Tinnitus isn’t new. But maybe it’s new to you, like a noisy used car you can’t return. A relentless buzzing or ringing is usually how tinnitus is experienced but not always. At times, the sound is really intense. Symptoms vary considerably, but this is the point: if tinnitus is bothering you, you might be searching for some new ways to control your symptoms.
In that, you’re lucky because while tinnitus doesn’t yet have a universal cure, there are a few novel treatments that can help you deal with symptoms. Your tongue is even involved in some of those treatments.
Most Recent Approaches to Tinnitus
Arguably the newest tinnitus therapy to hit our radar does indeed offer quite a bit of promise, even if it appears a little unusual initially. Both the tongue and the ear are stimulated with this device designed at the Trinity School of Medicine in Dublin. The technical term is bi-modal neuromodulation.
As outlined by the first tests of this device, the results were rather optimistic. Most people underwent treatments for twelve weeks or so. Those same people detected a substantial decrease in their tinnitus symptoms, and the results lasted up to twelve months. But until the testing phase is finished it won’t be extensively available.
How Can I Get Tinnitus Relief Now?
Naturally, it takes a while for devices to work their way from research and development to patient availability. So how can you manage your tinnitus now?
There are, luckily, some tinnitus therapy devices that has recently been released. And one of the best new methods of managing tinnitus is something you’ve likely already heard of: your hearing aid.
Here’s how it works:
Your hearing aid can give you something else to listen to. One reason why tinnitus is more apparent as you lose your hearing 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. By raising the volume of external sounds, your tinnitus sounds will often fade into the background.
Your hearing aid can mask the noise. A masking device might be the way to go if your hearing loss is minor. A masking device essentially looks like a hearing aid. And most hearing aids can be augmented with masking technology. This technology will produce sounds designed to mask your tinnitus symptoms. In some cases this will be a tone, in other cases, it might be some white noise. Whatever is going to best hide the humming in your ears.
This is, obviously, just the beginning. We can show you devices that work best for tinnitus. Contact us.