How to Treat Your Tinnitus

Though it’s true that there is currently no scientifically-established method to cure tinnitus, researchers are hard at work to discover one. In the meantime, various tinnitus therapy options are available that can offer considerable relief.

Think about it in this way. When you have a headache, you take Tylenol despite the fact that it doesn’t “cure” your headache. Pain relievers merely make the pain diminish into the background so that it doesn’t impact your day. Likewise, tinnitus therapy can help lessen the degree of symptoms so that your tinnitus has very little affect on your daily routine.

Considering that every person reacts to tinnitus differently, there’s no one-size-fits-all treatment. You’ll need to work with your provider to find the option that works best for you.

Here are some of those options.

Tinnitus Treatment Solutions

If you experience tinnitus, you’ll want to review the following treatment options with your hearing care or healthcare professional.

Treatment of the underlying problem

Although most instances of tinnitus are not curable—and are the result of hearing loss or other non-reversible injury—some cases are the consequence of an underlying physical condition. You’ll want to rule these out before seeking other treatment options.

Potential physical causes of tinnitus include jaw joint issues (temporomandibular joint, or TMJ dysfunction), excessive earwax or other blockages in the ear canal, head and neck injuries, and side effects to some medications.

General Wellness

The severity of tinnitus symptoms can fluctuate depending on overall health. Taking actions to enrich general health is, consequently, something tinnitus sufferers can get started on immediately to ease the level of intensity of symptoms.

Each person is unique, and what gets results for someone else might not be right for you. The purpose is to experiment with a range of activities to find out what is most effective.

Strategies that have shown promise include instituting a healthy diet, achieving lots of physical exercise, meditating, and engaging in activities like cycling, which can conceal the sounds of tinnitus.

Hearing Aids

Tinnitus is commonly connected to hearing loss and hearing damage. In reaction to diminished stimulation from outside sound, the brain undergoes maladaptive changes that bring about the perception of tinnitus.

By boosting the amount of external sound, hearing aids can help mask the tinnitus, making the sounds of tinnitus less conspicuous. Hearing aids also provide elevated sound stimulation to the brain, which is presumed to be neurologically beneficial.

Sound Therapy

Sound therapy is basically the delivery of sound in the form of white noise, pink noise, or nature sounds to decrease the perceived burden or severity of tinnitus.

Sound therapy operates by masking the tinnitus and also by teaching the brain to reclassify the sounds of tinnitus as inconsequential. This double effect can lower the short and long-term severity of tinnitus.

Sound therapy can be delivered through special tabletop gadgets, but also through portable media products and even through hearing aids. Medical-grade sound therapy incorporates tailored sounds that match the pitch of the individual’s tinnitus for the most effective results.

Behavioral Therapies

Bear in mind that tinnitus is the perception of sound in the brain when no outside sound is present. The condition is, for that reason, highly personal, and each person reacts differently.

In fact, whether or not the individual perceives tinnitus as life-altering or as no-big-deal is predominantly due to psychological tendencies and not to the intensity or pitch of the tinnitus. That’s why cognitive/behavioral solutions to tinnitus therapy have been demonstrated to be highly effective.

Several techniques are available, including Mindfulness-Based-Stress-Reduction (MBSR) and Tinnitus-Retraining-Therapy (TRT), which merges cognitive-behavioral-therapy with sound therapy.

Drug Therapies

While there are no current FDA-approved medications for tinnitus, antianxiety and antidepressant prescriptions are frequently utilized to manage the behavioral reactions to tinnitus. These drugs do not appear to influence tinnitus itself, but may supply much-needed relief if thought to be appropriate by your doctor.

Experimental Therapy

The search for a tinnitus cure is on-going. A number of experimental therapies are in development or testing and newer approaches become available each year. If your tinnitus is severe, and you’ve experienced little benefit from existing therapies, you may be a candidate for one of these innovative treatment options.

Check out the Experimental Therapies page at the American Tinnitus Association website for more information.

Obtain Relief For Your Tinnitus

Tinnitus is being aggressively researched, with brand new discoveries and potential treatment methods reported every year. Even today, there are a variety of promising treatments that, while not supplying a cure, can supply significant relief. You owe it to yourself to inquire about these options, stay positive and persistent in your tinnitus care, and work together with your provider to adjust your treatment plan for the greatest results.