Measuring Tinnitus

The basic measurement of the tinnitus relies on the tendency of the brain to select the loudest sound heard. Using this tendency, parent's tinnitus may be calculated by playing sample sounds of the amplitude which is known and ask to patient what he/she hears. Mostly tinnitus is equal to the sample noise which is heard by the patient. This method is also useful for measuring the objective tinnitus.

If patient is suffering from pulsatile paraganglioma (in ear) then he/she unable to hear flow of blood from tumor when sample noise is greater than 5 decibel which is louder than noise produced by blood. As amplitude of sound gets decreases, tinnitus is audible.

The uncommon tinnitus is objective tinnitus. The patients suffering from pulsatile tumors also report the distinct and co-existent sounds from pulsatile noises, which will persist after removing that tumor.

If sample noise is below the 5 decibels then it will indicate that tinnitus is impossible to hear. If test subject told to focus only on tinnitus, they report the hearing sounds. When that sounds exceeds 70 decibels then tinnitus is louder than ringing phone. This quantification method suggests that subjective tinnitus relates only to what the patient is attempting to hear. Patients actively complaining about tinnitus could thus be assumed to be people who have become obsessed with the noise. This is only partially true.

The problem is involuntary; generally complaining patients simply cannot override or ignore their tinnitus. The noise is often present in both quiet and noisy environments, and can become quite intrusive to their daily lives. Subjective tinnitus may not always be correlated with ear malfunction or hearing loss. Even people with near-perfect hearing may still complain of it. Tinnitus may also have a connection to memory problems, anxiety, fatigue or a general state of poor health.