Vertigo is the artificial sensation of a person of his surrounding or himself as moving or spinning which can make him loose his balance.  Tinnitus is the perception of ear hums in the form of buzzing, hissing, croaking, ticking, etc. in the absence of an actual external sound. 

Problems involving the inner ear, where the body’s sense of balance is found have been pinpointed as one of the causes of vertigo.  Tinnitus on the other hand commonly arises when a person has hearing problems, either temporary or permanent hearing loss.  This is because when there is hearing loss, the ears fail to send sound signals to the brain so this makes the brain create false sounds which then appears in the forms of ear ringing.

Certain disorders in the acoustic nerve, the nerve connecting the inner ear and the brain or other disorders that is directly involved with your sense of balance are causes of vertigo.  Tinnitus is also common in age-related hearing loss. But we must note that now-a-days younger people are starting to complain of tinnitus.  The population gets younger by the years and we can blame it to the influx of technology.  The young generation has been victims of hearing damage due to over exposure to loud music.  Unknown to most of them, but their favorite hobby of listening to their favorite music from portable MP3/MP4 players using ear bud speakers/ear phones has been doing the damage to their hearing.  Portable MP3/MP4 player users have the tendency to turn their volumes up when listening to music which makes them appreciate more the music they are listening to.  What they do not know is that when they expose their ears to loud music, the hair cells are traumatized by the very loud vibrations and eventually degenerate and lead to irreversible hearing loss.

Other disorders that affect the inner ear and have been identified to cause vertigo are mastoiditis, herpes zoster, and viral labyrinthitis.  Ototoxic drugs are common ground causes of vertigo and tinnitus.  There are about more than 200 drugs that have been identified to be ototoxic so it would be a clever move to consult with a physician when you develop signs of vertigo and tinnitus when undergoing medication for any type of disease.  It must not be a reason however to stop taking in medication without prior notice from your attending physician.

Since vertigo has something to do with problems in the body’s sense of balance in the inner ear examination must be done with the inner ears to detect the exact causes of vertigo.  Tinnitus is also mainly an ear problem so the same thing must be done.