Although it’s true that there is presently no scientifically-verified method to cure tinnitus, researchers are hard at work to identify one. In the meantime, a number of tinnitus therapy options exist that can offer substantial relief.
Think about it this way. If you have a headache, you take Tylenol despite the fact that it doesn’t “cure” your headache. Pain relievers simply make the pain diminish into the background to ensure that it doesn’t affect your day. Likewise, tinnitus therapies can help decrease the degree of symptoms so that your tinnitus has little impact on your daily schedule.
Seeing that everyone reacts to tinnitus differently, there’s no one-size-fits-all treatment. You’ll have to work together with your provider to find the option that is most effective for you.
Here are many of those options.
Tinnitus Treatment Options
If you suffer from tinnitus, you’ll want to examine the following treatment options with your hearing care or healthcare professional.
Treatment of the underlying problem
Whereas the majority of instances of tinnitus are not curable—and are the result of hearing loss or other non-reversible injury—certain cases are caused by an underlying physical condition. You’ll want to rule these out before pursuing other treatment modalities.
Potential physical causes of tinnitus include jaw joint problems (temporomandibular joint, or TMJ dysfunction), excessive earwax or other obstructions in the ear canal, head and neck injuries, and responses to some medications.
General Health And Wellness
The intensity of tinnitus symptoms can vary depending on all-around health. Taking actions to boost general well-being is, therefore, something tinnitus sufferers can get started on immediately to lessen the severity of symptoms.
Every individual is unique, and what works out for someone else may not work for you. The idea is to experiment with a range of activities to find out what works best.
Activities that have shown promise include instituting a healthy diet, getting lots of physical exercise, meditating, and partaking in activities like cycling, which can conceal the sounds of tinnitus.
Hearing Aids
Tinnitus is often connected to hearing loss and hearing injury. In reaction to reduced stimulation from external sound, the brain goes through maladaptive changes that give rise to the perception of tinnitus.
By enhancing the amount of environmental sound, hearing aids can help mask the tinnitus, making the sounds of tinnitus less conspicuous. Hearing aids in addition supply enhanced sound stimulation to the brain, which is thought to be neurologically favorable.
Sound Therapies
Sound therapy is essentially the delivery of sound in the form of white noise, pink noise, or nature sounds to minimize the perceived burden or intensity of tinnitus.
Sound therapy operates by covering up the tinnitus and also by retraining the brain to recategorize the sounds of tinnitus as unimportant. This combined effect can minimize the short and long-term intensity of tinnitus.
Sound therapy can be supplied through special tabletop devices, but also through portable multimedia products and even through hearing aids. Medical-quality sound therapy makes use of tailored sounds that match the pitch of the individual’s tinnitus for the most effective outcomes.
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 subjective, and each person reacts a unique way.
In fact, whether or not the person perceives tinnitus as life-altering or as no-big-deal is largely due to psychological reactions and not to the loudness or pitch of the tinnitus. That’s why cognitive/behavioral solutions to tinnitus therapy have been proven to be highly effective.
Several therapies exist, including Mindfulness-Based-Stress-Reduction (MBSR) and Tinnitus-Retraining-Therapy (TRT), which combines cognitive-behavioral-therapy with sound therapy.
Drug Therapies
While there are no current FDA-approved medications for tinnitus, antianxiety and antidepressant medications are often utilized to treat the behavioral responses to tinnitus. These drugs do not appear to affect tinnitus itself, but may supply much-needed relief if deemed necessary by your doctor.
Experimental Therapy
The search for a tinnitus cure is ongoing. Many experimental therapies are in development or evaluation and new approaches become available every year. If your tinnitus is significant, and you’ve attained very 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 additional details.
Obtain Relief For Your Tinnitus
Tinnitus is being aggressively studied, with new findings and potential treatment methods introduced every year. Even today, there are a variety of promising treatments that, while not providing a cure, can offer appreciable relief. You owe it to yourself to investigate these options, remain positive and persistent in your tinnitus care, and work together with your provider to modify your treatment plan for the greatest results.