What Are The Latest Tinnitus Treatments?

So you hear the constant ear noises of tinnitus.  Let’s say you’ve tried all the home remedies.  You’ve changed your diet, stopped smoking, and started exercising.  You’ve gone a step further and tried all kinds of herbs and homeopathic tinnitus remedies.  Maybe you are ready to try one of the latest tinnitus treatments.

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) is fairly new if not the latest tinnitus treatment.  It involves using a sound generator along with a specific course of counseling to retrain the brain and ear of the patient.  This has been used with fairly good results.  Another method that involves counseling is the advent of internet based counseling for tinnitus.  This method has shown some promise. 

Two of the latest tinnitus treatments depend on electricity.  One is electrical nerve stimulation.  This involves sending a very small charge of electricity to the auditory nerve.  It is used mostly for those with severe, treatment resistant tinnitus.  Perhaps in the future, the latest treatment for tinnitus will involve surgically implanted electrical nerve stimulation devices for the same purpose. 

The other of these latest tinnitus treatments is called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.  In this treatment, a coil of copper is used to induce a current in the brain.  The wire is housed in plastic.  It is held over the patient’s head and the current is applied.  This stimulation is repeated several times a second.  It can cause a clicking noise for the patient and some discomfort because of scalp muscles tightening up.  This treatment is considered experimental, but some good results have been seen.

Another of the latest tinnitus treatments is transmeatal irradiation.  This is the use of a low power laser beam to treat the affected nerves.  It has not been proven to work.  In fact, some subjects have even suffered severe hearing loss.

One of the latest tinnitus treatments is both old and new.  Hyperbolic oxygen therapy began its development in the fifth century B.C.  At first, the emphasis was on increasing atmosphere pressure.  Then, the use of oxygen in its purest available form was added.  The patient is placed in a chamber with the oxygen and with more than one atmosphere of pressure.  This is thought to increase oxygen to the ear and brain.  Since oxygen deprivation may be one cause of tinnitus, this is thought to be a good tinnitus treatment among the latest ones.  However, it is still considered experimental. 

The latest tinnitus treatments are mostly experimental.  There is little evidence to back some of the up.  However, they represent possibilities for the future of tinnitus treatment.   Only time will tell.