Experiencing tinnitus, or a ringing in the ear, can be distracting and disruptive to daily life. The team at Heard it Through the Grapevine Audiology offers specialized tinnitus care to reduce these symptoms.
In this Q&A, Dr. Tara Wheeler talks about the causes, diagnostic process and treatments available to help patients with tinnitus improve their quality of life.
What is tinnitus?
Dr. Wheeler: It can vary from person to person. A lot of people will say it's a ringing or buzzing sound. It could be more of a roar, like a freight train, or it can be a whistling sound. It's basically any kind of phantom sound that you're hearing in your head that somebody next to you would not be hearing.
What causes tinnitus?
Dr. Wheeler: The most common cause is hearing loss. Most people don't realize it only takes hearing loss at one pitch for the inhibitor in the brain to get turned off. Your brain may start making sounds to make up for what it's missing. It's essentially as if the brain is self-stimulating similar to a phantom limb scenario.
45% of the people who have tinnitus also struggle with anxiety, depression and sleep issues. Not getting enough sleep or having insomnia can very frequently be tied to tinnitus. When you're having a lot of stress or anxiety, it increases your fight-or-flight response, which can cause a lot more inflammation, which in turn, can be tied to tinnitus.
How is tinnitus diagnosed?
Dr. Wheeler: The evaluation starts with a hearing test to rule out hearing loss, since that is the most common cause when somebody does have tinnitus that is ongoing and continuous. We also pitch-match and loudness match your tinnitus to quantify it.
What treatments can help tinnitus? Can you talk about some of the different treatment options that you offer at your practice?
Dr. Wheeler: We provide a more holistic approach to treatment. By looking at the whole person, we see how tinnitus is impacting them in different areas of their life to enable us to assess what may be causing and/or escalating the tinnitus. If we think stress or diet is making it worse such as alcohol, caffeine, or higher salt intake—we can help put together a more comprehensive treatment plan. We're not only looking at technology options, even though that is one of the things that we offer.
Hearing aids provide stimulation for the brain that in some cases decrease tinnitus over time. Some of the hearing aids on the market now also have tinnitus maskers on them. Not only do they amplify to try to feed the brain with sound, but also try to lessen the response to the tinnitus.
How do you and your team help guide patients through diagnosis and treatment?
Dr. Wheeler: We try to be proactive on the front end of an appointment to make things a little bit easier for the patient. By giving patients time at home to fill out the paperwork online, it enables them to put more thought into it and not be as rushed in the office. We also have a pretty good crew here, as far as explaining things to the patient regarding how long the appointment is and insurance coverage. Many times people don't know what to expect at their doctor appointments so we call the patients ahead of time to answer any questions or concerns that may arise.
Learn more
Heard it Through the Grapevine Audiology is located at 2260 Pool Road, Ste. 300, Grapevine. It is open Monday-Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Fridays from 8 a.m. to noon. To learn more, visit the practice’s website.
The above story was produced by Multi Platform Journalist Mary Katherine Shapiro with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.
