Tinnitus is the phantom ringing, crickets, or buzzing sound people hear in their ears that is not actually present. Tinnitus is estimated to effect 29% of military veterans. It is the number one disability for military veterans perhaps due the fact that blast injuries accounted for approximately 75 percent of casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan. The military has done what it can to mitigate the issue. The old days of soldiers sticking cigarette butts or cotton balls into their ears are over. Hearing protection is both standard issue and mandatory across the services, ranging from large headphones to noise-canceling combat earplugs that supposedly only block sound at a loud decibel level. In practice, though, the earplugs never work that well.
“For a deployed soldier on patrol, those little bits of rubber start to turn into a real liability. Riding in a gun turret, you cannot hear what the truck commander is saying, and on foot you cannot hear the small sounds that just might make a life-or-death difference”.
The first step in treating tinnitus is to have a hearing test. There are other causes of tinnitus, however, hearing loss is by far the most common. As a fellow sufferer of tinnitus I can assure you there is help for you.
Most patients ask about a “wonder pill” that cures tinnitus. Unfortunately that does not exist. Much like weight loss, there is no easy “fix”. It will certainly take effort on your part, it may even take money, but there are solutions that work. Schedule a consultation and let me demonstrate these treatment solutions and you will believe it with your own ears!
Reference: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/04/12/we-treat-hearing-loss-as-an-inevitable-cost-of-war-it-shouldnt-be/