To provide the best treatment for tinnitus, you need to understand the underlying causes. After visiting an audiologist, you should get a better idea of the root causes and the best treatments for your needs. When it comes to treating tinnitus, there are a wide variety of methods available.
If your tinnitus is the symptom of an underlying condition, it’s important to treat that condition; however, if it results from exposure to loud noise, there are a variety of non-medical options that can reduce or mask the sensation of ringing in the ears, which includes some of the following:
Hearing Aids
Hearing aids are one of the most helpful ways to help you strengthen the sounds around you, which will reduce the volume of tinnitus. Hearing aids can also come with masking devices, which work to mask the ringing or buzzing by playing a sound that is more pleasant than the internal noise.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT)
TRT works to filter out the signal on a subconscious level. People who experience tinnitus can hear the ringing constantly. TRT works to help you stop perceiving that noise as “loud,” which helps you to phase it out. TRT can consist of one-to-one counseling and in-the-ear sound generators that play neutral sounds, which mask the noise over time.
Sound Machines
Sound machines are devices that you can use throughout your daily life. If you notice the symptoms are louder at night when everything else is quiet, you can use sound machines that play serene sounds or white noise that can block out the ringing in your ears. If you experience tinnitus at quieter moments during the day or night, sound machines work very effectively and can be used as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce symptoms of tinnitus.
Earwax Removal
You could be experiencing tinnitus as a result of earwax. This is because an excess buildup of earwax causes the pressure to excite the nerve cells in your middle and inner ear. This means your brain reads the signals as noise, which causes symptoms of tinnitus. If your symptoms of tinnitus are caused by the earwax, removing it should resolve the issue.
Changes to Your Lifestyle
It is also important to remember that tinnitus can arise from lifestyle choices. Many people who experience tinnitus also experience stress, memory problems, anxiety, irritability and fatigue. Therefore, making significant changes to their lifestyle could alleviate the symptoms of tinnitus. It’s also important to note that certain health problems can increase your risk of tinnitus, such as obesity and high blood pressure. Additionally, reducing your exposure to loud noise can reduce symptoms of tinnitus.
Treating tinnitus is a wide playing field, but it’s also about making sure that you are in a preventative frame of mind. Making sure that you minimize your exposure to loud noises, taking care of your cardiovascular health, and making sure that you test your hearing with an audiologist regularly are all simple ways to make sure you keep tinnitus at day.
