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Tinnitus Care:
What Is Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is the experience of unwanted sound in one or both of your ears. Sometimes it feels like the sound is in your head. It is described as a ringing, buzzing, or whistling noise. This is usually caused by a minor disorder of your hearing system. Moreover, tinnitus is often associated with exposure to loud noise. It is a symptom and it is not a disease.

Tinnitus can be very distressing, but it is usually not life-threatening.  You can recover the quality of your life. You may not be able to end the noise completely.  But you can gradually reduce the way it affects you. Treatment may eliminate the sound or you may hardly notice it.

Each person’s individual evaluation and preferences determine our approach to care.  Moreover, treatment options include use of technology and counseling.  Finally, it may take time – this is quite normal.  But treatment is proven effective.

Your Hearing System

Outside sounds travel in waves through the air. Your inner ear (cochlea) converts these vibrations into nerve signals, which are like tiny electrical currents. These signals pass up your hearing nerve to the base of your brain. Your brain then sorts out what is immediately important. It usually ignores meaningless sounds. And it can also learn to do the same with the internal sound of your tinnitus. We can distinguish particular sounds in a great hubbub of other sounds. For example, most people can pick out the sound of their name uttered by someone in a room of chattering people. They can also detect a single musical instrument in a full orchestra. Unfortunately, many people tend to do this with their tinnitus. We naturally home in on that new, unfamiliar, and unwanted noise. But thankfully our brain’s hearing system is responsive to the power of treatment.

Care and Services

Beauport Hearing Care professionals personally experience tinnitus.  We rely on the treatments we recommend.  Moreover, our board-certified hearing specialist, Judith A Bergeron, BC-HIS is the only Tinnitus Care Provider on the North Shore, holding a certificate from the International Hearing Society Opens in a new window.  In addition, our specialist is a professional member of the American Tinnitus Association. 
We evaluate symptoms and recommend evidence-based treatments.  Our approach employs protocols developed by Richard S. Tyler, PhD, AuD and colleagues at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.  Finally, Beauport Hearing Care also offers Brain Fitness products and services that may provide relief of symptoms.  An evaluation is your first step.  Call for an appointment today.

Acknowledgement:
Beauport Hearing Care gratefully acknowledges the kind permission of Richard S. Tyler, PhD to reprint content for ‘What Is Tinnitus?’ and ‘Your Hearing System’ from Tinnitus Treatment Clinical Protocols, Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc., 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY.

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