Tinnitus is a prevalent ear disorder in the world. Not many people realise there is a solution instead of accepting the annoying noise in the ear as normal and continue living that way. The purpose of the post is to spread a word about tinnitus treatment and putting hope in the ear, that tinnitus need not be your way of life!
Tinnitus is a ringing sound in the ear. It can also be a whistling, buzzing, hissing or clicking sound. The sound, however, is not always heard continuously. Some also hear it intermittently. For the majority of the tinnitus sufferers, the ringing in the ear is persistent.
Read the reasons why one develops tinnitus here.
Evaluation of Tinnitus
There are 2 types of tinnitus. One is Subjective; where the person alone can hear the sound in his ear. The other is Objective; where the examiner too can hear the ringing sound in the person’s ear.
An audiologist examines the ears to evaluate the sound frequency you hear in your ears along with some thorough hearing ability check-ups and understanding how your daily life is affected by this.
The Audiologist plays sounds with different volume, frequency and pitches, and you have to identify the exact or similar pitch, frequency or volume of sounds you hear in your ears. Once the audiologist assesses the severity of the tinnitus, the appropriate treatment follows.
Since tinnitus is also a secondary symptom of inner ear disorder, get a proper neuro-otological test done by a neurotologist.
Accordingly, the doctors can recommend the treatment for inner ear dysfunction.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy
Tinnitus retraining therapy is a comprehensive treatment including psychological therapy and sound therapy with the use of white-noise generating devices. It is a habituation treatment to retrain the brain at conscious and subconscious levels to learn to cope with the distracting noise in the ear.
The therapy starts with the trained therapist taking extensive details of the patient related to his medical history, daily activities, and the degree of discomfort caused due to tinnitus.
Sound emitting devices are one of the most effective elements of therapy. The device helps to distract from the persistent sound from the ear and enables the person to focus on the work at hand or sleep peacefully at night.
These devices produce white noise at a lower volume to cover the disrupting sound from the ear.
Psychological assistance helps the tinnitus patients to deal with the ear disturbance as peacefully as possible. There are some proven techniques that therapists use to reduce the anxiety levels in the patient.
· Relaxation techniques
· Meditation
· Stress management
· Deep breathing exercises
TRT requires 12-24 months to show full blown results. However, patients start feeling at ease after a month or two. The results of retraining also depend on the therapist’s expertise, patient’s severity of tinnitus and mental health. Not many continue with the treatment given the time it takes to provide long-lasting relief. However, it is worth the time and effort to undergo TRT.
The result of tinnitus retraining therapy is that the person knows he has tinnitus but is not bothered by it since he has learned to ignore the sound like any other ( such as the sound of traffic, birds chirping, rain, wind etc.)
As a closing note, most of the times, the occurrence of tinnitus indicates an underlying medical condition. Sometimes, it is temporary, inflicted due to exposure to loud noise, heavily blowing wind, medication etc. A thorough neuro-otological assessment help rule-out the possible medical conditions.
The tinnitus retraining therapy does not cure tinnitus of its cause. The treatment intends to help the patients with severe tinnitus to cope with the psychological issues such as depression, irritability, anxiety, and fear combining it with modern sound emitting devices, that are easy to use in the workplace and during daily activities.
Neuro Equilibrium ( https://www.neuroequilibrium.