Squeaking, humming, ringing, buzzing or whistling in ears or head - all of them are signs of tinnitus. Tnnitus it is a group of unpleasant sound experiences comming from internal ear defects. This is not a disease but complaint with a big degree of discomfort. Tinnitus can be experienced in ears as well as in head. Periodically or permanently. Sometimes patients hear several sounds simultaneously. Sometimes these sounds disturb in silence only, particularly at falling asleep, however sometimes they do not allow to function normally. They can cause even pain and depression. People sufferin from tinnitus can't concentrate on work neither rest effectively.
Most patients experiencing tinnitus are more than 60 years old, but it can touch everybody. Specialists evaluate that 20% of population is suffering from tinnitus, and this is realy serious problem for 5% of them.
You can't underestimate them. You should visit a specialist in case of their occurrence. It is proper to remember if they appeared suddenly or not, what was the circumstances, and how long ago did it happened, if other diseases accompany tinnitus also ( different kind of pain, loss of hearing, disturbances of balance). The answers can have meaning during research of reasons of tinnitus.
Majority of us experience some kind of buzzing in our ears from time to time. Especially in silence.
However short-lived sounds, usually are not very troublesome and they do not require medical consultation. Any sound appearing more often then once a week and lasting longer than 5 minutes requires reconnaissance by patient.
Tinnitus can have subjective or rarely objective character. In case when only patient can hear sounds, usually there is an activity within nerve match, and that is so called subjective tinnitus. They present significant majority.
Tinnitus can have mechanical origin in some cases and can be heard by other people during auscultating. That is so called objective Tinnitus and they present less than 5% all cases.