You might have a common reaction when you first hear that ringing in your ears: pretend that it’s no big deal. You continue your normal routines: you have a conversation with friends, go shopping, and make lunch. All the while, you’re attempting to force that ringing in your ear out of your mind. Because you feel sure of one thing: your tinnitus will go away by itself.

After several more days of unrelenting buzzing and ringing, however, you begin to have doubts.

This situation happens to other people as well. At times tinnitus stop on its own, and other times it will stick around and that’s why it’s a tricky little condition.

When Tinnitus is Likely to Vanish by Itself

Tinnitus is very common around the world, virtually everyone’s had a bout every now and then. In nearly all situations, tinnitus is essentially temporary and will eventually vanish on it’s own. A rock concert is an excellent illustration: you go to your local stadium to see your favorite band and you discover, when you get home, that there is a ringing in your ears.

Within a few days the kind of tinnitus associated with damage from loud noise will commonly disappear (and you chalk it up to the cost of seeing your favorite band play live).

Eventually hearing loss can develop from temporary or “acute” to permanent or “chronic” because of this exact type of damage. Too many of those types of concerts and you might end up with permanent tinnitus.

sometimes, Tinnitus Doesn’t Just Disappear

If your tinnitus doesn’t diminish (either on its own or with help) within the span of three months or so, the ailment is then classified chronic tinnitus (this does not, by the way, mean that you should wait three months to talk to a specialist about lingering ringing, buzzing, or thumping in your ears).

Around 5-15% of people around the world have documented symptoms of chronic tinnitus. The exact causes of tinnitus are still not well known even though there are some known connections (such as loss of hearing).

When the triggers of your tinnitus aren’t obvious, it normally means that a fast “cure” will be unidentifiable. There is a good possibility that your tinnitus won’t go away on its own if you have been hearing the ringing for over three months. But if this is your circumstance, you can preserve your quality of life and manage your symptoms with some treatment possibilities (like noise canceling devices and cognitive behavioral therapy).

It’s Relevant to Know What The Cause of Your Tinnitus is

It becomes a lot easier to mitigate the symptoms of tinnitus when you can establish the underlying causes. If a bacterial ear infection is, for example, the cause of your tinnitus, you can revive a healthy ear and clear hearing by managing it with antibiotics.

Here are some possible causes of acute tinnitus:

• Loss of hearing (again, this is often associated with chronic tinnitus)
• Meniere’s disease (this usually has no cure and is often associated with chronic tinnitus)
• Eardrum damage (such as a perforated eardrum)
• Chronic ear infections
• A blockage in the ear or ear canal

So…Will The Buzzing in My Ears Subside?

The bottom line is that in most cases, yes, your tinnitus will recede on its own. But the longer it lingers, the longer you hear reverberations or humming or whatever the sound happens to be, the more likely it becomes that you’re experiencing chronic tinnitus.

You can persuade yourself there’s nothing wrong and hope that the ringing will just stop. But at some point, your tinnitus may become distressing and it might become difficult to concentrate on anything else. And in those instances, you may want a treatment plan more thorough than crossing your fingers.

In most instances, though, in fact, throughout most of your life, your tinnitus will often go away by itself, a typical response to a noisy environment (and your body’s method of telling you to stay away from that situation in the future). Only time will tell if your tinnitus is chronic or acute.