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It is difficult to treat tinnitus. This is the report of Dr. Yves-Victor Kamami, guest of the show Sans Rendez-vous on Europe 1. For this ENT doctor, the chances of healing a tinnitus are low. But "we can reduce the symptoms," he reassures. This requires knowing the causes.
Date the beginning of the problem
Tinnitus is "noise", such as "whistling or buzzing" begins to explain Yves-Victor Kamami, "which will cause permanent discomfort for the patient." According to him, about 5% of the population would be affected by this problem. The priority is to know when is the problem.
If it is recent, it may be due to "sudden deafness", detectable through an audiogram. Often, a sound trauma can be the cause. The hearing loss, frequent, is then to be treated urgently, "within ten days". If it is old, however, and it comes only from one ear, then we must check if it is not due to "a cyst, a vascular malformation, or a tumor". Finally for idiopathic tinnitus, the cause of which is unknown, the doctor recognizes "to be a little stuck": "There is no effective drug treatment at 100%."
Ineffective medications
There is indeed almost as much treatment as there are so many tinnitus. But the majority of drugs only "decrease the gene without treating the cause directly," says Yves-Victor Kamami. The most common are those caused by "a sound shock in a professional environment". That is, all people exposed to "sounds over 100 decibels", such as workers who work with jackhammers, or soldiers confronted with explosives.
Stress can also lead to tinnitus. "People tend to block their jaws, causing a small dislocation of the meniscus of the jaw, the temporomaxillary joint" details Yves-Victor Kamami. This then causes "a small displacement that can cause pressure on the auditory nerve".
Solutions to reduce tinnitus to silence
There are still solutions to reduce the impact of tinnitus on everyday life. In case of emergency, it is possible to be treated with anti-inflammatories, "cortisone-based, by injection or by mouth". Otherwise, "as for the divers", Yves-Victor Kamami evokes the possibility of a treatment in hyperbaric box, to decrease the pressure on the auditory nerve.
When the temporomaxillary joint is involved, the ENT doctor can work with an infrared laser. "Painless and safe", its goal is to reduce the inflammation caused by the displacement of the meniscus, allowing him to find his cavity. A "medical, not surgical" act, specifies the health professional, which will allow the person to find a better mobility of his jaw. The improvement, fast, can be visible "instantly or after a few hours". Achievable in any ENT practice, this act costs the price of a consultation. But as for other treatments, if it reduces the symptoms, "it will not do away with tinnitus permanently".