How Sound Therapy Can Treat Tinnitus: What to Know

Tinnitus symptoms can be effectively treated or reduced using sound therapy. Research indicates that both non-customized and customised therapy may be helpful.

If you have tinnitus, you probably want the ringing, buzzing, or whirring in your ears to stop. Here are some details on the several sound therapies that are available, along with information on how to use them.

What is sound therapy?

There are various types of sound therapy available, some generic and some specifically tailored to your tinnitus symptoms. For example:

• playing white, pink, or brown noise to mask or mix with the tinnitus sound
• using hearing aids to amplify sounds from your environment and minimize tinnitus
• playing relaxing, repetitive sounds like ocean waves to mask the tinnitus
• using personalized notched therapy to match and eliminate the perception of the tinnitus frequency

What is the success rate of sound therapy for tinnitus?

Numerous studies have demonstrated that individuals have had tinnitus treatment through sound therapy, while additional study is required to draw firm conclusions. These studies include:

• In a small 2018 trial with 23 patients, the researchers discovered that 72% of patients reported that receiving high-frequency sound therapy for 30 minutes reduced their symptoms of tinnitus.
• According to a 2020 study, sound treatment and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) may lessen tinnitus-related suffering. To be certain, though, additional substantial proof is required.
• The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) recommends sound therapy (acoustic stimulation, hearing aids, or sound generators) as a means of masking tinnitus, according to a review published in 2021. Despite the lack of clear evidence, researchers pointed out that no negative impacts have been documented to date.
• Researchers found that by rearranging the brain's emotional centre, notched sound may be able to reduce the symptoms of tinnitus in a small 2021 trial with 29 individuals. Numerous studies have revealed a strong correlation between tinnitus and emotions; however, after one month of treatment, blood oxygen levels in some brain regions associated with emotions were found to change.
• A modest 2022 study with 58 tinnitus sufferers found that the effectiveness of (mixing point) sound therapy increases with the amount of time a patient spends using it each day. Patients who listened for three to five hours a day in the trial reported feeling more relieved than the group that listened for one hour a day.

Is it possible to noise-cancel tinnitus?

Yes, tinnitus can be noise-canceled using methods like pitch-matched therapy or notched sound therapy. With notch therapy, the tinnitus ring is perceived less or not at all since a particular frequency that is suited to its frequency is "notched out."

You can get assistance with this procedure by using an app like Audio Notch.

What is the best sound or frequency to reduce tinnitus?

The best sound or frequency to reduce tinnitus is still unknown due to a lack of evidence.

However, researchers discovered that both notched and non-notched sounds were equally successful in relieving tinnitus in a small 2021 trial involving 30 patients. This implies that using a notched sound that is precisely tuned to your tinnitus frequency may not be as beneficial as listening to any created noise.

However according to a 2020 evaluation, when it came to symptom reduction, customised sound therapy outperformed non-customized sound therapy in most cases.

Personalised sound therapy employs methods like:

• neuromodulation therapy
• modulated wave therapy
• notched-music training
• tinnitus pitch-matched therapy
• auditory discrimination training

And non-customized therapy involves:

• tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT)
• hearing aids
• masking therapy

Want to get involved with the research?

You might be qualified for a clinical study if you want to aid researchers in their understanding of the potential benefits of essential oils or other complementary therapies for treating tinnitus. To find out more about the most recent open trials and surveys, visit ClinicalTrials.gov.

Talk to your main healthcare team about participating in a study if it entails any changes to your regular treatment plan.

Other treatment options for tinnitus

Additional tinnitus treatments include:

• acupuncture
• homeopathic remedies like magnesium
• ceasing certain medications
• hearing aids or cochlear implants
• getting enough sleep
• limiting caffeine
• counseling and education
• CBT
• relaxation techniques like meditation, breathwork, or yoga
• neck exercises
• avoiding complete silence
• other types of distraction (like hobbies)

Takeaway

It looks like sound treatment is a promising noninvasive technique to control tinnitus symptoms, but further research is needed to be certain.

It seems that two types of therapy work well for reducing or even eliminating symptoms: non-customized (like listening to white noise) and customised (like notched sound).