What Is Tinnitus and How to Manage It

Tinnitus is the umbrella term for any sounds that you hear in your ears or your head. One out of every three people suffer from tinnitus. It is a sound that only you hear. It might be cicadas, crickets, ringing, buzzing, hissing, whooshing. All of those are different forms of tinnitus. 

It's important to recognize that the sound itself isn't important. We can provide help for anybody, regardless of the sound they hear, how long it's been there or the cause of it. 

Even though we know that there is not a universal cure for tinnitus, there's a difference between no cure and no help. And we definitely can meet our patients where they are and help to manage these symptoms to help you get control and relief and get your life back. 

How the Tinnitus Program Helps

Because tinnitus and hyperacusis are unique to everyone, we really tailor each appointment to our patients' needs. In the beginning, you will fill out tinnitus questionnaires and hyperacusis questionnaires if needed. Once patients come into the clinic for an appointment, we review your questionnaires in detail and get a case history. 

The most common reason for tinnitus is hearing loss, so one of the first things that we're going to recommend is we do a comprehensive hearing evaluation to determine if there's anything going on with your ears that needs to be addressed medically. 

Based on the patient's results, we work to try to find the most likely cause of their tinnitus. If there's something medical that needs to be evaluated, we then can refer them on to one of our ear, nose and throat physicians or other professionals or physicians. 

Our goal is for you to be able to walk away from your appointment with tools in hand that you can start implementing the same day to help you get peace and control over your tinnitus and sound sensitivity. In some cases, we recommend follow-up appointments that can be done in person or virtually so that we can help you manage your goals and keep you on track. 

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy

Sound therapy is the number one tool that we have to help address the distress of tinnitus. Short-term, it's providing some contrast, something else for the brain to focus on. Long-term, there is actually some neurological change that's happening where the brain is no longer viewing the tinnitus as a threat or a negative thing. 

We encourage people to find sound apps on their phone that are free and to begin to listen to different sounds. Again, the idea is not that you are trying to completely mask or cover up the tinnitus. You're trying to compete with the tinnitus. As you listen to these sounds, over time, you can find that you are gaining more relief from your tinnitus and able to to go about your normal daily activities. 

Since we find the biggest correlation with bothersome tinnitus is stress, we also focus on teaching you relaxation tools to help you manage stress in your life. 

I think most patients come to us, and they've tried everything. They've done every sort of supplement. They've seen every sort of doctor, and they've tried anything. Just give it a shot. I think if you put in a little bit of work, it's not hard to do. 

We see patients every week that give us hugs, tell us that we've changed their lives. 

It feels amazing when patients come back, and you can just see that they are so much lighter and so much happier. They're able to focus at work again. They're able to enjoy being with their families again. It makes it feel like you've completely changed their life. 

If this resonates with you, and you would like to schedule an appointment with one of our tinnitus specialists, please contact us.