Hyderabad: Toward the end of last month, doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in the USA said authorities in the country had approved of a therapy that trains the brain to combat the effects of tinnitus, a disorder of the ears in which the sufferer hears sounds even when no external sound is present.
Of course, the therapy is yet to be available in India, but the very fact of its existence ought to come as a relief for the increasing number of tinnitus sufferers in this country.
Ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist C. Shekhar Singh says, “Exposure to high levels of sound is one of the major causes of damage to the hearing nerve. Most high-quality speakers and earphones emit a very precise sound, and when the volume is too high, that sound becomes a blasting noise, which tends to cause the problem. When people use these high-level systems they must ensure that the volumes are moderate, so that a high-pitched musical note does not blast into their ears. We now find a lot of youngsters suffering from this problem as they are always tuned in.”
The community page of a world renowned audio equipment manufacturer Bose has been registering a rapidly growing number of complaints about how its speakers and earphones have been causing tinnitus or its recurrence.
Complaints have stated that the latest model of earphones introduced just weeks ago emits really loud white noise, which takes almost 20 seconds to stop.
There are several complaints on the community page where users say they have faced problems after using various models. In some cases, they claim they have had to seek medical advice and doctors say the problems have been caused by high-volume sounds heard very close to the ear.
Senior ENT surgeon D.S. Deendayal says, “Tinnitus is a symptom of already existing damage to the ear nerve. When there is constant exposure to loud sounds on a very frequent and regular basis it is found that these sounds recur even when there is no actual noise. The other reasons are infection in the inner ear, injury to the ear or the area surrounding the ear. One of the major reasons for recurring tinnitus is also a tumour in the brain located close to the ear.
Exposure to loud sounds, however, aggravates and exposes the problem.”
If the complaints on the aforementioned community page are anything to go by, the doctors’ advice that high-quality audio equipment should be handled with care is well worth taking.
