sound they experience in the ear. The recognition of a pitch that is closely similar to the one that the patient hears in his ear helps the doctors understand the frequency level of tinnitus in the patient.

4. Loudness Match Test: The patient is asked to match the intensity of sound they hear in their ear. The test aids the doctors in understanding the range of the sound of tinnitus in a patient.

5. Impedance Audiometry with Eustachian Tube Function Tests: These should be done to determine middle ear pressure, stapedial reflexes and ET function.