Tinnitus examination by an ENT to diagnose treatable conditions like middle ear infection, acoustic neuroma, concussion, otosclerosis, etc. Evaluation of tinnitus will include a hearing test (audiogram), measurement of acoustic parameters of the tinnitus like pitch and loudness, and psychological assessment of comorbid conditions like depression, anxiety, and stress that are associated with severity of the tinnitus. The accepted definition of chronic tinnitus, as compared to normal ear noise experience, is five minutes of ear noise occurring at least twice a week. However, people with chronic tinnitus often experience the noise more frequently than this and can experience it continuously or
Tinnitus in the central auditory system, and therefore cause tinnitus. The most common cause of tinnitus is noise-induced hearing loss. Such hearing loss may also be present in a hidden form, i.e., in persons showing a normal audiogram. Hearing loss may have many different causes, but among tinnitus subjects, the major cause is cochlear damage. Ototoxic drugs can also cause subjective tinnitus, as they may cause hearing loss, or increase the damage done by exposure to loud noise. Those damages can occur even at doses that are not considered ototoxic. Over 260 medications have been reported to cause tinnitus as a