Q.Good morning: I'm a 58 year old woman who has had problems with my hearing since I was a child.
I've been totally deaf for three years. But, I have always had tinnitus. I've had multiple MRIs to make sure I do not have a tumor, and multiple surgeries to close the hole in my right ear.
Finally, success with closing the hole in the right ear, but it has left me with additional and unbearable tinnitus (especially at night). Also, I'm having difficulty with headaches when the ambient noise is loud. I don't hear the noise in the environment, but for some reason it bothers me. I've seen ten different specialist and the best they can offer is tinnitus retraining with coping skills (not interested).
I was wondering if your product could help mask all the above. I also inherited a new noise after my last surgery of a waterfall and a noise I can only explain as an airplane engine/flying.
I'm desperate for something because it makes concentrating and sleep difficult. I'm not interested in ENT because they only want to discuss a cochlear (I had one implanted in my left and it failed so I had it explanted the next year after begging the ENT to take it out).
I would be grateful if this product worked.
Kind regards.
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A. Thank you for reaching out to us. Your condition seems quite unfair from a karmic perspective; having lost your hearing, it would seem you should at least have been left with peace and quiet! I also suffer from tinnitus, though mine is a milder sort than yours.
To start with, what we know about tinnitus is that the brain, when left without sufficient audio data inputs from the ear to process, just goes ahead and manufactures sounds on its own - and when the hearing sensors in the ear are damaged, the inputs to the brain can get reduced, or go completely absent. I suppose that most likely explains your tinnitus. In most instances tinnitus masking is the most effective solution, because by pumping a non-irritating sound into the ear, the brain has some input to work with, so it stops (or at least reduces) the sounds it otherwise manufactures.
Since you are totally deaf, I have no idea whether tinnitus masking will work.
Yours is the first case of its kind I have heard about, so anything I tell you will be complete conjecture on my part. Please understand that I can only offer ideas as a hearing protection specialist; this is in no way intended to serve as medical advice. However, since you asked, and you're in need, I will share my thoughts with you in the hope that they may help in some way.
Going back to the idea of tinnitus masking, I understand you are being affected by noise, even though you cannot hear it. The first question would be whether you're reacting to the quantity (volume) of the ambient sound, or the quality (type) of it.
It could be that your reaction to the noise is not so much to the loudness as it is to the nature of the sound. You should be able to experiment with this idea by subjecting yourself to different kinds of sounds and noting the effects on your tinnitus and on your headaches. Hearing folks generally find that the less information the masking sound they use carries, the less it interferes with normal activities such as sleeping, and concentration activities such as reading. White noise, such as the rush of air from a fan, is some of the lowest-information noise out there. That said, you might try exposing yourself to different kinds of sounds and see what hurts and what helps. (There are a bunch of free white noise and tinnitus masking apps on smart phones you can use for these purposes, ideally in combination with a good comfortable pair of headphones that block out some external noise, if you have such things available.)
Whether it turns out to be the volume, the nature of the sound, or some combination that is hurting you, you may be able to avoid some of the discomfort by using ear plugs (or an over-the-ear solution such as ear muffs, since plugs may not work for you). I know, people may think you are crazy to use hearing protection when you're already deaf, but... whatever vestiges of damaged sound processing you may still have, garbled to your brain and imperceptible to you as they may be, could be the culprit in your discomfort. It's probably a long shot, but if this is the case, blocking the noise might provide quite a lot of relief. A very simple pair of ear muffs will be cheap and simple to use as a test, so it will not cost much to try the experiment.
Whether the ear muffs work or not, tinnitus masking could work. You'll be able to figure out whether that helps by trying some apps, as I have discussed above. The only way to find out if tinnitus masking does work for you is to give it a try. If you find that you can play soothing sounds that mask your tinnitus while you go throughout your day, but you need a portable solution, then we may have a wearable tinnitus masker you could try. But for now, my suggestion is to figure out if masking can help or not, using the tools you can pick up for free.
One more comment I will make regarding TRT (tinnitus retraining therapy): if you do find that you can get relief by simply playing soothing sounds that mask your tinnitus, TRT may very much be worth your time, and something you can work on yourself. That is to say, if the tinnitus masking sounds do help you, you might be able to use them for the tinnitus relief you need now, with the goal of then eventually weening yourself off of that need later. That is essentially all TRT is: using masking sounds to control tinnitus immediately, and then over time, very slowly reducing the volume of the masking sound you use. What this does is to desensitize your brain to the absence of inputs so that it will stop making tinnitus noises when the inputs are very low.
If tinnitus masking does work for you, it could be life-changing. But I cannot tell you at all what the odds of this working for you would be. I can only tell you it should be inexpensive and straight-forward to test out with some experimentation, a simple hearing protector, and/or some tinnitus masking apps.
I hope this helps.
Until next time, be safe and do the right thing.
Tom Bergman, Vice President
Ear Plug Superstore
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