People who have tinnitus experience an underlying ringing, buzzing or whooshing noise in the absence of any external sounds. This can be caused by several issues related to the hearing system. Little Rock Audiology can help you discover what’s been causing your tinnitus and treat it to ensure you get the best outcome possible.
Keep reading to learn more about how our audiologists help patients with tinnitus.
Treating the Cause
The first step in dealing with tinnitus is understanding what’s causing the issue. Common causes of tinnitus include:
- Hearing loss
- Stress and depression
- Earwax buildup
- Excessive exposure to loud noises
- Meniere’s disease
- Normal aging
- Medication
- Benign tumors
- Head and neck injuries
- Vascular disorders
- Abnormal bone growth in the ear
An audiologist at our office will conduct a complete examination and review your health history to identify what’s causing your tinnitus. Once this step is complete, we can move into the treatment phase.
Understand Your Treatment Options
The specific types of tinnitus treatment that are available for you will vary based on the underlying cause of the condition, its severity, and how the symptoms of tinnitus are impacting your daily life.
Keeping that in mind, here are the three main treatment options that are available to those living with tinnitus.
Sound Therapy
Sound therapy is also sometimes called acoustic therapy. It’s a style of treatment that involves using sounds to train the brain to refocus and heal. The net result is that the emotional impact of your tinnitus is lessened.
This means that patients are often able to live with tinnitus more comfortably than they were before sound therapy treatment began. Eventually, sound therapy can lead to a complete reversal of tinnitus symptoms.
Hearing Aids
Hearing aids are another popular treatment option for tinnitus. They can be prescribed even if you have no accompanying hearing loss with your tinnitus. This is because hearing aids can be equipped to mask the symptoms of tinnitus. Wearing one may block out the tinnitus sounds so you don’t hear them and get some much-needed relief.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT)
TRT is also sometimes called habituation therapy. The goal of this treatment is to train your brain to perceive tinnitus differently. When TRT is successful, it reduces tinnitus symptoms and the emotional stress of living with the condition.
Once you complete your treatment, our audiologists will likely prescribe a maintenance plan to ensure you keep all of the progress that you’ve made.