• What is Tinnitus?


• Causes of Tinnitus


• Treatment for Tinnitus


• Get Relief from Tinnitus


• Hearing Aids and Tinnitus


• Hyperacusis


• Contact Appalachian Audiology

To date, Siemens (Signia) hearing aids offer the best tinnitus treatment program. However, other hearing aid manufacturers access tinnitus treament applications in a comparable manner.

Approaches to relieving tinnitus vary and, at Appalachian Audiology, are highly individualized.

Options for relief vary based on the status of hearing, the presence of hyperacusis or mysophonia, phonophobia or recruitment, evidence of Meniere's Disease, suggestion of chronic Eustachian tube dysfunction, TMJ problems, history of vascular disease, deficiency in B-12, zinc, and/or magnesium. Additionally, vertigo or dizziness may shape how we manage tinnitus.

These services result in a success rate of 85-90%:

1. Information and counseling. Often, learning that tinnitus is a symptom and not a disease, what makes it so bothersome, and how you can get relief is enough. But not for all.
2. Current approaches to relieving tinnitus focus on sound sensitization and efforts to shape the brain sound generator.
3. One theory advances a masking strategy. For some, the sound should be steady and very soft, for others, the amplitude should vary. Different devices/signal generators are demonstrated. The idea is that sounds wired together fire together, and certain sounds will break the unity, create "chaos" in the site and cause the tinnitus to subside.
4. Those who have experienced chronic disease, pain or illness will recognize the potential value in Mindful Meditation. This is the treatment primarily recommended by Harvard Medical School and implemented at the Tinnitus Clinic at Mass General Hospital. Some will choose to learn this centuries old method of dealing with a variety of intrusions to the body as an additional asset in reducing tinnitus.
   

Management approaches to tinnitus focus on the sounds, and/or the effects of the sounds, such as interrupted or poor sleep, concentration difficulties, depression and anxiety, and stress.

Click here for hearing aids that can be used to manage and reduce the annoyance of tinnitus when hearing loss is also present.

What if all sounds seem too loud? What is hyperacusis?

Image provided courtesy of Free Digital Photos.