Tinnitus can be defined as the perception of sound without an external stimulus. It is not a disease, but a symptom of an underlying disease. Tinnitus is one of the most frequent otological problems, and it can have a negative impact on a person's quality of life by creating a variety of biological and psychological symptoms.
What should the therapy strategy be for tinnitus patients? What are the most recent therapy options?
There are various therapies and treatment approaches available to persons suffering with tinnitus. Tinnitus is mainly treated symptomatically because the etiology cannot be diagnosed in the majority of patients. The goal of the treatment is to eliminate tinnitus or to cause the individual with tinnitus as little discomfort as possible.
Tinnitus may be caused by many local or systemic problems, and no underlying cause may be found. If an underlying organic disease is detected (such as acoustic tumor, glomus tumor, systemic, metabolic and endocrine disease), treatment should primarily be directed at eliminating this disease. If the patient has hearing loss accompanying tinnitus, elimination of this loss is one of the most important parts of the treatment.
Tinnitus treatment methods include medical therapy, masking therapy, hearing aid application, cochlear implantation, electrotherapy, Tinnitus Re-education Therapy, surgical therapy, relaxation methods, massage and stretching methods, cognitive behavioral therapy, bibliotherapy, mindfulness, music therapy, Transcranial Direct Current Therapy (tDCS), Repetative Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), Neuromonics tinnitus treatment, hypnosis, and alternative methods.
Treatments to Eliminate Tinnitus Signal
- Pharmacological treatments
- Electrical therapy
- Acoustic treatment
- Surgical treatments
Treatments to Eliminate Reactions of Tinnitus
- Psychological treatments
Treatments Based on the Neurophysiological Model of Tinnitus
- Habituation (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) and Music therapy)
- Conditioned reflex mechanism
Is a hearing aid useful in the treatment of tinnitus? Is the hearing aid effective in reducing tinnitus?
Methods for improving the quality of life of people suffering from tinnitus have been developed. Acoustic therapy is one of the most commonly used treatment methods. Acoustic treatment involves the use of hearing aids and tinnitus maskers (tinnitus maskers).
Hearing aid: For many years, listening to background noise has been recommended as a treatment for tinnitus. Despite the fact that the majority of tinnitus patients have considerable hearing loss, the concept of using hearing aids has emerged with the generation of background noise. The hearing aid enhances background noises and allows speech to be heard. Tinnitus is suppressed in this way, albeit only partially.
Masking therapy (Tinnitus Masker): The goal of this therapy is to produce an external sound that replaces tinnitus. It has been reported that masking can be effective in both the tinnitus ear and the contralateral ear.
This type of therapy is divided into two subgroups, techniques based on Zen music and techniques based on colored noise. Techniques based on Zen music consist of natural sounds such as rain sound, waterfall sound. In color noise-based therapy, resonance is partially or completely masked by using synthesized noise with advanced technological assistive listening devices.
Tinnitus maskers can be utilized in individuals who have normal hearing or who continue to have tinnitus stress despite wearing a hearing aid. Tinnitus is prevented from being heard during use by masking sound. Focusing on the masking sound instead of the tinnitus sound provides alleviation for the patient. However, this procedure is only utilized when absolutely essential.
To summarize, tinnitus is a symptom, not an illness, that impacts one's quality of life. Clinical studies to identify effective therapy/treatment for tinnitus have been undertaken in the past and are currently ongoing now. The primary goal of current therapies for the treatment of tinnitus, a common health concern that impacts quality of life, is to manage symptoms through tinnitus adaptation. It is expected that research on this topic will expand in the future, and that new approaches will develop.
