First, you hear sounds that are at a comfortable low-intensity level. Patients should ask their hearing care professionals about this before undertaking any form of sound therapy and to stop if they experience pain.Īccording to the Cleveland Clinic, “The goal is to gradually (and safely) expose you to progressively louder sounds until the sound experience becomes more manageable. Sound therapy is used to retrain the brain to accept everyday sounds. Please note that while some people report improvement with sound therapy, some report that noise exposure from the sound therapy made their symptoms worse. Many methods mirror the treatments used for tinnitus. “Instead, treatments usually involve reducing physical symptoms and teaching coping strategies to handle the mental stress of hyperacusis,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. Presently, there are no specific surgical or medical treatments for hyperacusis. HHF does not offer medical advice. Please consult your hearing care provider or medical doctor with any specific questions about your auditory health and healthcare.
The following is general information only. “Pain is a little more complicated because it consists of both a fundamental attribute and an emotional consequence.” “If you experience loudness hyperacusis, emotional consequences may follow, leading to stress and annoyance, which eventually lead to fear of going to events and socializing,” he says. Tyler, Ph.D., a professor of communication sciences and disorders and of otolaryngology at the University of Iowa. Having one type of hyperacusis may lead to another, explains Richard S. Pain hyperacusis: a stabbing sensation at much lower sound levels than would typically prompt pain. This is sometimes described as a sharp or dull pain in the ear, jaw, or neck, feeling of fullness in the ear, or a tingling in the ear according to Lindsey Banks, Au.D.įear hyperacusis: a negative response to sounds that may cause patients to avoid social situations or feel anxiety in anticipation of hearing these sounds Loudness hyperacusis: moderately intense sounds are perceived as too loudĪnnoyance hyperacusis: a negative emotional reaction to sounds It has been speculated that tinnitus and hyperacusis have a shared etiology or might exist due to the same pathological mechanism. Hyperacusis is distinct from tinnitus (ringing in the ears), but there is a high degree of comorbidity between them. According to a 2015 Frontiers in Neurology paper, an estimated 86 percent of hyperacusis patients also have tinnitus and 30 to 40 percent of tinnitus patients also show symptoms of hyperacusis. Consequences can include social isolation, anxiety, depression, lack of concentration, and insomnia. They experience great difficulty moving about, traveling, and communicating with others. Those who live with hyperacusis face aversion to everyday sounds at decibel levels that do not bother others, such as: running water, car engines, conversations, kitchen appliances, voices speaking on the telephone, bicycle pedals, crunching leaves, or vacuum cleaners.īecause individuals with hyperacusis are not able to tolerate noises like those listed above, their quality of life is compromised.
In addition, AAO-HNS cites these neurologic conditions that can be associated with hyperacusis:Īnxiety, mood swings, with increased heart rate, sweating Viral infections involving the inner ear or facial nerve ( Bell’s palsy)
It’s typically a condition that someone is not born with but develops, either gradually or suddenly, as a result of the following causes, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS): Hyperacusis is not simply a hearing disorder but one that is associated with diverse neurological and genetic conditions such as autism, Williams syndrome, fibromyalgia, migraine, lupus, tinnitus, and head trauma, as well as being linked causally to stress and noise. Our partner Hyperacusis Research coined the term “noise-induced pain” to describe the condition. Everyday sounds and sound levels are perceived as extremely loud, annoying, frightening, and in some cases painful. Hyperacusis affects an estimated one in 50,000 people and can occur either unilaterally (in one ear) or bilaterally (in both ears). What Is Hyperacusis? Hyperacusis is a troublesome and potentially debilitating loudness intolerance disorder.
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