Tinnitus has been present for a long time. But maybe it’s new to you, like a loud used car you can’t return. Usually, though not always, tinnitus presents as an incessant ringing or buzzing in the ears. The sound can be, at times, really loud. Symptoms vary considerably, but this is the point: you are most likely searching for new ways of managing your tinnitus if it’s something that’s troubling you.
In that, you’re in luck because while tinnitus doesn’t yet have an overall cure, there are a few new treatments that can help you manage symptoms. Your tongue is even involved in some of those therapies.
The Newest Way to Manage Tinnitus
Possibly the newest tinnitus therapy to hit our radar appears to offer quite a bit of potential, even if it appears a little odd at first. This device, designed at the Trinity College School of Medicine in Dublin, stimulates both the tongue and ear. The technical term is bi-modal neuromodulation.
According to the first tests of this device, the results were fairly impressive. 12 weeks was about how long most people were treated. Over those 12 months, those same individuals noted a dramatic reduction in tinnitus symptoms. But until the testing phase is complete it won’t be extensively available.
How Can I Find Relief From my Tinnitus Now?
Unfortunately, it will most likely be quite a while before novel therapies such as this are broadly available. So how can you deal with your tinnitus now?
Luckily, there are some newer tinnitus management devices available today. And one of the best new ways to manage tinnitus is something you’ve most likely already heard of: your hearing aid.
Here’s the way it works:
Your hearing aid can give you something else to listen to. One reason why tinnitus is more noticeable as your hearing wanes is that the ringing is the only thing that stays loud while everything else gets quieter. A hearing aid can boost the volume on the rest of the audio spectrum. That doesn’t change the volume of your tinnitus, but it could make the ringing less noticeable.
Your hearing aid can mask the noise. If your hearing loss is fairly minor, then a masking device might be the best way to address your symptoms. A masking device essentially looks like a hearing aid. And masking technology can be integrated into modern hearing aids. This technology can emit sounds designed to mask your tinnitus symptoms. Sometimes this will be a tone, in other situations, it may be some white noise. Whatever is going to best hide the ringing in your ears.
This is, obviously, only the beginning. We can demonstrate devices that work best with tinnitus. Give us a call.