Noise that seems to be coming from inside your head is called tinnitus. Tinnitus symptoms can be temporary or permanent and can be rooted in a wide range causes. The most common causes of tinnitus are loss of hearing, drugs or medication, or prolonged or acute exposure to loud noises. Tinnitus is not a disease. Rather, it is a symptom of an underlying condition. The majority of Americans will experience tinnitus many times over the course of their lives.

Loss of hearing from disease, infection, trauma or aging can also give rise to tinnitus symptoms. The reasons for this are not completely understood and may be related to the phantom limb syndrome. In amputees it is common for the brain – interpreting input from nerves that are still functioning but no longer terminate in the amputated foot or hand, to register the missing body part as still existing. It is theorized this phenomenon creates tinnitus symptoms from malfunctioning auditory nerves.

Exposure to loud sounds is a frequent cause of temporary tinnitus. Examples of when this might occur are; after attending a music concert; after watching an action movie in a theatre where the volume exceeded recommended levels; after using power tools in an enclosed space. The most commonly reported tinnitus symptom in these cases is a ringing in the ears. Prolonged exposure to a noisy environment without ear protection can result in permanent hearing damage and chronic tinnitus (see below).

Medication: Overuse of common aspirin, also called ASA or acetylsalicylic acid, can cause tinnitus symptoms, as can the anti-malarial drug quinine and antibiotics that include aminoglycoside.

Sounds other than ringing that are frequently reported by tinnitus sufferers include sounds like waves, crickets, wind and whistling as well as clicking and humming as if from an electronic device.

Misalignments of the jaw and muscle spasms in the ear or throat haves been cited as causes of the tinnitus symptom of clicking. Ear sounds that follow the pulse of the individual’s heart are called “pulsatile tinnitus” and are caused by blood flow in the blood vessels of the middle or inner ear. Pulsatile tinnitus can be a symptom of thyroid problems. Other conditions associated with pulsatile tinnitus are pregnancy and high blood pressure.

In rare cases tinnitus symptoms are caused by tumors. A tumor that presses on the ear’s blood vessels will cause pulsatile tinnitus. A tumor on the nerve that carries the signals from the ear to the brain’s acoustic processing center creates a condition known as acoustic neuroma. Unlike common tinnitus, this condition occurs in only one ear. For this reason single ear tinnitus should be investigated immediately.