Subjective tinnitus requires a detailed assessment of hearing but may occur in the absence of any hearing impairment.
Results from this study are consistent with this the most frequent symptoms suffered being hearing loss, tinnitus and imbalance.
Tinnitus may be matched and masked by standard audiometric techniques20 but this is subjective.
These symptoms include dysarthria, vertigo, tinnitus, ataxia, bilateral paresis or paresthesia.
Abnormalities of acoustically evoked magnetic fields in some patients with tinnitus have recently been demonstrated23 but this is not a universal finding.
The conditions with which tinnitus is associated are legion19 but, in the majority of cases, the pathophysiology remains obscure.
In terms of prosthetic management, for tinnitus associated with hearing loss, the provision of a hearing aid may improve the patient's hearing and lessen the attention directed to tinnitus.
Often patients will complain of earache or tinnitus rather than admit to being deaf in an effort to be referred to the appropriate centre for hearing assessment.
