Question
In fitting a combination hearing instrument/tinnitus sound generator such as ReSound Live™TS for a patient who requires tinnitus management as well as amplification for hearing loss, is the goal to eventually discontinue use of the sound generator?
Answer
ANSWER: Yes, with sound therapy approach to tinnitus management, the goal is to wean the patient off of the sound generator over time. At the end of the day, sound therapy in its simplest form is really just effective use of sound. The sound enrichment an individual uses can be as simple as turning on the radio, the TV, or a tabletop sound generator that is used at night. It could even be turning on a fan or opening up a window. Over time, you want the person to understand how to use sound to help decrease that contrast of the tinnitus. Ideally, we want them to gain control of how they react to their tinnitus, because how they react to their tinnitus will determine how much their tinnitus affects them.
It's very similar to pain. Two people can feel the exact same pain, but one person might say, "Okay, I've learned to live with it. It's there." The other person might think about it all the time, and to them, the pain is exacerbated and worsened, as compared to the first person.
With tinnitus, we may see two people who have tinnitus of the same pitch and loudness, but it's the perception of that tinnitus that determines whether it's a problem or not. With tinnitus management, we want to change the perception from tinnitus as a negative stimulus to a more neutral stimulus;therefore, the person doesn't react as negatively to it when they hear it.
Tinnitus is a sound that someone can hear. If they listen to it and focus on it over and over and over again, there are neural pathways that start to identify that tinnitus. Just like if we hear an ambulance, there's a neural pathway or identity that tells our brain, "Wait a second. This is an ambulance, this is important. I have to pay attention to it."
Tinnitus is the same thing. The more people focus and listen to it, the more those neural networks or those neural pathways strengthen. As this happens, people may start to recognize and identify their tinnitus even in background noise. We want to weaken or shift those neural networks away from the tinnitus and provide other stimuli that can sort of come in and take the place of it.
ReSound Live™TS offers premium digital hearing instrument technology along with the most flexible tinnitus solution package available. That flexibility is important for people who either just have tinnitus or just have hearing loss, and for people who come in and have both hearing loss and tinnitus as their main concerns. Use of the sound generator can be discontinued over time.
For more information about ReSound, visit www.gnresound.com/ or the ReSound web channel on AudiologyOnline.
Michael Piskosz, M.S., CCC-A is an Audiologist at GN Resound, where he is responsible for the development of training and marketing materials based on research and development activities. He has also developed a focus on tinnitus. He earned his M.S. from Syracuse University and is board certified in Audiology.
