Tinnitus, Deafness and Ear Problems Support Group

This group is for those coping with Tinnitus (ringing ears or ear noise), hearing loss, and all ear issues. Join to find support and get advice from others.

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understandingT 09/23/2013

Hi, after coming back from a summer holiday in Europe my tinnitus has gotten worse. I had no ideal how much noise pollution there is in those very populated cities. After traveling on trains, ferries, buses etc. my ears have regressed. The T sounds like a high pitched whistle now. I returned and got fitted for a new hearing-aid/masker. Its been 2 weeks and still very little relief.
Has anyone tried hearing aids with maskers and how did it go. My audiologist is hoping by fixing the loss of hearing that I have and masking at the same time that I will get some relief from the tinnitus. Please let me know what your experience has been..thanks,

deleted_user 09/23/2013

Many have gotten relief with the hearing aid/masker combo, it just may take some time.

danny78 09/24/2013

next time buy some Bose noise cancellation headphones.

deleted_user 09/24/2013

hope it worls soon for you ...i thought about trying them ..maybe you are tired from teh trip and need more rest ....i wondered if flying would add to the "T" ..i have flown and sometimes it felt as if it got worse ..but at least the hu of the plane canceled out teh "T" for the flight duration ...but that feeling of "oh crap " once you are in the airport and canhear it again !!!

understandingT 09/24/2013

Hi Sue, I find patience to be my worst character flaw. I agree, I should give them longer to work..

Hi Danny, wouldn't the noise cancelling head phones just isolate the T sound so you would hear just that? I tried earplugs for the loud music at the gym and end up being focused on the T. Again I have not tried them so will go down to Future Shop and try them the demo model.

danny78 09/24/2013

You turn on the noise cancelling function and then play some nice soft background music/sounds - that's the beauty of it.

deleted_user 09/24/2013

hmmm interesting ....might try that ..

understandingT 09/24/2013

My T spiked today ! Took all my mental power to stay distracted. Could not even leave the house. The hearing aid/maskers were not effective at all today. I am going to just take a long shower, the sound of the water helps, then call it a day. ..

dgn58 09/25/2013

The maskers will take time to adjust to the signal coming from the brian.

Re-conditioning is what needs to happen, in order for the brain to get use to a foreign sound.

Over time the maskers will start to calm down your T.

McMurdo 09/26/2013

I don't have hearing aids, just maskers. I turn mine up loud so my brain focuses on the white noise and the T fades to the background. I can still hear the T if I listen for it, but my brain isn't focusing on it.

understandingT 09/27/2013

I went to Future Shop today to get the Bose earphones with the noise cancelling feature. They cost $350 and were not compatable with Blue Tooth. Also they said I could not return them after the purchase so I did not get them. I think it would be nice to be able to wear ear phones around the house and have wireless music or tinnitus tapes sent to my ears. This is more complicated than I had initially expected so need to research to see what would work. I have ipad and ipod, plus some good masking sounds stored on the computer. How do I get this to work together. If anyone knows please share that, thanks so much.

dgn58 09/28/2013

Keep it simple.

I have a small $50.00 walkman in my shirt pocket, with a $10.00 in the ear speakers.

I downloaded a one hour track of sound therapy in the walkman, and put the program on repeat..

Honestly, what more do you need. It does TRT perfectly.

You can do it with music etc. More advanced programs you can set it on continous music.

The whole idea is to get your tinnitus to blend in with the music or sound therapy.

I use to have very expensive hearing aids with TRT mix in with it.

Very convient, but in the end, they all work the same.

deleted_user 09/28/2013

I don't think noise cancelling headphones would work anyway, I mean it's not going to cancel out the tinnitus or we'd all be wearing them. I'm with dgn I have an ipod and iphone, use one while the other is charging, with Moses Lang CD last track that loops continuously with my $5.00 earbuds. I use this setup 24/7, I need it all day to keep from going mad and all night to sleep. Someone was talking about using bluetooth for wireless and I am researching that now.

McMurdo 09/30/2013

I agree with Sue--you don't want noise cancelling. You want to hear the ambient noise around you. In fact, you want your brain to get used to being in noise at all times (sound therapy), because that helps it to adjust to the T noise.

I personally didnt like earbuds in my ears all the time and wires to deal with and recharging things (if you wear them a lot), but that's just me. (I did this for about three months.) A lot of people do fine with this. The alternatives are costly! :(

And you are right, European cities are noisy!!

deleted_user 09/30/2013

Mc, I don't like the earbuds and wires either but was told I would not be able to find a masker that reached the higher frequency levels, is this not true? I'm looking into bluetooth now as an alternative.

understandingT 09/30/2013

Well I went to two other retail stores and did not find what I wanted.
My ears were nice and low T today so will enjoy it the best I can.
Tomorrow I will research on the net and see what I can find.

I am ok when working on the computer, I downloaded an app called Aire Freshener onto my desktop and it has sounds that play continuously. I like the one called country road the best. There are about 30 to choose from. I will take it one day at a time. Today was good !!

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