Otolaryngologist and researcher Lawrence Lustig, MD.“So, I feel that whatever we can do to restore normal hearing function in the future—including potential drugs or gene therapy—is ultimately going to be a solution for tinnitus,” says Dr. Lustig.
No Current Cure, but Many Effective Tinnitus Treatment Solutions
“For someone who is wearing hearing aids and has tinnitus, the most important thing is getting an appropriate fit with a clinician who’s performing the measurements that can verify that you’re fit properly,“ says Dr. Kasper. “Consistent use of hearing aids is critical for a whole variety of reasons, including speech understanding. And also, from a tinnitus perspective, we know that consistency matters. If you have them, use them.”
He emphasizes that hearing aids can be an important component of comprehensive therapies, including CBT, Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) and Progressive Tinnitus Management (PTM). These treatments usually include behavioral counseling to help patients manage stress, depression, and anxiety caused by tinnitus.6-8 There are also self-help and mindfulness-based tinnitus stress reduction treatments available.
While these therapies, along with hearing aids and other sound generators, are effective in managing tinnitus, a cure is out of reach—at least for now.
In the meantime, as most members of HearingTracker’s support group can attest, hearing aids offer some relief for tinnitus sufferers. The best advice is to consult an audiologist or clinician to explore hearing aid options, as well as long-term management and therapeutic solutions.
References
- Tunkel DE, Bauer CA, Sun GH, et al. Clinical Practice Guidelines: Tinnitus. Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surg. 2014.
- Henry JA, Dennis KC, Schechter MA. General Review of Tinnitus: Prevalence, Mechanisms, Effects, and Management [PDF]. J Sp Lang Hear Res. 2005;48:1204-1234.
- Jacquemin L, Gilles A, Shekhawat GS. Hearing more to hear less: a scoping review of hearing aids for tinnitus relief. Int J Audiol. 2021;61(11), 887–895. DOI:10.1080/14992027.2021.2007423
- Kochkin S, Tyler R, Born J. MarkeTrak VIII: The Prevalence of Tinnitus in the United States and the Self-reported Efficacy of Various Treatments. Hearing Review. 2011;18(12):10-27.
- Porika KR, Doraisami B, Ravichandran A. The Efficacy of Digital Hearing Aids in the Management of Tinnitus in Individuals with Sensorineural Hearing Loss [PDF]. Intl Tinnitus Jour. 2021;25(1):100-106.
- Jastreboff PJ. 25 years of tinnitus retraining therapy. HNO. 2015 Apr;63(4):307-11. doi: 10.1007/s00106-014-2979-1.
- Phillips JS, McFerran D. Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) for tinnitus. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2010 Mar 17;2010(3):CD007330.
- Henry JA, Zaugg TL, Myers PJ, Schechter MA. Using Therapeutic Sound With Progressive Audiologic Tinnitus Management. Trends in Amplification. 2008;12(3):188-209. doi:10.1177/1084713808321184
- Simonetti P, Basconcelos LG, Gandara MR, et al. Hearing aid effectiveness on patients with chronic tinnitus and associated hearing loss. Braz J Otorhinolaryngol. 2022;S164-170.
