Tinnitus is nothing new. But maybe it’s new to you, like a noisy used car you can’t return. A constant buzzing or ringing is normally how tinnitus manifests but not always. Sometimes, the sound is quite intense. Symptoms differ significantly, but here’s the point: you are probably looking for new ways of dealing with your tinnitus if it’s something that’s bothering you.
In that, you’re lucky because while tinnitus does not yet have a universal cure, there are a few novel treatments that can help you manage symptoms. Your tongue is even involved in certain of those therapies.
Newest Approaches to Tinnitus
One of the most recent therapies for tinnitus sounds a little odd at first but does seem to show some promise. This device, developed at the Trinity College School of Medicine in Dublin, stimulates both the ear and the tongue. Bi-modal neurostimulation is the technical term for this method.
According to the first tests of this device, the results were rather optimistic. 12 weeks was about how long most people were treated. Within those 12 months, those same individuals noticed a dramatic reduction in tinnitus symptoms. But until the testing phase is finished it won’t be publicly available.
How Can I Get Tinnitus Relief Now?
Unfortunately, it will probably be quite a while before novel treatments like this are broadly available. So perhaps you’re wondering what you can do now to help control your tinnitus.
Luckily, there are some newer tinnitus management devices on the market today. And the most prevalent way to manage your tinnitus is a modern hearing aid.
It works like this:
Your hearing aid can give you something else to listen to. When you start to lose your hearing, the sounds of the outside world 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 could make the ringing less noticeable.
There is a noise masking device similar to a modern hearing aid. A masking device may be the way to go if your hearing loss is minor. A hearing aid has a similar appearance to a masking device. And some hearing aids can be enhanced with masking technology. Your tinnitus symptoms can be masked by sounds emitted by this kind of technology. Whatever sound will best mask the ringing in your ears will be used, it may be a specific tone or even white noise.
Needless to say, this is only a starting point. We can demonstrate devices that work best for tinnitus. Contact us.
