Tinnitus has been present for a long time. But it might be the first time you have had to cope with it. A relentless ringing or buzzing is normally how tinnitus is experienced but not always. The sound can be, at times, very loud. Symptoms fluctuate significantly, but here’s the point: if tinnitus is bothering you, you may be looking for some new ways to manage your symptoms.
The good news is that new therapies and treatment options are being formulated that aren’t cures for tinnitus but can help you manage it. Your tongue is even involved in certain of those therapies.
The Newest Way to Handle Tinnitus
Perhaps the newest tinnitus treatment to hit our radar appears to offer a lot of promise, even if it appears a little strange initially. This device, designed at the Trinity College School of Medicine in Dublin, stimulates both the ear and the tongue. The technical term is bi-modal neuromodulation.
As outlined by the first tests of this device, the results were fairly optimistic. Most people received treatments for twelve weeks or so. Within those 12 months, those same people observed a dramatic reduction in tinnitus symptoms. But this type of therapy is still in the testing phase and not generally available yet.
How Can I Find Tinnitus Relief Now?
Of course, it takes years for technology to go from research and development to patient accessibility. So how can you control your tinnitus now?
Luckily, there are some newer tinnitus management devices on the market today. And one of the best new ways to manage tinnitus is something you’ve probably already heard of: your hearing aid.
It works like this:
Your hearing aid can provide you with something else to listen to. When you start losing your hearing, the sounds of the outside world get quieter and that can make the internal sounds of tinnitus get louder. The volume of the exterior world is boosted by hearing aids. That doesn’t lower the volume of your tinnitus, but it might make the ringing less obvious.
Your hearing aid can mask the sound. If your hearing loss is relatively moderate, then a masking device might be the best way to treat your symptoms. A masking device basically looks like a hearing aid. And most hearing aids can be enhanced with masking technology. This technology will produce sounds designed to mask your tinnitus symptoms. Sometimes this will be a tone, in other cases, it may be some white noise. Whatever will best hide the ringing in your ears.
Of course, this is only a starting point. We can demonstrate devices that work best for tinnitus. Give us a call.
