Tinnitus is hearing noise in your ears without a sound from outside. It's commonly called “ringing in the ears,” but can include hearing different sounds such as buzzing, hissing, whistling, swooshing, and clicking. Tinnitus can be a temporary condition or an ongoing health condition. Learn more about tinnitus.
Tinnitus apps usually use sound therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to alter your perception of or reaction to tinnitus.
Sound therapy apps
Sound therapy uses external sound to alter how you perceive or react to your tinnitus. Research suggests sound therapy can effectively suppress tinnitus in some people. Sound therapy can work by masking the sound or distracting attention away from it, or by encouraging you to get used to the sound and not focus on it so much (habituation).
Sound therapy apps that use masking: These apps expose a person to background sounds, like white noise, nature sounds, or ambient sounds, to mask tinnitus or distract attention away from it.
- Listening to sound machines or music through headphones or other devices can offer temporary breaks from the perception of tinnitus.
- Household items like electric fans, radios, and TVs also can help.
- Many people with tinnitus also have some degree of hearing loss. Hearing aids are the gold standard for helping with tinnitus as they can compensate for the hearing loss and they also have a masking effect as external sounds are brought to the foreground, often pushing tinnitus to the background. Hearing aids can also help with neural reorganisation (helps your brain to change and adapt to stimuli) which can help many people with tinnitus in the long term.
Sound therapy apps that use habituation: These apps work by training your brain to become more accustomed to tinnitus, and can reduce your brain's processing of the tinnitus signal. Here, you listen to sounds, initially for longer periods of time, and over time your brain recalibrates its processing of tinnitus and learns to ignore it.
It can be thought of in a similar way to how you eventually don’t think about the feeling of glasses on your nose. The therapy is done with guidance from a specialist and the time frame varies per person, usually anywhere from 12 to 24 months.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) apps
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a tinnitus treatment that addresses the affected individual's reaction to tinnitus. It doesn't aim to eliminate auditory perception as sound, but aims to reduce or correct your negative response to tinnitus.
- CBT aims to change negative thoughts or perceptions to more positive and realistic thoughts.
- In this way, people with tinnitus can function well despite having it.
- CBT can also help to reduce emotion and attention to tinnitus which is key to habituation.
- People with tinnitus can develop an anxiety loop, where anxiety can be caused by the tinnitus, which in turn can make the tinnitus worse. CBT can help to manage the anxiety and break the anxiety loop.
- Read more about CBT apps.
Tips when using tinnitus apps
Do (✔)
- Talk with your healthcare provider about your specific situation. It's best to get guidance and input from an audiologist who specialises in tinnitus when you use a tinnitus app. This is because their use in isolation can make some people's tinnitus worse.
- An app can be helpful to keep track of your symptoms as part of your management plan, but because every person's experience is different, the symptoms vary from person to person. Some have very few or mild symptoms, while others are affected more severely by a wider range of symptoms. It's important not to rely on the app as your only source of information or to make a diagnosis.
- Exercise caution when reading information on discussion boards or group chat rooms. Some apps have interactive features, eg, discussion boards or group chat rooms, where users can share their experiences. Be cautious because in most cases these aren't monitored by a health professional so the advice or suggestions may not be safe or effective practice.
Don’t (✘)
- Rely on apps to make a diagnosis of your condition.
- Make changes to your treatment plan based on the recommendations from the app only. Always check with your healthcare provider.