Tinnitus has been present for a long time. But it may be the first time you have had to cope with it. Normally, though not always, tinnitus reveals itself as an incessant ringing or buzzing in the ears. Often, the sound is really intense. Regardless of how tinnitus manifests for you, this point is probably true: if tinnitus is troubling you, you may be looking for some new ways to control your symptoms.
Fortunately, new therapies and treatments are being formulated that aren’t cures for tinnitus but can help you manage it. Certain of those therapies even involve your tongue.
Most Recent Approaches to Tinnitus
Arguably the most novel tinnitus therapy that we’ve seen does indeed offer a lot of potential, even if it sounds a little odd at first. Both the ear and the tongue are stimulated with this device developed at the Trinity School of Medicine in Dublin. Bi-modal neurostimulation is the technical term for this technique.
As outlined by the first tests of this device, the results were fairly striking. 12 weeks was about how long most people were treated. Those same people noticed a substantial decrease in their tinnitus symptoms, and the results continued for up to twelve months. But until the testing phase is complete it won’t be generally available.
How Can I Get Relief From my Tinnitus Now?
Naturally, it takes years for devices to work their way from research and development to patient availability. So how can you deal with your tinnitus now?
Fortunately, there are some newer tinnitus therapy devices available today. And the most prevalent way to deal with your tinnitus is a modern hearing aid.
It works like this:
External sounds are boosted by hearing aids. When you start to lose your hearing, external diminish and that can make the internal sounds of tinnitus get louder. A hearing aid can boost the volume on the rest of the audio spectrum. That doesn’t lower the volume of your tinnitus, but it might make the ringing less obvious.
There is a sound masking device comparable to a modern hearing aid. A masking device might be the way to go if your hearing loss is mild. A masking device basically looks like a hearing aid. And some hearing aids can be augmented with masking technology. Your tinnitus symptoms can be obscured by sounds emitted by this kind of technology. In some cases this will be a tone, in other situations, it may be some white noise. Whatever will best hide the ringing in your ears.
This is, of course, just the beginning. We can show you devices that work best with tinnitus. Give us a call.