Tinnitus isn’t the same for everyone. You might notice it only in quiet moments, or it may be present throughout much of the day.
Cove Audiology takes the time to understand how the sound affects you and look for factors that may be contributing to it. From there, our audiologists recommend management options that fit your hearing, your lifestyle and your experience with tinnitus.
Where Tinnitus Comes From
Tinnitus is the perception of sound that doesn’t come from anything around you. You describe it in different ways, including ringing or whistling. The sound may be intermittent.
Rather than being a condition itself, tinnitus is a symptom and it doesn’t always have a single cause. It may be associated with hearing loss, repeated exposure to loud sound, earwax buildup or certain medications.
What Are the Signs of Tinnitus
You may notice tinnitus in different ways, depending on how it presents and when you hear it.
Common experiences include:
- Ringing, buzzing, hissing, clicking or whistling that isn’t coming from anything around you.
- Tinnitus that stands out more in a quiet room than in a busy one.
- Volume or pitch that changes instead of staying the same.
- Hearing it in one ear or both ears.
- Moments when tinnitus is easier to ignore followed by times when it becomes obvious.
Sound Therapy
Sound therapy adds a soft sound while you’re wearing a hearing device or using a sound generator. That sound might be white noise, rainfall, ocean waves or another option you find comfortable.
Our team can adjust the pitch and volume to match your hearing and the type of tinnitus you experience. The added sound gives your ears something else to listen to, so tinnitus doesn’t stand out as much in quiet settings.
Hearing Aids with Masking Features
Some hearing aids include built-in tinnitus masking features in addition to hearing amplification. These features play a sound through your hearing aids while you wear them, alongside speech and other sounds around you.
Different hearing aid manufacturers offer a variety of options, like white noise. If you have both hearing loss and tinnitus, the masking feature becomes part of the same hearing aid you already wear instead of requiring a separate device.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy
Tinnitus retraining therapy combines sound therapy with structured counseling. The counseling sessions help you better understand your tinnitus and how your brain responds to it, while sound therapy becomes part of the process.
As treatment continues, you may find that tinnitus demands less of your attention. This approach usually takes several months and relies on regular participation rather than quick changes.
Addressing the Cause Directly
Not every case of tinnitus requires the same approach. Earwax removal may resolve tinnitus when a blockage is the cause, and medication-related tinnitus may improve if your prescribing doctor recommends a different option. That’s why we look for treatable causes before discussing other ways to manage tinnitus.