Desensitization And Two Tinnitus Therapy Techniques

Getting used to the whistling hissing and ear ringing of tinnitus is nearly impossible for most people.  There may come a time when they notice it less if it is not debilitating in the first place, but for others, there seems no hope.  For these people, tinnitus therapy may be a way to find some relief.

Probably the most significant of the tinnitus therapy techniques is found in Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT).  This method was started in the 1980’s, when a doctor Jastrebroff began using it.  It relies on the theory that sound that falls on the ear is classified by the receiving nervous system as to whether represents a danger or not.  If this system goes wrong, inner noises can be experiences as dangerous.  For this reason, they are amplified.

The tinnitus therapy in this case is first to desensitize the person to his or her tinnitus.  The person gradually gets used to it by being exposed to a sound generator at decreasing levels for a period of a few months.  This sound level is low.  Each octave is reduced by six decibels.  This starts at the highest level the person can stand.   It is a broad band signal.  It is very much like the sound in the everyday world.  When a person gets used to this level of sound, the level is changed until the person is habituated to his or her tinnitus.

Other Tinnitus Treatments

Another aspect of TRT is that this tinnitus therapy also employs the use of specially trained counselors.  These counselors do a lot of work to teach the patient all about tinnitus and its origins in physiology.  They then attempt to retrain the person’s brain to accept ear noises as irrelevant and not as a danger.  This, with time, reduces the amplification.

A similar form of tinnitus therapy treatment is called Neuromonics Tinnitus Treatment. After treatment is determined to be right for the patient, a neuromonics device is made especially for that patient.  It is a small device with headphones.  The sound it emits contains pleasant music.  It is meant to stimulate areas of the nervous and auditory systems.  At first it is just used to provide relief during normal activities.  Then the tinnitus therapy begins in earnest.  The sound level begins to be adjusted.  Again, this method is used to allow for desensitization. 

If desensitization is the process of becoming conditioned until an occurrence seems ordinary and thus irrelevant, then maybe the methods which use it for tinnitus therapy will work.  They do, in fact, seem to work for some.  For others, the answer to tinnitus therapy is out there somewhere else.