Treating Tinnitus: Making Ringing in the Ears a Non-Issue
Even among her fellow audiologists at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center’s School of Health Professions (TTUHSC SHP), Dr. Tori Gustafson has a somewhat deeper understanding of tinnitus than most people. After contracting mumps as a three-year-old child, Gustafson lost her hearing on one side and as a result, has lived with tinnitus for most of her life.
Gustafson explains that tinnitus is a much-misunderstood complaint, most commonly
associated with hearing loss but which can also be caused by a metabolic disorder
like high blood pressure or diabetes, or as a side-effect of certain medications.
“Tinnitus is the perception of sound, often ringing in the ears but it could be other
sounds like roaring or buzzing when there isn’t anything making a sound,” says Gustafson.
“The biggest thing for sufferers to remember is that tinnitus is a symptom, not a
disorder or disease itself.”
Diagnosing Tinnitus
The onset of tinnitus can be a frightening experience.
“It usually scares people because they don't know why they're hearing that sound,”
says Gustafson. “The first thing they should do is go to their doctor and have a physical.
They should take in a list of any medications they are taking — both over the counter
and prescription — and ask ‘Is this making my ears ring? Is my blood sugar OK? Is
my blood pressure OK?’”
If a doctor finds a medical reason for the onset of tinnitus, they may be able to
make improvements by treating the root cause. However, if the tinnitus is caused by
hearing problems it cannot be treated. Instead, with the help of an audiologist, they
must learn to live with the condition and make it a “non-issue.”
“One of the first things we do is to explain what tinnitus is,” says Gustafson. “What
has usually happened with a hearing loss is those little sensory cells in the inner
ear have died for whatever reason. Those sensory cells are supposed to send a signal
to the nerve whenever they hear something and that nerve sends that signal on to the
brain. In the same way that someone who has lost a limb might experience phantom pains
from their missing limb, the nerve for hearing thinks it should continue to send signals
to the brain. So it’s there and it doesn’t really go away completely but if you learn
what it is and understand that it’s not as big of an issue as you initially thought,
you can manage it.”
Treating Tinnitus
One of the first strategies Gustafson recommends to tinnitus sufferers is to never
be in complete silence.
“If you have a candle lit in a dark room its light seems very, very bright,” says
Gustafson. “If you have a candle lit in a room that's all lit up, it doesn’t seem
very bright because it’s diffused out. It's the same with the sound of tinnitus, so
don't ever been in complete quiet.”
The next stage of treatment involves direct counseling.
“We talk about what’s causing it and what triggers make it more noticeable,” says
Gustafson. “That way, we can help them learn to ignore it. If we can give them something
else to focus on, they are not going to notice their tinnitus so much. For instance,
you don't hear your refrigerator running anymore because you know it’s there. If you
stop and listen for it you can hear it but otherwise, you don't.”
According to Gustafson, this approach works for about 80% of tinnitus sufferers.
“There are people for whom it is more intense,” says Gustafson. “For those people,
we might look at giving them a constant sound to listen to and that's when we use
a re-training device. It’s something like a hearing aid, or if they have hearing loss
you can add it to their hearing aid and make it another program on the device. It
just makes a very quiet sound that they listen to. So you can either make it loud
enough so that it covers the tinnitus up, or actually have the tinnitus and that new
sound together so you can listen to that and say ‘OK, this is the sound but the tinnitus
is part of it.’”
With enough training, a sufferer can remove the re-training device and call-up that
sound from memory in the event of something like too much caffeine or stress triggering
their tinnitus.
“It’s like being in a happy place in your mind,” says Gustafson. “You call up that
sound and now it’s no longer an issue because you've controlled it. You turned it
up, and you turned it down.”
Where do Audiologists Work With Patients?
Audiologists work with tinnitus sufferers across a range of settings including private
clinics and physicians’ offices. They are also employed by industries where employees
may be exposed to loud noise and in organizations like the U.S. Department for Veteran’s
Affairs (VA).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that the median annual wage for an audiologist is $75,920. Job prospects
are good with a projected 16% job growth by 2028, much faster than for other occupations.
Learn More
To learn more about TTUHSC SHP's Doctor of Audiology program or to speak with a member
of our faculty, please visit the program page on our website.
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