Your tinnitus can be treated. And you can live a life with less ringing.
One of the most common questions and complaints I get from patients is: “What can I do about the ringing in my ears?” Perhaps you’re experiencing a sensation of ringing in your ears or head. Maybe you, too, heard that there is no cure and nothing you can do about the ringing.
If you have tinnitus, it is not a normal condition. Tinnitus can increase your risk of cognitive decline. Treatment is easy and effective, and works in 90% of people.
As a doctor of audiology, certified dementia practitioner and patient advocate, I aim to guide you to become one of the 85-90% of patients whom my team and I have successfully helped, often leading to a significant reduction in the ringing sensation. My knowledge of tinnitus, sound sensitivity disorders and their treatment comes from 15 years of extensive study and personal experience.
Tinnitus (pronounced tin-ni-tus or tin-night-us) is not new. In fact, the first mention of humans suffering from tinnitus dates to the Papyrus Ebers, nearly 1500 B.C., when it was referred to as having a “bewitched ear.” Fast forward to today, and almost 70 million people in the United States and almost 1.5 billion worldwide live with tinnitus.
More than 50% of people qualify their tinnitus as “bothersome,” and up to 10% are debilitated by it. Thankfully, even Hollywood has started to acknowledge that tinnitus is a common problem affecting many people worldwide and has featured it prominently in films such as “A Star Is Born” and “Sound of Metal.”
Tinnitus is defined as a phantom perception of sound in your ears and sometimes in your head. Each person with tinnitus has a different sound experience. Most describe it as a “ringing” sound, but many patients also report a “shooshing,” “buzzing” or “whooshing” — like the sounds inside a conch shell. During my 15-plus years of helping patients reduce their tinnitus, I’ve heard nearly every possible adjective a patient can use to describe their condition.
The perception of tinnitus is a sign of a progressive degenerative disorder and an ear that is no longer appropriately stimulating the brain. Therefore, the withering neural connections go haywire and falsely tell the brain that it’s hearing sounds that are not present. This is sometimes labeled as neuropathy.
While there is no magic pill for tinnitus (despite what the internet may claim), very effective treatments, regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, are available to reduce the ringing.
The single most effective treatment option available for those suffering from tinnitus is to preserve the nervous system by restoring sound stimulation to the ears and the brain through prescriptive hearing technology.
Between 2010 and 2020, 34 peer-reviewed scientific studies were published about the effectiveness of treating tinnitus with prescriptive hearing technology. In all 34 studies, subjects reported a significant decrease in their tinnitus experience when stimulating the brain with sound. While the studies examined various post-treatment time intervals, the prevailing wisdom suggests that treatment can last anywhere from days to weeks, or even up to 18 months.
In science and medical research, it’s quite rare to see this much unity around a single treatment outcome. Patients must not ignore these findings from hearing healthcare providers and medical doctors.
In addition, a recent publication by the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) outlined tinnitus guidelines, noting that the level of confidence in the evidence is high for treating tinnitus with prescriptive hearing technology. The official statement from this medical organization to its physician members recommends treatment using prescriptive hearing aid technology. This does not mean traditional hearing aids or over-the-counter devices.
If you or someone you love is suffering from tinnitus, I encourage you to contact our providers at Peninsula Hearing and schedule a comprehensive, six-step evaluation to discover how you can manage your condition and truly enjoy the holidays. Visit peninsulahearing.com to find a clinic near you.
