Why Is My Left Ear Ringing? Common Causes & Tinnitus Treatments

Understanding Why Your Left Ear Rings

Ringing, buzzing, hissing, roaring - these are some of the annoying and often stressful sounds of tinnitus that can happen when your left ear rings. But what causes these phantom noises in your ears, and what does it mean when only your left ear is affected?

Getting to the root cause and meaning behind unilateral left-sided tinnitus takes some detective work. Let's explore the common causes, treatments, and meaning so you can find solutions to quiet the ringing.

What Is Tinnitus?

Tinnitus refers to noises you hear in one ear, both ears, or inside your head even though there is no external sound source. Over 50 million Americans suffer from some form of tinnitus.

The noises most reported with tinnitus include:

• Ringing
• Buzzing
• Hissing
• Humming
• Roaring or whooshing

These phantom sounds can come and go or be continuous. They can be heard in one ear (unilateral) or both ears (bilateral). Tinnitus is considered a symptom of various underlying health conditions rather than a single disease.

Subjective vs. Objective Tinnitus

There are two categories used to classify forms of tinnitus:

• Subjective tinnitus - Only the person experiencing tinnitus can hear the sounds. This is the most common type.
• Objective tinnitus - The tinnitus noises can also be detected by other people through examination. This rare type is caused by physical abnormalities near the ear.

Pulsatile vs. Non-Pulsatile Tinnitus

Tinnitus noises are also described based on whether or not they pulse along with your heartbeat:

• Pulsatile tinnitus - These rhythmic noises often sound like your heart is beating in your ear. The sounds may come and go or be continuous.
• Non-pulsatile tinnitus - More constant hissing, ringing or roaring sounds that do not pulsate along with your heart rate.

Common Causes of Left-Sided Tinnitus

Since tinnitus is a symptom of various issues, identifying the underlying cause is key to treating ringing ears. Common causes for left ear tinnitus specifically include:

Hearing Loss

Damage to the tiny hair cells inside your inner ear is often to blame for tinnitus symptoms. These tiny hairs help turn sound waves into signals sent to the auditory nerve and brain. Hearing loss from aging, loud noise exposure, genetics, earwax blockages, and ear bone changes can all negatively impact these hairs and lead to tinnitus.

Blood Vessel Problems

Pulsatile tinnitus in the left ear is often caused by blood flow issues. Turbulent or high blood pressure can create sounds resembling a heartbeat detectable in the small blood vessels around your ear and brain. Common culprits include atherosclerosis, blood vessel malformations, vascular tumors, and head and neck issues.

Medications

Many common meds have tinnitus or ringing in the ears listed as a potential side effect. These include certain antibiotics, cancer medications, water pills, antidepressants, and quinine medications for malaria. Changing or reducing meds may alleviate tinnitus in some cases under a doctor's care.

Ear Bone Changes

Having issues with the small bones in your middle ear can disrupt normal sound transmission and also trigger tinnitus symptoms. Ear bone conditions like otosclerosis, which causes bone hardening, or otitis media with effusion, an excess of middle ear fluid, are tied to higher odds of left ear tinnitus.

Hyperactive Brain Cells

Losing your hearing may rewire how sound signals are processed in your brain. Researchers believe this can lead to hyperactivity that gets interpreted as phantom noises. The brains of tinnitus patients show much higher activation in certain sound processing regions compared to those without tinnitus.

Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction

Since your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) in your jaw is located right by your ear, having TMJ issues like clenching, grinding teeth, dislocation or misalignment can transmit sounds detected as tinnitus. TMJ is more often tied to left-sided tinnitus since the left TMJ tends to be positioned slightly more forward and vulnerable to strain.

When Should I Worry About Unilateral Tinnitus?

Experiencing noise or ringing only in your left ear rather than both can sometimes indicate a potentially more serious underlying cause requiring prompt medical treatment. Seek emergency care for left-sided tinnitus if:

• Started very suddenly
• Happens with no known trigger
• Associated with one-sided facial drooping (Bell's palsy risk)
• Alongside severe headache
• Following head or neck trauma like a car accident

Pulsing or throbbing perceived in just one ear can also indicate vascular issues or migraine headaches needing evaluation. In general, its wise to have any persistent, troubling unilateral tinnitus checked by an audiologist or ENT doctor to assess next steps.

Tinnitus and Hearing Loss

Underlying hearing loss impacts over 90% of people with tinnitus. Noise exposure, aging, genetics and health issues gradually damage the microscopic hair cells in the inner ears. As more hair cells get damaged and die off, your hearing declines.

At the same time, this hair cell damage disrupts normal signal transmission from your ear to your brain. Researchers believe this forces your brain to adapt and rewire itself, resulting in abnormal hyperactivity interpreted as phantom ringing or buzzing.

Since hair cell damage also impairs your ability to hear external sounds clearly, this makes tinnitus noises even more prominent and annoying. Treating hearing loss can help moderate tinnitus effects for this reason.

Tinnitus as an Early Warning for Hearing Loss

Tinnitus tends to show up well before noticeable hearing decline. High frequency hearing used to detect consonants and speech details is usually first affected. Because tinnitus results from cellular and neural changes due to progressive damage, paying attention to emerging symptoms provides an early warning to intervene and prevent further deterioration.

Tinnitus Treatment Options

Currently there is no cure for most tinnitus cases. However, various therapeutic approaches offer relief by helping your brain tune out and habituate to the sounds so you can still function.

Hearing Aids

Over 80% of tinnitus sufferers also experience some degree of hearing difficulties. Hearing aids help boost external sound signals to make tinnitus relative to background noise less noticeable and distracting. Modern hearing aids also deliver soothing background sounds to further mask unpleasant tinnitus noises.

Sound Therapy

Sound therapy delivers relaxing external sounds to distract your focus away from tinnitus ear ringing. Soothing nature sounds, white noise, music and even amplification of external background environments can help mask unpleasant phantom noises. Hearing aids, wearable sound generators, apps, fans, radios and bedside devices deliver sound therapy.

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT)

TRT uses a combination of sound therapy paired with psychological counseling to help retrain your brain to tune out and be less disturbed by tinnitus sounds over time. By learning to habituate to tinnitus, TRT can reduce perception of noises as well as emotional distress.

Medications

Currently there are no FDA-approved drugs specifically for treating tinnitus. However, some antidepressants, antianxiety, anticonvulsants and

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new treatment regimen.