Tinnitus is a sound you hear in your ear(s) and/or your head that did not start in the environment. We call it a phantom stimulus as it is a real thing but exists inside your nervous system only, so we cannot put a microphone in your ear and record what you hear as tinnitus. It is nearly always the result of some damage to your inner ears. Even temporary damage can produce persistent tinnitus that may require assistance.
Tinnitus is noticed by about 15% of the general population but about 30% of those over 65 years of age. However, only about 4% actually suffer from it in terms of annoyance and interference with their daily lives. About a quarter of these sufferers find it debilitating.
Tinnitus starts in your ear but is taken up by your brain in much the same way as simple pain. If your brain notices the tinnitus it may:
- ignore it, which it usually does; or
- hold it in case it needs to tell you about it later; or
- pass it to your nervous system for monitoring
Once your brain engages in monitoring the tinnitus, the effect is to annoy you in order to get you to do something about it. Just as it does with a pain, if you act in a way that shows your brain that you are controlling the issue, the tinnitus (like the pain) will drop away.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) is the technique developed by Pavel and Margaret Jastreboff, which we use to show your brain that the tinnitus is not as important as it thinks it is. We know that 3 elements are helpful in this management approach:
- counselling — learning more about what it is and what it is not and what can be done to help;
- treatment with sound using some rules for the way the sound is applied; and
- addressing stress
The bedside sound generator
During your sessions(s) with us you will learn how to use a bedside sound machine to provide therapy while you sleep. The Jastreboffs, pioneers in tinnitus research and developers of TRT, give major emphasis to the use of such a device. There are different options we recommend depending on your situation:
- A Bedside sound machine. The model we currently use comes with 24 sounds inbuilt and there are more downloadable from the developers’ website; we will recommend the most suitable sounds for your tinnitus;
- We will advise you of appropriate sound Apps to download to your Smartphone, tablet or computer. As sound quality is important to the outcome of the therapy, we recommend that you attach a speaker to your device to bring the sound out cleanly into your room.
Your tinnitus appointment
During your 90 min session, we will take a full history and administer a number of tests related to hearing and tinnitus. The results will be discussed and a plan for treatment made. We can teach you the principles of TRT and discuss hearing aids and/or other appropriate devices with no obligation to proceed. Indeed, the majority of our patients need only the one session to address their tinnitus concerns.