My Ears are ringing! What is it? Can you make it go away?
Tinnitus, often described as a ringing or buzzing sound in the ear, is a symptom
that can be related to almost every known hearing problem. Tinnitus is not a
disease, but it can be caused by exposure to loud sounds, middle or inner ear
infections, tumors on the hearing nerve, and even wax on the eardrum.
Sometimes tinnitus can be medically or surgically treated. Your appointment
with a physician at CEI is your opportunity to find out about treatment options
for you. It is not always possible for your physician to determine the cause
of your tinnitus; each case is different. The same cause will not necessarily
produce the same set of symptoms in each patient.
Tinnitus is a common problem, affecting about 17% of the general population
and causing significant suffering in many cases. Many patients have learned
to live with this problem but for some, living with it is very problematic.
For those patients CEI Hearing Device Center offers some help.
With Hearing Devices…
We know that if a person has tinnitus and also has a hearing loss, they may
derive considerable relief from the tinnitus when they are using their hearing
device. In many cases the relief is dramatic and complete. For some the relief
may be a reduced perception of the ringing.
Tinnitus Maskers
Masking devices resemble hearing devices and are designed to produce low-level
sound that can reduce and in some cases eliminate the perception of tinnitus.
Masking can also produce the phenomenon of residual inhibition, where the reduction
or elimination of tinnitus perception continues for a short time after the masker
is removed.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy
Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) combines low-level steady background sounds
with one-on-one patient/clinician directive counseling. The patient enriches
his or her background sound environment for a minimum of eight hours a day usually
with in the ear sound generators. This combination of therapies helps people
habituate (essentially grow unaware of) the sound of their tinnitus. Tinnitus
Retraining Therapy can take 12-24 months before a patient no longer needs the
in the ear sound generators. The goal of TRT is to have the patient no longer
aware of their tinnitus (habituation) except when they focus their attention
on it, and even then the tinnitus is not annoying or bothersome.
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Page Last Modified: June 24, 2005 1:51:35 PM HST
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